First, thank you. I have published several questions to this list, and you all are so gracious in responding. I hope to begin contributing myself very soon--not just listening to the very helpful threads. I have yet another question I would like to ask and hope that it might be helpful to others as well. For my dissertation, I am researching intercultural virtual workplaces--specifically dialogic international online communication. Very briefly, I am conducting case studies with several companies that regularly engage in international online communication. I plan to collect artifacts of communication and analyze them in light of the most commonly identified issues in virtual workplaces, conduct online focus groups to further identify and explain these issues, and finally, conduct online interviews. My problem is that while companies have proven very helpful in agreeing to focus groups and interviews, they are much more reluctant to give me access to a body of text. While it is difficult but not impossible to establish this access, I am wondering if you all have suggestions for other methods that might work well rather than the textual analysis of artifacts. I very much want to provide this look at workplace communication even though access to other types of organizations would be easier. Thank you very much for any suggestions or references. Best, Pam Pamela Estes Brewer Lecturer -- Coordinator, Professional Writing Department of English and Philosophy Murray State University PhD Candidate, Texas Tech University 270-809-4719 fax 270-809-4545 pam.brewer@murraystate.edu