Digital Ethnography

This is an interesting case study on how ethnographic methods are being used by arts and cultural groups to help make their case to funders. "There is growing pressure to provide concrete evidence of impact to funders and institutional and civic leaders. And yet, numbers and metrics rarely capture the complex individual transformation and collective social change at the heart of many impactful community-based arts and humanities-based endeavors. Stories and qualitative data more readily meet the challenge but are often viewed as "soft" evidence. How can we reap the valuable content- and context-rich learning that qualitative approaches to assessment afford, while enhancing the credibility of qualitative evidence toward more effective case making?"

For those interesting in online communities, gaming or otherwise, you may find this article and the related book interesting.

A project that is placing transmedia tools in the hands of New York youth in an effort to empower.

Attached is the ePals site: http://www.epals.com/challenges/folklife2014/?UA-49242919-1/Education

First "issue" to launch Sept. 1. Some ethnographic films available on site currently.

You can find the information for the Nina Simon Lecture on May 22 here...Come see the incredible Nina Simon, Executive Director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & Historyand Museum 2.0 and The Participatory Museum blogger, talk about what she is doing to make art museums more participatory. Learn from a leader in the field of audience engagement and participatory arts, and be inspired to be your own emerging leader! 

ABSTRACT: Research on the digital and online environment poses several ethical questions that are new or, at least, newly pressing, especially in relation to youth. Established ethical practices require that research have integrity, quality, transparency, and impartiality. They also stipulate that risks to the researcher, institution, data, and participants should be anticipated and addressed. But difficulties arise when applying these to an environment in which the online and offline intersect in shifting ways. This paper discusses some real-life "digital dilemmas" to identify the emerging consensus among researchers. We note the 2012 guidelines by the Association of Internet Researchers, which advocates for ethical pluralism, for minimizing harm, and for the responsibility of the researcher where codes are insufficient. As a point of contrast, we evaluate Markham's (2012) radical argument for data fabrication as an ethical practice. In reflecting on how researchers of the digital media practices of youth resolve their dilemmas in practice, we take up Markham's challenge of identifying evolving practice, including researchers' workarounds, but we eschew her solution of fabrication. Instead, we support the emerging consensus that while rich data are increasingly available for collection, they should not always be fully used or even retained in order to protect human subjects in a digital world in which future possible uses of data exceed the control of the researcher who collected them.

Thanks for posting this, John. Considering the ethical concerns we all have expressed in class, I am sure this article will be helpful. I will be sure to put it on my reading list.

There are 112 apps on this extensive list of qualitative research apps for mobile devices. They range from interview assistance, to specific research methods, to building basic communication bridges across multiple parties. This list is interesting and should be investigated by anyone looking to research their subjects via mobile access/pathways.

This is a short article looking at the mobile dating app Tinder, and how an ethnographer might approach researching its population. Fairly interesting to people who have used the app in the past or currently, as well as brings up the interesting aspect that mobile and digital ethnography act as very unique fields despite their strong similarities.

This is a pretty interesting article about the guidelines as to what digital citizenship truly means, and how it exists. There are nine aspects I feel directly affect the ethnography aspect we investigate every week of the digital world, and might possibly add to our perspective as to how the general population views joining the digital community.

This is an art installation from 1980 of a large video chat between people in LA and New York. It deals with time and space. It is really interesting to see peoples reactions to this new form of communication.