One place to look is research in Library and Information Science on public libraries. One major service that public libraries serve is to provide internet access to homeless people, and I'm pretty sure there have been some studies on this topic. Unfortunately, I don't know of any off-hand which I can direct you to. Ingbert On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 5:01 PM, Peter Timusk <ptimusk@sympatico.ca> wrote:

I suspect there is a temporary negative correlation. Internet use and access and experience suggest less risk for homelessness. But perhaps homelessness is too closely tied to income.

On 18-Feb-09, at 5:29 PM, Laszlo Ropolyi wrote:

...

Dear all,

I am looking for some ideas/papers/references about a very specific social context of the Internet. Is there any possible link between the Internet and homelessness?

Thanks in advance for any comment.

Laszlo

Laszlo Ropolyi Dept. History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University Budapest, Hungary

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-- ========================================== Ingbert Floyd PhD Student Graduate School of Library and Information Science University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign http://ingbert.org/ || skype/twitter/etc.: spacesoon Check out the unofficial GSLIS Wiki: http://www.gslis.org/ "Dream in a pragmatic way." -Aldous Huxley

Laszlo, I'm not sure I completely understand the link between homelessness and Internet that you're asking about. However, in my (still very preliminary) research with homeless LGBTQ youth in New York City, the Internet is a crucial component of their survival. Indeed, as one focus group participant told me, "Oh, you need the Internet if you're homeless." For most of these young people, this means accessing the Internet via mobile phones or other portable digital devices....and at places with desktops and laptops with free Internet connections, such as the area Apple (computer) stores. Best, ~ Jessie Daniels, PhD -- http://www.jessiedanielsphd.com http://www.racismreview.com http://www.homelessyouthservices.org On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 7:07 PM, Michael Baron <webbaron@gmail.com> wrote:

I agree with Peter. Homelessness can be linked to income/life-style but linking it to a single activity (such as Internet Use or lack of such use) is difficult.

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 10:01 AM, Peter Timusk <ptimusk@sympatico.ca> wrote:

...

I suspect there is a temporary negative correlation. Internet use and access and experience suggest less risk for homelessness. But perhaps homelessness is too closely tied to income.

On 18-Feb-09, at 5:29 PM, Laszlo Ropolyi wrote:

Dear all,

...

I am looking for some ideas/papers/references about a very specific

social

...

context of the Internet. Is there any possible link between the Internet and homelessness?

Thanks in advance for any comment.

Laszlo

Laszlo Ropolyi Dept. History and Philosophy of Science Eotvos University Budapest, Hungary

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Years ago, a homeless person (obviously, with no snail mail address), in Des Moines, Iowa, utilizing only his e-mail address, found himself a job (and thus, a home) using the Internet in the public library. After that, I told my students that you did not need a snail mail address to land a job, but you would need an e-mail address; and that if you were not online, you were not in America (referencing a service provider then, America Online). Shing-Ling Sarina Chen Dept. of Communication Studies Univ. of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA 50614

Free Software and Beyond: The World of Peer Production 4th Oekonux Conference in cooperation with P2P Foundation March 27th-29th, 2009 University of Manchester For full text of invitation please see: http://www.oekonux-conference.org/invitation/invitation.html Invitation Project Oekonux researches the economical, political and social forms of Free Software and similar forms of production we collectively call peer production. In Project Oekonux, different people with different reasons and different approaches get together to build something new. A lot of participants want to know, whether and if so, how, peer production can serve as a basis for a new society. For the 4th Oekonux Conference Project Oekonux cooperates with the P2P Foundation. The Foundation for Peer to Peer Alternatives researches, documents and promotes P2P practices in every domain of social life. It's a global cyber-collective and aims to be a knowledge and internetworking platform for open/free, participatory, and commons-oriented initiatives on a global scale. During the past decade the phenomenon of Free Software has become successful and well-known. It is still amazing how in the realm of software the creativity of so many volunteers leads to products which are useful for the whole of mankind. Ten years after Project Oekonux was founded the world has changed. As expected by us the principles of the development of Free Software are spreading to other fields. Wikipedia and Open Access are two of the most interesting examples among many. It is time to look at peer production from a broader perspective. Please register for free: http://www.oekonux-conference.org/registration.html

