Author: Tim

The Association of Internet Researchers’ ethical guidelines sum up the situation, “ethical conundrums are complex and rarely decided along binary lines.” It is important to note that AoIR uses the term guidelines and not code. It implies that the ground is always shifting and our perception of the internet is not stable.

All content on the internet has been created by a person. Most research involves analyzing text. Many people tend to divorce the written word from the author. This can create some uncomfortable situations if the research is current which means that the person is likely to be alive (possibly why most literary critics wait till the author is dead). A comment on the web is also not seen in the same manner as words in a book. It is more analogous to talking. This is one aspect that is attractive for ethnographic methods. However when something is said in the physical world, it is heard by those around them and then disappears forever. While online communications have the habit of staying around permanently. So when a study is published it can draw attention to a person’s comment and be easily found thus eroding a person’s anonymity or confidentiality.

Another issue is whether the internet is a public or private space. We tend to access the internet individually on our own devices. Mentally we don’t think about the fact that others are looking at the same content simultaneously. When we do think about this we tend to get squeamish. For example the people who created bit.ly had an experiment where everyone viewing a news site was able to see everyone’s mouse pointers and leave comments anywhere on the page in real time. It was a disaster. Many people left quickly and didn’t return while others chased each others’ mouse pointers around and started flame wars. For some reason we don’t like to think of the internet as being a public space but it is one.

I thought the reading about fabricating research has some good ideas on how to protect an individuals anonymity (or confidentiality), as well as, convey an online ethnographic study as taking place in a public space. One strength of qualitative research is that it provides an understanding of personal experience. Is it important that each person is kept separate or is a composite able to convey the same information? I agree that a composite does not take away from our understanding of a situation and may be able to enhance our understanding. I think the objection I was hearing from my class mates stems from the poor word choice of fabrication. One definition of fabrication is to tell lies. Telling lies is the last thing a researcher wants to be accused of doing. But what term would be better? Other building terms such as cobbling, manufacturing, and erecting are not much better. Unfortunately I don’t have a good suggestion.

On a basic level an ethical violation could be seen as any situation were someone (including the researcher) could be harmed by the disclosure of information. The AoIR states that this concept needs to be considered and defined by each researcher and not just seen as institutional hoops to jump through. This reminds me of my freshman year in college when the resident hall adviser would catch me and my friends doing something questionable. He would say, “If you know it’s wrong, then why are you doing it.”

My annotated bibliography is heavily slanted towards theory. The following is the tentative outline of the major sections that will refocus my writing towards the method of online ethnography. The less formal section titles will most likely change.

What’s in a name?
This section will be a micro-history of online ethnography. There are several names for internet-based ethnographic studies: cyber-ethnography, virtual ethnography, online ethnography,, and netnography. Some of the names are a product of their time and rarely seen today such as  cyber-ethnography. One of the most attention grabbing is the portmanteau, netnography, which comes from a marketing research discipline. The choosing of a name can identify a researchers discipline.

Method discussion
This section will discuss the data collection and analysis techniques used. It will also include the advantages of this method such as the context is not created by the researcher.

Part of a mixed or multiple method study
Ethnography is sometimes used as a means to create a better quantitative survey or more focused qualitative interviews. The exploratory nature of ethnographic methods lends itself to strengthening other methods.

Ethics
Online ethnographic methods share similar ethical considerations to traditional ethnography. It also raises some new concerns since the researcher can be virtually invisible which might be seen as electronic eavesdropping.

What’s being studied?
Internet forums are well suited for online ethnographic studies, since forums can be viewed as a parallel to real-time off-line human interactions. The aspect of time and exchanges of information make online ethnography a great choice for information studies research. The topics of the forums being studied range from leisure activities (eg. hiking and rubber duck collecting) to individual coping with life changing events (eg. cancer patients and Bosnian refugees).

