The problems I see here compared to traditional eths is that you can't force someone to talk to you, and even finding someone to observe can be difficult at times. For this to work, you would have to know what you are doing in there and have the look of a REAL member of the community.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
secondlife mini-ethnography
Ok...I keep going back to this crazy world, and I still don't understand it. It seems like it would be really difficult to do an ethnography in Second-life without knowing the proper ways of being and functioning. I don't feel like I know enough about the technical side of second-life to even study it.
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Hi Robin,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could do an institutional ethnography? Dorothy Smith lines out some of the precepts in doing institutional ethnographies--I also wonder if this wouldnt be really fun to find out how institutions are framing themselves in terms of Second Life--NMSU, Yale, Harvard, as educational institutions and then there are other kinds of institutions too.
Do you know your research questions yet? (I don't, but I am hoping to get ideas soon.)
Gerri
Gerri,
ReplyDeleteThat's an intersting idea. I am curious about how the classes actually work in a second life environment. I've ttried to get to "Aggie Island" several times in second life, but have been unsuccessful. It is amazing how much knowledge is required to fully function in the world of second life.
As far as research quesetions...I've got ideas, but not sure which way I want to go.
Robin
Robin-
ReplyDeleteTalk to Philip about Aggie Island. It seems to me his office has some tie to the space and he might be able to help you gain access.