[Air-l] Technical competence

[Paula]

Yes, I'd agree with this - it can be useful to understand something of
how any particular technical medium is productive in online social
formations, but find it far more useful to approach social software
primarily from the point of view of the user. The users will always
manage to exceed the developers' constructs anyway.

Conversely, I find it really interesting how social softwares
materialise the culture of their developers whilst users will often try
to use it according to the needs of a completely different culture.

Paula

Ledbetter, Andrew Michael wrote:

>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
>-------------
>Andrew M. Ledbetter
>Ph.D. student, University of Kansas
>Department of Communication Studies
>aledbett at ku.edu
>
>	 
>
>  
>
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