Starting into this weeks readings, I was under the impression that content analysis had some similarities with open coding. One just simply defines the research prior to consulting the text. Of course I fell into a trap of confusing simple with easy. Although Krippendorff’s writing style is fairly clear, I miss the more inviting prose style of Charmaz in the prior week’s readings. It is possible that my own state of mind was the culprit in my confusion on how to perform content analysis. On a whim I thought it would be interesting to compare text from two different mediums (hard-bound book, and blogs) written by the same author on the same topic. Both have a reflective quality while discuss an approach to performing woodworking tasks and the underlying personal philosophy of the craft. The blog tends to be more immediate and has an added element of readers responses. So now I have my text squared away, it is time to carve out some research questions. I immediately forget this interesting concept and start creating some good yet dull questions. This set me down a path to ignore the comparison of mediums that open coding would let me (re)discover.  For some reason I found the analyst’s context step confusing. If I understand this step correctly, then this step requires the researcher to understand how the text fits into the greater conversation as well as state the researcher’s understanding of the topic. Since I have read many woodworking books (here I am referring to books that are more involved than simple Ikea style construction plans), I had plenty to write about. The following steps, analytical constructs and inferences seem very “sciency” with its testable mini-theories and computer-aided dictionary of tags. This appears to be a precarious and slippery slope that one will start counting and turn the task into a quantitative project. However, it does seem to aid efficiency when compared to the “fishing expeditions” of open coding. The validation of evidence appears to be a daunting yet necessary task. This step keeps the findings in-line with the original questions thus keeping the project consistent. This provides confidence against critics who want to argue about the findings. This exercise has given me an appreciation for individuals that use this method. I feel that it is too tempting to create a structure that counts things especially if all of the text is already in a computer-readable format.

In the past I would hear about coding in class or the doc room and only have a vague notion about what  that really meant. I certainly did not understand how it was performed. Often I would think about another type of coding, the computer programming type, which involves plenty of organizational skills, heaps of documentation writing, and an ability to perform tedious tasks. After the class activity, class discussion and the week’s readings, I can see how I was only partially correct. Unlike most computer programming books, the two chapters by Charmaz are engaging and imbued the process with enthusiasm. Coding research data does require organizational skills. The identified topics and concepts from the text need to be sorted and resorted into “buckets.” There is also a level of organization required to keep the data, notes, and memos in order. Coding data does involve heaps of documentation writing. I am definitely a convert to the copious memo writing method. This method keeps someone from making decisions on what is important from preconceived ideas rather than allowing the data to show one the concepts and themes organically. This process of looking at each item and delaying a decision, if it is not obvious what it means, is useful to me. It forces me to consider each piece of information on its own terms. It also keeps me from skipping over something that I would not deem as important at the time. This last point is something that I need to be mindful about. The class activity pointed out somethings I missed from the data that my partner or the whole class did identify. Finally there is my preconceived notion that it is tedious. I found this not to be true. The process reminds me of card sorting method. Identify the elements and then start sorting the information into buckets in information architecture is analogous to writing memos, sorting them into concepts, and then sorting those concepts into themes. I enjoyed the short exercise we had in class and believe that I would feel the same way after a several hours of coding data.

The following annotated bibliography contains 20 articles related to ethnographic research of online communities. It is by no means a definitive list. Instead it should be viewed as a snapshot of one persons journey through the literature.

Adams, S. S. (2009). What games have to offer: Information behavior and meaning-making in virtual play spaces. Library Trends, 57(4), 676-693.

This ethnographic study examines the information behaviors of players in an online gaming environment. The goal is to identify information seeking and meaning-making in virtual play spaces that can be transferred to promoting effective information seeking in the library. The author uses everyday life information seeking (ELIS) and the dramaturgical perspective theories. Applying these two theories provides a focus of two units of analysis. ELIS focuses on an individuals information behavior and dramaturgical focuses on the interacting group as the unit.

Bainbridge, W. S. (2007). The scientific research potential of virtual worlds. Science, 317(5837), 472-476. doi:10.1126/science.1146930

As the title of the article suggests, the author discusses the potential of virtual worlds for research. Two online environments are used as examples for discussion: World of Warcraft (WoW) and Second Life. The author identifies that the design of the online environment has an affect on the types of activities that can be performed in it. For example WoW stores the graphical information on a players computer thus there is not an element of building or creating objects that can be seen in Second Life. The author notes that ethnographic and interview methods are suitable for both environments while other methods tend to be more successful in only one of the environments. A substantial potion of the article focuses on potential topics that are suitable to study in virtual environments and virtual laboratory experiments.

