Re: [Air-L] software for online ethnography (Ashley Hinck)
Hi Ashley, I have struggled with this question a lot, and I don't think there is one solution. I would include Zotero <http://www.zotero.org/> to the list of programs already mentioned. I use it for more than just bibliographic management. You can save snapshots of sites to it, make notes, save pdfs etc. I'm also going to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug a chapter I recently published about an instant messenger program designed for ethnographers. "The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews" http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-research-methods-urban-planning/623... :) -Jay
Hi Jason I have used instant messaging as part of qualitative research within an ethnographic framework. This is the first I've heard of Ethnochat and of your work. Is it available for use by researchers as I would be interested in trying it. I've just published an article on my experiences of online interviewing which you may be interest in: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00399.x/abstract And I'd like to thank all of the AoIR community for the many discussions of online interviewing we have had over the years which have helped shape my thoughts/practice. Cheers Monica On 19 February 2012 10:18, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ashley, I have struggled with this question a lot, and I don't think there is one solution. I would include Zotero <http://www.zotero.org/> to the list of programs already mentioned. I use it for more than just bibliographic management. You can save snapshots of sites to it, make notes, save pdfs etc.
I'm also going to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug a chapter I recently published about an instant messenger program designed for ethnographers. "The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews" http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-research-methods-urban-planning/623...
:)
-Jay _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Hi Monica, Your paper looks fantastic. Thank you for sending it along. Ethnochat was really a proof-of-concept project. We got it working enough to play with it, but it's still just in a limbo, pre-alpha stage. I'm not a programmer. I came up with the concept after doing online interviews and being frustrated that there was no tool specifically for online interviews. So, I ended up working with a master's student who did the code and my phd advisor who helped us get the initial work published. I do have the code if you or anyone wants to mess around with it. My hope was that the concept would spark interest and people would build upon the Ethnochat concept. It's a great project that could use a grant and some open-source community help. As for me, it's become a side project, although, if someone wants to work with me on making this into a full-fledged digital project, I would love to give it a go! I really do think it could turn into something special. I just decided to do my dissertation on something else and put Ethnochat on the backburner. Let me know if you are interested. Rock on, Jay On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Monica Barratt <tronica@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Jason
I have used instant messaging as part of qualitative research within an ethnographic framework. This is the first I've heard of Ethnochat and of your work. Is it available for use by researchers as I would be interested in trying it.
I've just published an article on my experiences of online interviewing which you may be interest in:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00399.x/abstract
And I'd like to thank all of the AoIR community for the many discussions of online interviewing we have had over the years which have helped shape my thoughts/practice.
Cheers Monica
On 19 February 2012 10:18, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ashley, I have struggled with this question a lot, and I don't think there is one solution. I would include Zotero <http://www.zotero.org/> to the list of programs already mentioned. I use it for more than just bibliographic management. You can save snapshots of sites to it, make notes, save pdfs etc.
I'm also going to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug a chapter I recently published about an instant messenger program designed for ethnographers. "The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews"
http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-research-methods-urban-planning/623...
:)
-Jay _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at:
http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Thanks Jay. Unfortunately I'm not a tech person myself so I wouldn't have the skills to continue actually programming anything! But I can understand the frustration - I developed a method where I had text files open on screen to play with the questions and determine which one to bring in next, to edit the question for the context, etc. Looking at the screenshots of Ethnochat, I'm sure it would have been an improvement. The only concern I would have is that I found my participants wanted to use the software they already used. So one problem would be getting participants to use something new - this may not be attractive to everyone, even if it would work better for the researcher. Cheers Monica On 22 February 2012 12:16, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Monica, Your paper looks fantastic. Thank you for sending it along. Ethnochat was really a proof-of-concept project. We got it working enough to play with it, but it's still just in a limbo, pre-alpha stage. I'm not a programmer. I came up with the concept after doing online interviews and being frustrated that there was no tool specifically for online interviews. So, I ended up working with a master's student who did the code and my phd advisor who helped us get the initial work published.
I do have the code if you or anyone wants to mess around with it. My hope was that the concept would spark interest and people would build upon the Ethnochat concept. It's a great project that could use a grant and some open-source community help.
