[Air-L] Air-L Digest, Vol 55, Issue 24

[Jenny Ryan]

Hello aoir-world!

I've been subscribed to this list for some time now, but have yet to
introduce myself. I've been enjoying the conversations about virtual
ethnography, and more recently the use of wikis in qualitative research. I
personally have used wikis effectively for research purposes - primarily to
organize and share information and resources with fellow researchers. Last
year, when I published my master's thesis online, I considered putting it in
wiki format and allowing my participants to edit and add to the narrative.
Actually, this may inspire me to actually put that plan into action...

I'm dabbling in programming and recently launched a wiki, Webnographers.Org,
for resources pertaining to virtual ethnography. Over the past couple of
years, I have conducted several virtual ethnographies based on observation,
interviews, and survey responses on online diary communities and social
networks. I would love to connect to more people interested in this field-
not limited to anthropologists, of course!

On a more philosophical level, I suppose, I'm fascinated by the
mirror-nature of the internet and its relationship with our cultural
programming. On a political level, I follow free speech and internet policy
news (primarily through twitter). J'adore twitter.

I'm currently awaiting word from six ph.d programs, for the most part in
California. In the interim, does anyone have advice for me wrt publishing my
thesis as a book? It is an ethnography of MySpace, Facebook, and Tribe.net (
www.thevirtualcampfire.org). I would like to work on a version more suitable
for general audiences- more stories, less history... though the history of
media is paramount to its future...

Also while I'm on the topic, check out Future Folk Records (
http://www.futurefolkrecords.com). Lots of free futurey folk music friends!.


Be well,
Jenny

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"To define is to kill. To suggest is to create."
-Stephane Mallarme

http://jennyryan.net
http://thevirtualcampfire.org
http://webnographers.org
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