Burford, S., & Park, S. (2014). The impact of mobile tablet devices on human information behaviour. Journal of Documentation, 70(4), 622-639. doi:10.1108/JD-09-2012-0123

This netnographic study focuses on information behaviors that are influenced by mobile tablet devices. Although the authors state that this is an ethnographic study, mixed methods are also used. Quantitative surveys and qualitative journals are used to gain insight into the thoughts of the users. The population is of 35 young adult iPad users. The mobility of the portable device encouraged short, fleeting, and distracted information behaviors. Information behavior theories and frameworks written by Wilson, as well as Sonnenwald and Iiovonen, are reviewed. The authors state that mobile devices present challenges to the traditional “static representations of technologies” in information behavior theories since the context of the information behaviors are expanded due to mobility.

Escobar, A., Hess, D., Licha, I., Sibley, W., Strathern, M., & Sutz, J. (1994). Welcome to cyberia: Notes on the anthropology of cyberculture [and comments and reply]. Current Anthropology, 35(3), 211-231. doi:10.1086/204266

This article is an overview of the types of anthropological analyses that are being used in the study of “cyberculture”. There are several questions posed about ethnographic domains. What new social constructs are being created due to technology? How are individuals socialized by continual exposure to these virtual spaces? How does an individuals experience differ due to race, gender, class, geographical location, and physical ability? The authors identify five domains: production and use of new technology, virtual communities, popular culture of science and technology, computer-mediated communication, and the political economy of cyberculture.

Halilovich, H. (2014). Reclaiming erased lives: Archives, records and memories in post-war Bosnia and the Bosnian diaspora. Archival Science, 14(3), 231-247. doi:10.1007/s10502-014-9227-z

This article is a traditional and virtual ethnographic study of Bosnian people. The author investigates the use of technology, such as biomedical, communication, and information, to reconstruct the lives of individuals whose identities have been lost due to genocide and war in Bosnia. The virtual ethnography focuses on the community of Žepa Online. It is used as a resource for individual and communal projects in Žepa and for individuals who immigrated around the world. Žepa Online has also become a cultural archive for its community members. This provides a cyber village for Bosnian refugees to reconstruct communal identity that was destroyed by ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Hine, C. (2007). Connective ethnography for the exploration of e-science. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(2), 618-634.

This study focuses on a sub-discipline of biology called systematics which is the classification and naming of organisms, and the relationship between organisms. Over the period of 3 years, the computer-mediated communication of scientists was studied. The author explored online forums and websites, and how these online communications are connected and mutually inform each other. The unit of analyses are the initiative, which is an individual or group of scientists involved with a project, and the institutions that house initiatives. The study found that outsiders are oriented to initiatives rather than the host institutions. The author discusses the use of visualization tools in e-science ethnographic studies such as TouchGraph Google.

Im, E., & Chee, W. (2006). An online forum as a qualitative research method: Practical issues. Nursing Research, 55(4), 267-273. doi:10.1097/00006199-200607000-00007

This article discusses the issues encounter with an online cancer patient forum while conducting qualitative research. The method for collecting information for this meta-study is memos written by researchers. Content analysis was used to identify issues from the collected memos. The online forum’s issues are retention. participants’ forgetfulness, difficulties in unstandardized computer and Internet jargon, and hacking attempts. These issues have an influence on a study’s credibility, dependability, confirmibility, transferability, and confidentiality. The authors state that it is important to consider the characteristics of the population to determine if an online forum is a suitable platform for research. Cancer patients in the study had a tendency to forget usernames and passwords. Also, many of the participants would not visit the forum regularly. Researchers should determine how nonverbal cues such as emoticons should be recorded in order to not lose data.

Ko, H. (2012). Why are A-list bloggers continuously popular? Online Information Review, 36(3), 401-419. doi:10.1108/14684521211241422

This study’s population is users of a Taiwanese social network website called Wretch who have a high popularity rating. The purpose of the study is to find reasons why popular bloggers become popular and what benefits these bloggers gain from notoriety. Three methods are used to collect data: ethnography, social network analysis, and text analysis. Although the author does not explicitly state a reason for using mixed methods, half of the findings are a result of using an ethnographic method. Ethnographic analysis found the use of quotations by bloggers which helps establish reputation, and that popular bloggers do not have a core audience, rather they continuously are gaining new followers.

Kozinets, R. V. (2002). The field behind the screen: Using netnography for marketing research in online communities. Journal of Marketing Research, 39(1), 61-72. doi:10.1509/jmkr.39.1.61.18935

This article discusses the roots of netnography, and the procedures used in netnography. Netnography comes from the discipline of marketing research. Two preparatory steps for conducting research are formulating a research question, and identify a suitable population. Data collection involves the direct copy of the computer-mediated communications, and the researcher’s notes on the interactions that occur in the community. A strategy for classifying interactions is to identify if they are primarily social or informational, and as on-topic or off-topic. The author briefly discusses netnography’s use of grounded theory. The article ends with an example of an online coffee community.

