In the previous post I discussed possible types of research notes for ethnographic research of blogging practices. This one is a reflection on research notes I have for my research (which wasn’t designed as an ethnography).
artifacts
- when participating: link or quote in my weblog
- when observing: adding to del.icio.us collection
process knowledge
- when participating: indicators or summaries in my weblog
- when observing: not documented
personal experience of observation/participation
- I blog heavily on it, but not about all the things relevant (due to the lack of time or sensitivity)
emerging interpretations and ad-hoc analysis
- I blog heavily on it, but not about all the things relevant (due to the lack of time or sensitivity)
coding and analysis
- coding
- emergent coding is part of blogging/bookmarking – I use weblog topics and del.icio.us links for it (see everyday grounded theory)
- final coding – offline, usually on paper (till I find a good software)
- analysis usually happens “behind the curtains”
- partly documented in papers I write (see example of paper/real life balance in researcher vs. blogger)
- partly documented in weblog posts, usually as articulation of specific problems I have to tackle during the analysis (e.g. Guessing if a link leads to a weblog or not? or What would be a good way to find all (blog) pages linking to a specific blog post?)
All kinds of issues with my research notes:
My data (artifacts) are not stored locally – there are obvious risks and unconviniencies involved.
Huge part of process knowledge is not documented. Of course, having experience and access to artifacts helps to recall and reconstruct, but relying on memory could be a problem.
Obviousely, I do not write down all things relevant (experiences, analysis). Wonder how different are those that I wrote and those I didn’t. May be there are structural differences.
What is very different from other ethnographies (if looking at my reseacrh through ethnography lenses) – personal experiences and analysis are documented in public, feeding back to the blogosphere and influencing (see more on researcher influence in my research).
The bottom line: wonder if ethnographic lenses make sense for my research and what/how much I have to change if I adopt them.
Tags: blog research, blogging as research, citedCh3, ethnography, methodologyArchived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2005/04/07.html#a1537; comments are here.
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