[Air-L] Netnomusicology?

[victor.kvarnhall at oru.se]

Hi everyone!

I'm rather new on this list, and must begin with expressing my appreciation for all of the good tips and interesting, helpful and constructive discussions here! 

Well, I'm writing a dissertation about childrens (ages ca. 9-13) musical experiences on the net, to put it pretty simple. And since I am an ethnomusicologist I plan to do a netnography (or whatever one may call performing ethnographic fieldwork on the Internet). I've been having trouble finding children to participate though, maybe mainly because of my unwillingness to contact them in any other way than via Internet. However, this is a conscious decision.

Lately I've been, for several reasons, thinking about at least start seeking for informants (or focus almost entirely) in a swedish community called Music manager. It's sort of a web-based role play, where you get the play the role of a "manager" for a rockband (or really the role of the whole band), buy instruments, getting them to practice, book shows and so forth. 

Whether this is a good idea or not, is one of my questions. Another questions concerns starting an open thread in the discussion forum on Music manager, asking for people who want to participate in my study. Is that a good idea? The webmaster and I have been in contact about this, and he can back me up, so that no one has any reason to doubt me being serious.  

Last, I'm curious if anyone knows any good literature about nethnographic studies on music and Internet (and children), in any way? There's a book called "Cybersounds" (Michael Ayers, ed.), but it's really hard to get a hold on in Sweden. 

Thanks,
/Victor Kvarnhall
Ph.D student at the School of music in Örebro, Sweden