Kuei Huang, Y., & I. Yang, W. (2014). Using networked narratives to understand internet book reviews in online communities. The Electronic Library, 32(1), 17-30. doi:10.1108/EL-05-2012-0053

The focus of this research study is to investigate word-of-mouth communication behavior and interaction between four book bloggers and their community of readers. Since the authors are from a business school they identify the method as netnography. The authors state that this method lends itself to identifying natural occurring behavior that might not surface during focus groups and interviews. There are several findings that have a sentiment or emotional context. For example readers believe a blogger to be more trustworthy if the blogger maintains positive and friendly interactions. Due to the business orientation the article ends with suggestions on how publishers can enlist bloggers to promote their books.

Lee, C. P., & Trace, C. B. (2009). The role of information in a community of hobbyist collectors. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(3), 621-637.

This multi-mode study focuses on the information behaviors of an online rubber duck community. The methods used are ethnography and interviews. The authors state that the personal involvement of one of the researchers in the community became invaluable for conducting the study. The researchers identified four elements of collector typology: interactions with non-duck collectors, interactions with fellow collectors, object rarity, and level of interest in the hobby. This typology was used as a lens to focus a discussion about the members of the community and their information behaviors. The authors provide discription of the community that enables the reader to understand the study and the community being researched.

Meylakhs, P., Rykov, Y., Koltsova, O., & Koltsov, S. (2014). An AIDS-denialist online community on a russian social networking service: Patterns of interactions with newcomers and rhetorical strategies of persuasion. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(11), e261. doi:10.2196/jmir.3338

The authors of this 9 month netnography study belong to the discipline of economics. The population is an online community of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)-denialists. The objective is to discover reasons for newcomers to seek this group, patterns of interaction with newcomers, and rhetorical strategies used for persuasion. Grounded theory was used to analyze the downloaded community discussions. It was determined that not all denialists are irrational in their beliefs. Some denialists have sufficient grounds and life experiences that provide reasonable grounds to suspect the medical establishments views. This rationalized views are informed by some odd and inexplicable practices performed in the Russian medical community.

Nancarrow, C., Pallister, J., & Brace, I. (2001). A new research medium, new research populations and seven deadly sins for internet researchers. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 4(3), 136-149. doi:10.1108/13522750110393044

This article provides a discussion of qualitative internet research ethics, issues, and concerns from the business marketing perspective. Interestingly there is a belief that marketing researchers are the principle users of the Internet for primary research. The authors dispel this notion by mentioning that other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, health, and cultural studies also use the Internet as a primary source. The seven sins are excess and consequent respondent burn out, exposure and client/research agency embarrassment, omission, privacy invasion, off-loading costs, negligence, and complacency.

Paris, C. M., & Germann Molz, J. (2015). The social affordances of flashpacking: Exploring the mobility nexus of travel and communication. Mobilities, 10(2), 173-192. doi:10.1080/17450101.2013.848605

This ethnographic study focuses on the social behaviors of backpackers that stay connected with others via mobile technology. Backpacking use to be an information sparse en devour. This has changed with the introduction of mobile technology and the ability to gain information quickly, hence the new term flashpacker. The authors identify several aspects created by technology adoption: virtual mooring, following, collaborating, and (dis)connecting. Virtual mooring allows travelers to maintain backpacker and home culture simultaneously. Following is the behavior of online posting of a backpackers journey which invites friends and family to virtually experience the trip. Collaborating is the interactions of backpackers with fellow backpackers on the trail. (Dis)connecting refers to the change in backpacking from a disconnected experience to one of choice. This has an influence on the traveler on whether they want to experience their surroundings or blog away the hours in a hostel about the journey.

Skågeby, J., MDALAB – Human Computer Interfaces, Institutionen för datavetenskap, Linköpings universitet, & Tekniska högskolan. (2009). Exploring qualitative sharing practices of social metadata: Expanding the attention economy. The Information Society, 25(1), 60-72. doi:10.1080/01972240802587588

This ethnographic study focuses on the end-users practices of social metadata usage on Facebook. One of the goals of the study is the development of theory relating to social metadata and relationship maintenance. Gifting theory is used as a starting point to gain understanding of the research topic. The study identifies social dilemmas cause by the use of experimental profiles, clashes between work and non-work usage, and personal social investment.

