[Air-l] qualitative research pre-conference workshop announcement

[Annette Markham]

>>>  Announcement of Pre-Conference Workshop <<<
            >>>  Qualitative Research Methods  <<<

AOIR 5.0 Internet Research Conference, Sussex, UK
Saturday, September 18, 2004, 2:00 p.m.  –  5:00 p.m.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS:
This Pre-Conference workshop is designed to enable participants to
work through common yet complex issues related to the qualitative
study of Internet-related phenomena.  At the workshop, five highly
qualified but very different experts in the broad field of Internet
Studies will lead discussion sessions.  The topics of these sessions
will be derived from the participants themselves, who will submit
their questions a few weeks in advance of the workshop (see below for
details).  Broadly speaking, the focus of this workshop is the study
of the
Internet or ICT (rather than how to use internet-related technologies
to facilitate traditional research).

>>>   Workshop Facilitators  <<<

Nancy Baym, Ph. D., University of Kansas, USA
http://www.people.ku.edu/~nbaym/
Annette Markham, Ph. D., University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
http://ascend.comm.uic.edu/~amarkham/
Christine Hine, Ph. D., University of Surrey, UK
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/christine_hine.htm
Lori Kendall, Ph. D., SUNY, Purchase College
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9474.html
Shani Orgad, Ph. D., London School of Economics, UK
http://www.lse.ac.uk/people/s.s.orgad@lse.ac.uk/

>>>  How to Participate  <<<

Participation is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  Interested
participants should register for this workshop as they register for
the AOIR conference in general.
http://aoir.org/2004/

>>>  Rationale  <<<

Although many of us use the label "qualitative" to describe our
methods, our choices and practices vary considerably due to
differences in disciplinary training, experiences, theoretical
frameworks and worldviews, the research questions we are asking, and
the type of phenomena we're studying.

Many disciplines and universities offer only limited, if any, training
in qualitative research, particularly related to internet research. As
a result, many Internet researchers remain unsure how to conduct or
evaluate quality research in this area.  The diverse scholars brought
together for this pre-conference workshop will encourage a broader
understanding of qualitative inquiry that may offer a fuller range of
methodological choices for participants.

>>> Submitting Questions  <<<

Each registered participant should submit one question he or she would
like to have addressed during the workshop, accompanied by a brief
explanation of the context within which his or her question is
situated.

Questions should be submitted by email no later than September 1, 2004
to either Nancy Baym (nbaym at ku.edu) or Annette Markham
(amarkham at gmail.com).

Workshop leaders will use these questions to build workshop sessions. 
During the workshop, participants and workshop facilitators will
address the practical, theoretical, political, and/or ethical issues
involved in answering the question.  Dialogue about these issues
within the workshop is intended to illustrate the complexity of
methodological decision making during the course of rigorous
qualitative study.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Annette or Nancy.