virtual ethnography revisited christine hine department of sociology university of surrey

Virtual Ethnography Revisited

Christine Hine

Department of Sociology

University of Surrey

Virtual Ethnography Revisited

Why do virtual ethnography?

How do you do virtual ethnography?

A recent project, and some emerging themes of importance

Virtual presence in real worlds

Ethics and engagement

Immersion in communication ecologies

Why do virtual ethnography?

• Ethnography as a way of understanding social life as lived and experienced

• Participating, observing, questioning, achieving richness and depth

• Mediated interactions are increasingly an embedded part of contemporary social life

• If the people you study move some aspects of their life onto the Internet, then so must you

What is virtual ethnography?

A set of principles……1. Investigate the ways in which use of the

Internet becomes socially meaningful2. View the Internet as both culture and

cultural artefact3. Expect to need to be mobile both virtually

and physically4. Follow connections instead of being

confined to field sites


5. Don’t take boundaries, especially between the “virtual” and the “real”, for granted

6. Expect a process of intermittent engagement, rather than long term immersion

7.Expect to develop a partial view, based on strategic relevance to particular research questions


8. Use your engagement with mediated interaction to add an important reflexive dimension

9. Carry out ethnography of, in and through the virtual

10. Undertake adaptive ethnography which suits itself to the conditions in which it finds itself

Ethnography in a trans-virtual world

• Information and communication technologies in contemporary science

• Databases, web-based information resources, large institutions, online forums and mailing lists, traditional literature, publicity materials and official reports……

• A trans-virtual world – an emerging virtual culture that is thoroughly rooted in the offline and can only fully be understood through trans-virtual ethnography

Trans-virtual ethnography

• Take virtual environments seriously as places where social life gets done.

• But….not everything that is important is visible online

• Learn about the varying textures of social life, as enacted in virtual forums, and as virtual activities are embedded in real life activities and institutions

Emerging themes and issues

• Developing appropriate researcher presence

• Ethics and engagement

• Immersion in communication ecologies

Virtual presence in real worlds• Contacting people by email for face-to-

face interviews• An opportunity to explore use of email as a

routine means of communication• A chance to begin developing appropriate

presence, through signature, web site, online publications

• Face-to-face interviews as a chance to explore different sets of connections, and to pursue issues in depth

Ethics and engagement• Observing mailing lists as covert

observation• Variable significance of messages to their

authors – sometimes asking permission to quote is appropriate

• Asking permission is an engagement with the field, which can lead to surprising and useful research relationships

• Overt methods can give access to a broader perspective on lists

At 05:43 AM 12/17/2003, you wrote:>Hi,>mind being cited in this regard? I'd like to include your entire >message in my piece, as it illustrates so well the kinds of concerns >(which characters to portray, quality of image etc) that surround this >type of innovation.>>I hope you'll say yes to this unusual request.

Sure, you are welcome to use the message. I went back and looked at the message thread, I assume you saw there were several follow up messages, some concerned this was inappropriate for Taxacom and some of a more humorous bent. I still probably have the image if you care.

Boy, it is interesting to see how times change.

BTW, I took at you paper on Systematics as Cyberscience. Very interesting. You might want to take a look at the project I am currently working on (Digimorph.org) as a way some of us are approaching the idea of digitizing specimens. This is a long way from a flatbed scanner! Our 3D specimens are, of course, not perfect digital replicas, soft tissue is relatively anonymous and no surface colors appear. But significant internal morphology is far more visible that in museum specimens themselves.

Ethics and engagement• Observing mailing lists as covert

observation• Variable significance of messages to their

authors – sometimes asking permission to quote is appropriate

• Asking permission is an engagement with the field, which can lead to surprising and useful research relationships

• Overt methods can give access to a broader perspective on lists

Overt methods on mailing listsHow important is this list for a practicing systematist today? Would

you miss it? What would taxonomy be like without it?

How far do the kinds of issues discussed on the Taxacom list reflect the concerns of the discipline more broadly? Is there an excessive focus on particular kinds of issues? Do others get missed out?

Have you posted messages to the list, either to start a topic or respond to one? What was your experience like - did you find it helpful, enjoyable, or neither?

How many of the people who contribute to the list do you know from other contexts? Have you met many of them face-to-face?

What other lists do you belong to? How does this list differ?

I'd be particularly interested to hear from anyone who never or rarely sends messages to the list, but still finds it useful - what benefit do you get from the list? Do you know colleagues in taxonomy who don't subscribe to the list, and do they miss out?

Overt methods on mailing lists

• Answers have led me into issues of– Selective reading practices– Self-censorship and awareness of “the community is

watching”– Gender issues in interpretation of posting practices– Prevalence of private email between list members– Lists as learning environments, and the value of

lurking

….but still only from 2% of the list membership

Immersion in communication ecologies

• Ethnographic research methods as a way of exploring the varying textures of contemporary social life as enacted through complex communication ecologies

• Amenability to particular media and methods tells us valuable things about the texture of social life

• Questioning appropriate methods is a way of staying alive to the taken-for-granted qualities of communications media

Take home messages

• Technologies are potent but variably interpreted figures for researchers and research subjects

• Virtual methods are powerful (indispensible?) routes to understanding contemporary society

• Immersion in communication ecologies is a route to a reflexively informed understanding

Virtual Methods• The web site:www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/virtualmethods/vmesrc.htm

• The mailing list:virtual-methodsTo join, visit www.jiscmail.ac.uk

• The bookVirtual Methods: Issues in Social Research on the Internet. Forthcoming: Berg, April 2005

http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/virtualmethods/vmesrc.htm

http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/