Skågeby, J., Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, & Humanistiska fakulteten. (2012). The irony of serendipity: Disruptions in social information behaviour. Library Hi Tech, 30(2), 321-334. doi:10.1108/07378831211239988

This conceptual article uses a meta-ethnographical approach using three previous ethnographic studies on social media usage as resources of data. The author discusses the strengths of meta-ethnography such as the ability to gain more generalizable insight that can not be achieved by a single study. The author introduces social information behavior which views the tension between serendipity and disruption. Tension can surface due to work and non-work, public and private, and collective and individual relationships.

Stockdale, R. (2008). Peer-to-peer online communities for people with chronic diseases: A conceptual framework. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 10(1), 39-55. doi:10.1108/13287260810876885

This ethnographic study examines peer-to-peer online communities for individuals with chronic diseases. The author builds a proposed conceptual framework to identify the needs of the community members by reviewing research literature. The data collected from each of the three studies are examined against the framework in an iterative cycle. This process helps the researcher to identify social needs of the community members such as communication through self-expression, advocacy, and spiritual support.

Turkle, S. (1997). Multiple subjectivity and virtual community at the end of the Freudian century. Sociological Inquiry, 67, 72-84.

This article is drawn from Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet by Turkle. It provides a historical look at the study of online communities with discussions of individuals being in multiple contexts at one time due to “windows” technology, and the interactions that take place in multi-user domains. The article provides a reader with a foundation of what concerns, issues, and theories researchers were tackling in the beginning of online ethnographic research.

Ward, K. (1999). Cyber-ethnography and the emergence of the virtually new community. Journal of Information Technology, 14(1), 95-105. doi:10.1080/026839699344773

This article is using the term “cyber” to mean virtual or online rather than another common definition which is the combination of man and machine. The author states that cyber-ethnography differs from regular ethnography by dispensing with preconceived notions of community. The article discusses the myth of virtual communities being a utopia. The discussion continues with examples on how cyber-ethnography is conducted. The article ends with a brief discussion of an appropriate definition for virtual communities.

Wilson, S. M., & Peterson, L. C. (2002). The anthropology of online communities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 31(1), 449-467. doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.31.040402.085436

The authors of this article discuss anthropological research of online communities. It begins with a short history of the Internet revolution. The authors note that the era had an “…optimistic notion that the Internet would inform and empower individuals worldwide, may underestimate the power of states to control information access.” Other discussions in the article include terminology, ephemerality, information technology as cultural “(re)production”, community, and personal identity. The discussion of identity is illustrated with a reprint of a famous New Yorker cartoon. Finally the authors round out the article with a discussion on ethical research.

Research Question

What are the information behaviors of individuals during a crisis situation?

Pick a Case / Unit of Analysis

This study is about the information behaviors of occupants in a house that has been damaged by a tree during a severe thunderstorm in North Florida.

Case Description

This holistic single-case design case study’s goal is to test the information behavior in crisis model with a small localized crisis situation. The information behavior in crisis model integrates information resources, information behavior and needs of the storm-affected communities within the temporal stages of a natural disaster (Lopatovska & Smiley, 2014). An autoethnographic study was conducted during Hurricane Sandy informed the authors on the building of the model and its accompanying framework. This study of a North Florida household will help determine whether the model and its framework can be branched out or extended into small localized crisis situations and find possible avenues for future research in building a theory for crisis informatics. An important consideration of adopting a holistic design is the potential to shift from the original research question while conducting the study (Yin, 2003, p. 45). The adoption of an existing model may provide insurance against drift of focus.

Types of data to collect

There are three types of data to be collected for this study. The collection of real-time data in the form of a participant observer diary. A comparison data set will be provided by interviews with individuals that also experienced the event. Finally, data from external sources such as details about the environment, researcher, data collection, and analysis steps will provide a robust account of the case.

Types of analysis to complete

Content analysis will be completed by using the information behavior in crisis model and framework to code and interpret the data. The coding themes will mirror the themes used by Lopatovska and Smiley (2014) in order to provide consistency. The coding themes are information need, information behavior, and information source.