As for me, it's become a side project, although, if someone wants to work with me on making this into a full-fledged digital project, I would love to give it a go! I really do think it could turn into something special. I just decided to do my dissertation on something else and put Ethnochat on the backburner.
Let me know if you are interested. Rock on, Jay
On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Monica Barratt <tronica@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Jason
I have used instant messaging as part of qualitative research within an ethnographic framework. This is the first I've heard of Ethnochat and of your work. Is it available for use by researchers as I would be interested in trying it.
I've just published an article on my experiences of online interviewing which you may be interest in:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00399.x/abstract
And I'd like to thank all of the AoIR community for the many discussions of online interviewing we have had over the years which have helped shape my thoughts/practice.
Cheers Monica
On 19 February 2012 10:18, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ashley, I have struggled with this question a lot, and I don't think there is one solution. I would include Zotero <http://www.zotero.org/> to the list of programs already mentioned. I use it for more than just bibliographic management. You can save snapshots of sites to it, make notes, save pdfs etc.
I'm also going to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug a chapter I recently published about an instant messenger program designed for ethnographers. "The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews"
http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-research-methods-urban-planning/623...
:)
-Jay _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
Well, if you ever found a programmer (student/hire someone etc.), maybe we can work on something. as for your concern, that is one of the ideas i had in mind for ethnochat. (the book chapter and an older paper<http://independent.academia.edu/JasonZalinger/Papers/289675/Ethnochat_An_instant_messaging_program_for_ethnography> both detail the design of ethnochat and all the features i hoped it would have. it's all spelled out. maybe someone needs a good dissertation project :) with ethnochat, the researcher uses it. period. the interviewee uses whatever they are used to. ethnochat would connect with whatever service (AIM, MSN, Gchat, etc) they use. many IM programs do this already. Pidgin is an open source program that connects to many things. Ethnochat only works with AIM now. So, i did think about this issue. it's an important one. On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 8:24 PM, Monica Barratt <tronica@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks Jay. Unfortunately I'm not a tech person myself so I wouldn't have the skills to continue actually programming anything! But I can understand the frustration - I developed a method where I had text files open on screen to play with the questions and determine which one to bring in next, to edit the question for the context, etc. Looking at the screenshots of Ethnochat, I'm sure it would have been an improvement.
The only concern I would have is that I found my participants wanted to use the software they already used. So one problem would be getting participants to use something new - this may not be attractive to everyone, even if it would work better for the researcher.
Cheers Monica
On 22 February 2012 12:16, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Monica, Your paper looks fantastic. Thank you for sending it along. Ethnochat was really a proof-of-concept project. We got it working enough to play with it, but it's still just in a limbo, pre-alpha stage. I'm not a programmer. I came up with the concept after doing online interviews and being frustrated that there was no tool specifically for online interviews. So, I ended up working with a master's student who did the code and my phd advisor who helped us get the initial work published.
I do have the code if you or anyone wants to mess around with it. My hope was that the concept would spark interest and people would build upon the Ethnochat concept. It's a great project that could use a grant and some open-source community help.
As for me, it's become a side project, although, if someone wants to work with me on making this into a full-fledged digital project, I would love to give it a go! I really do think it could turn into something special. I just decided to do my dissertation on something else and put Ethnochat on the backburner.
Let me know if you are interested. Rock on, Jay
On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Monica Barratt <tronica@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Jason
I have used instant messaging as part of qualitative research within an ethnographic framework. This is the first I've heard of Ethnochat and of your work. Is it available for use by researchers as I would be interested in trying it.
I've just published an article on my experiences of online interviewing which you may be interest in:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00399.x/abstract
And I'd like to thank all of the AoIR community for the many discussions of online interviewing we have had over the years which have helped shape my thoughts/practice.
Cheers Monica
On 19 February 2012 10:18, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger@gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi Ashley, I have struggled with this question a lot, and I don't think there is one solution. I would include Zotero <http://www.zotero.org/> to the list of programs already mentioned. I use it for more than just bibliographic management. You can save snapshots of sites to it, make notes, save pdfs etc.
I'm also going to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug a chapter I recently published about an instant messenger program designed for ethnographers. "The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews"
http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-research-methods-urban-planning/623...
:)
-Jay _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers
Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
participants (2)
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Jason Zalinger -
Monica Barratt