Marianne Franklin from Goldsmith College London has written about this some years ago. Don't have the references here, but I am sure you can dig it up somewhere. RB -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Dipl. Pol. Ralf Bendrath Technical University Delft, Netherlands Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, Section ICT Work: http://www.ict.tbm.tudelft.nl Blog: http://bendrath.blogspot.com Info: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath PGP / GnuPG Public Key: http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/ralf-bendrath-public-key.asc

Thanks for the interest in my draft review! I had a look over it last night and I think it needs a little more work before I distribute it... and at least knowing there are a bunch of people interested in it will push me into getting it done quicker. Stay tuned! However in the meantime, here is are some tips I put together from the review and the key references I used. I found Kazmer & Xie especially useful. As previously mentioned, I was interested in qualitative synchronous online interviewing so this excluded the automated online interviewing system described by Stieger. Though, I definitely think the automated system you describe would have application in my field of drug/alcohol studies - given they took so well to the format. Patricia Lange, I will have to take a look at your study as I never ended up reading it in my review. Ways in which the researcher can optimise the effectiveness of synchronous online interviews include: * Ensuring that the computer literacy, typing speed and access to a reliable and fast internet connection and computer equipment are adequate for both parties; * Disclosing personal information to encourage reciprocation and the development of stronger rapport; * Using culturally-appropriate textual and graphical representations of body language to convey richer meaning and decrease misunderstandings; * Using the automatically generated transcript to quote the interviewee's previous statements to enable follow-up, and encouraging the interviewee to do the same; * When deciding exactly when to send the next message, being aware of status alerts and commonly used abbreviations indicating absence from the conversation, and giving adequate time for the interviewee to think, type and send their response; and * Allowing much more time to complete an online interview than would be allocated for a face-to-face interview of equivalent depth and breadth. Key refs: Al-Saggaf, Y., & Williamson, K. (2004). Online communities in Saudi Arabia: Evaluating the impact on culture through online semi-structured interviews. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 5(3). Bowker, N., & Tuffin, K. (2004). Using the online medium for discursive research about people with disabilities. Social Science Computer Review, 22, 228-241. Davis, M., Bolding, G., Hart, G., Sherr, L., & Elford, J. (2004). Reflecting on the experience of interviewing online: Perspectives from the Internet and HIV study in London. AIDS Care, 16, 944-952. Dunkels, E., & Enochsson, A. (2007). Interviews with young people using online chat. In M. Quigley (Ed.), Encyclopedia of information ethics and security (pp. 403-410). Hersley: Idea Group Reference. Hewson, C. (2007). Gathering data on the Internet: Qualitative approaches and possibilities for mixed methods research. In A. N. Joinson, K. McKenna, T. Postmes & U.-D. Reips (Eds.), Oxford handbook of internet psychology (pp. 405-428). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Illingworth, N. (2001). The Internet matters: Exploring the use of the Internet as a research tool. Sociological Research Online, 6(2). Kazmer, M. M., & Xie, B. (2008). Qualitative interviewing in internet studies: Playing with the media, playing with the method. Information, Communication and Society, 11, 257-278. Matthews, J., & Cramer, E. P. (2008). Using technology to enhance qualitative research with hidden populations. The Qualitative Report, 13, 301-315. O'Connor, H. (2006). Online interviews. Retrieved January 8, 2008, from http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/orm/interviews/intcontents.htm O'Connor, H., & Madge, C. (2001). Cyber-mothers: Online synchronous interviewing using conferencing software. Sociological Research Online, 5(4). Opdenakker, R. (2006). Advantages and disadvantages of four interview techniques in qualitative research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 7(4). Voida, A., Mynatt, E. D., Erickson, T., & Kellogg, W. A. (2004, April 24–29). Interviewing over instant messaging. Paper presented at the CHI 2004, Vienna, Austria. Retrieved February 15, 2007, from http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/~amyvoida/interviewingOverIM-chi04.pdf ------------------------------ Monica J. Barratt, B.Sc.Psych PhD Student @ the National Drug Research Institute 7/19-35 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, Victoria 3070, Australia Phone: +61 3 9412 9902; Fax: +61 3 9412 9912 E-mail: monica.barratt@postgrad.curtin.edu.au Web: http://db.ndri.curtin.edu.au/staff.asp?persid=650