Alternative Design Possibilities

The findings might differ if this study used the same question but contained more participants, sites, and data sources. A factor to consider is that multiple-case designs are often preferred over single-case because the more cases collected during a study will increase the chance of success (Yin, 2003, p. 53). Also, the more data that is collected the greater the possibility to correctly identify themes. It is possible that the participant observer might have some idiosyncratic information behaviors that are not common among a more diverse population. The inclusion of more geographical regions will help provide a more general understanding of the information resources needed and are available during a natural disaster. It is possible that weather conditions in California might influence information behaviors differently than the ones identified in North Florida.

References

Lopatovska, I., & Smiley, B. (2014). Proposed model of information behaviour in crisis: The case of hurricane sandy. Information Research-An International Electronic Journal, 19(1).

Yin, R. K. (2003). Designing case studies. In Case study research: Design and methods (3rd ed., pp. 19-56). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Each of the three interview instruments (i.e. unstructured, critical incident, and semi-structure) have their own strengths. An unstructured interview allows for the discovery of topics that the interviewer might not conceive of on their own. For example I asked about online video viewing habits but had not thought about the primary language of the video shaping the choice of website. I found that this technique was the easiest for me to keep the interviewee talking for the allotted time. A factor that allows this to occur is that the specifics of the topic are controlled by the interviewee. This makes sense since the interviewee is most likely not to choose a direction that is of little interest to themselves.

I found the example driven element of the critical incident interview to be helpful in discovering details. This instrument provides a storytelling aspect that brings the topic to a more concrete example that encourages talking about behaviors in a situation rather than a more conceptual approach on how someone looks for videos. For example, I found that someone watched the same video 4 times in a row. This aspect of watching a video multiple consecutive times did not occur to me even though I engage in this very behavior myself.

The semi-structure interview was the most difficult. My troubles started with the formulating of the questions. I found that I am most comfortable with quantitative question forms. These are the type of questions that illicit yes/no, a category, or some point on a Likert scale. Thankfully I was provided an example, this allowed me to imitate the form and insert my chosen topic. Even with the more open-ended form I found it hard to keep the interviewee talking. My question writing is probably not to blame since it was the last interview round. My interviewee and I were showing signs of fatigue and starting to mentally move towards the next part of class.

In general, I found this activity gave me a taste of what is involved in interviewing that I would not necessarily understand from reading a chapter in a book. Many sources stress the need to take notes immediately after the interview. As demonstrated in class, many of us did not want to take the time for note taking and jumped into the next interview.

The following biography contains articles primarily about online ethnography (or as some researchers refer to as netnography). This list is my starting point and by no means a definitive list.

Adams, S. S. (2009). What games have to offer: Information behavior and meaning-making in virtual play spaces. Library Trends, 57(4), 676-693.

Burford, S., & Park, S. (2014). The impact of mobile tablet devices on human information behaviour. Journal of Documentation, 70(4), 622-639. doi:10.1108/JD-09-2012-0123

Halilovich, H. (2014). Reclaiming erased lives: Archives, records and memories in post-war Bosnia and the Bosnian diaspora. Archival Science, 14(3), 231-247. doi:10.1007/s10502-014-9227-z

Hine, C. (2007). Connective ethnography for the exploration of e-science. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(2), 618-634.

Im, E., & Chee, W. (2006). An online forum as a qualitative research method: Practical issues. Nursing Research, 55(4), 267-273. doi:10.1097/00006199-200607000-00007

Karanasios, S., Thakker, D., Lau, L., Allen, D., Dimitrova, V., & Norman, A. (2013). Making sense of digital traces: An activity theory driven ontological approach. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(12), 2452-2467. doi:10.1002/asi.22935

Ko, H. (2012). Why are A-list bloggers continuously popular? Online Information Review, 36(3), 401-419. doi:10.1108/14684521211241422

Kuei Huang, Y., & I. Yang, W. (2014). Using networked narratives to understand internet book reviews in online communities. The Electronic Library, 32(1), 17-30. doi:10.1108/EL-05-2012-0053

Lee, C. P., & Trace, C. B. (2009). The role of information in a community of hobbyist collectors. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(3), 621-637.

