Digital Ethnography

a video related to virtual ethnography

This one is a little expensive, but it is easy to use and has more customizable features.

danah boyd is a scholar whose work examines technology, society, and policy. She has produced a lot of great research on the ways in which young people engage in new media. I've recently become aware that she offers a free download of her new book "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens" on her personal website. I encourage all of you to give it a read if you have time. 

Digest of larger post of big study by International Telecommunication Union about mobile broadband use...

This is report does provide a sense of how mobile broadband is spreading globally. However, I wonder if this is necessarily a "good" thing. Sure, we could argue that eventually the spread of these technologies will happen, but is the source censored or monitored in any way? Is it available to "all" without loss of content or as a democratic platform for those in marginal communities?

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.