[Air-l] Technical competence

[Ledbetter, Andrew Michael]

Long-time reader, first-time poster. :-)
 
I agree, interesting question, and an important question. I think the (a) particular research question and (b) population under study significantly influence the level of technical competence a researcher would need. And we must not forget that the vast majority of web users, e-mail users, online gamers, etc. do not know much at all about UNIX, perl, Java, or probably even basic ideas about how the TCP/IP protocol operates. Given this, might there be occasions where lacking in-depth computer science knowledge might actually help a researcher approaching the Internet from a social science perspective, since they may be able to more easily view the technology through the users' eyes rather than the developers' eyes?
 
In my own research, I find that my computer science background helps me understand the contours of how the nature of a technology encourages and discourages certain forms of social interaction... but I find that my social science background helps me far more in understanding how human beings appropriate the technology in their social interaction.
 
Andrew
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Andrew M. Ledbetter
Ph.D. student, University of Kansas
Department of Communication Studies
aledbett at ku.edu