Meylakhs, P., Rykov, Y., Koltsova, O., & Koltsov, S. (2014). An AIDS-denialist online community on a russian social networking service: Patterns of interactions with newcomers and rhetorical strategies of persuasion. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(11), e261. doi:10.2196/jmir.3338

Nancarrow, C., Pallister, J., & Brace, I. (2001). A new research medium, new research populations and seven deadly sins for internet researchers. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 4(3), 136-149. doi:10.1108/13522750110393044

Posey, C., Lowry, P. B., Roberts, T. L., & Ellis, T. S. (2010). Proposing the online community self-disclosure model: The case of working professionals in France and the U.K. who use online communities. European Journal of Information Systems, 19(2), 181-195. doi:10.1057/ejis.2010.15

Skågeby, J., MDALAB – Human Computer Interfaces, Institutionen för datavetenskap, Linköpings universitet, & Tekniska högskolan. (2009). Exploring qualitative sharing practices of social metadata: Expanding the attention economy. The Information Society, 25(1), 60-72. doi:10.1080/01972240802587588

Skågeby, J., Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för mediestudier, & Humanistiska fakulteten. (2012). The irony of serendipity: Disruptions in social information behaviour. Library Hi Tech, 30(2), 321-334. doi:10.1108/07378831211239988

Stockdale, R. (2008). Peer-to-peer online communities for people with chronic diseases: A conceptual framework. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 10(1), 39-55. doi:10.1108/13287260810876885

Turkle, S. (1997). Multiple subjectivity and virtual community at the end of the freudian century. Sociological Inquiry, 67, 72-84.

Ward, K. (1999). Cyber-ethnography and the emergence of the virtually new community. Journal of Information Technology, 14(1), 95-105. doi:10.1080/026839699344773

 

Field Notes Paragraph

It is in the afternoon at a bustling coffee house located on a large college campus. The surfaces are very hard and reflective which makes conversations difficult to hear. This situation is made worse by the loud up-tempo music blaring from the shops sound system. Conversations in line waiting to get a cup of coffee are causal and chock full of non sequiturs. Women in line says, “I’m not going to do that…. look popcorn!” Male friend responds, “the American dream.” Most of the indoor space is planned to move people through as quickly as possible. There are some tables each has one person sitting with a laptop or a book. There are four people working behind the counter. None of them make eye contact with anyone else, including their fellow workers. One of them is mumbling to herself as I walk up to the counter. The cashier looks up and asks what I would like to order. I get a flat white, it’s some kind of double espresso with a bunch of steamed milk. After a short wait, I get my drink at the end of the counter and step outside. I find a place to sit. The outside had more conversations. Two women with their legs curled under were talking to each other. Or should I say one was talking and the other was periodically responding. The conversation was personal, “I don’t put anything up that I don’t want my mom to see. That way I can get drunk as hell.” Other woman responds, “uh-huh.” People come an go fairly quickly. Many are working on laptops with their cell phones out and earbuds blocking out most of the environment around them.

Reflection

While writing notes I realized that it is difficult to decide what to pay attention to when several things are happening at once. At first I was basically taking small snapshots before deciding what might be the most interesting aspects to record. I also have an appreciation for anyone who does an active participant observation. My time in line was about 5 minutes and I’m sure that I didn’t notice nor recall everything when recording the event into the field notes.

The process of turning my notes into a narrative description was an exercise in quickly deciding on what aspects of the experience to describe.Creating a narrative description right after the observation was useful because I could fill in some details that I did not have in my notes. Although I did not get everything I wanted into the paragraph within the time constraint, I feel that this is a great exercise that I need to repeat. Hopefully I will become better at quickly writing passages in the future.

The questions my partner asked leads me to believe that I was on the right track of describing an interesting situation or at the very least mildly humorous. Her questions made me realize that there were more conversations and details that I probably should have included in my paragraph. These extra details would make for an overall stronger narrative.

From reading my partner’s description, I learn that I was not alone in not being able to record everything that was happening. She also made choices in what situations she recorded. She had regret that she did not pay more attention to one individual from the beginning. Hearing about her field experience caused me to reflect on what I could have done better myself.

My interest in qualitative research is fairly recent. Last semester I explored the library and information studies (LIS) serious leisure literature. This is a relatively new field of research for LIS with populations varying from coin collectors to knitters. A common thread among all of the studies reviewed was that they are qualitative research. The researchers were attempting to understand their populations rather than predict with preconceived notions. Many of the studies took an evolving iterative approach to achieve an understanding of their topic. This iterative discovery process is very appealing to me. This is how I do most things in life. Why should I not understand how to do this when researching as well? To be honest I will most likely not be focusing on serious leisure but I do believe that it was a good introduction of the potential of qualitative research. I feel that this approach will become an important tool especially if I decide to conduct research in a new field or when the human experience is of utmost importance.