[Air-L] software for online ethnography (Ashley Hinck)

[Jason Zalinger]

Hi Monica,
Your paper looks fantastic. Thank you for sending it along.
Ethnochat was really a proof-of-concept project. We got it working enough
to play with it, but it's still just in a limbo, pre-alpha stage. I'm not a
programmer. I came up with the concept after doing online interviews and
being frustrated that there was no tool specifically for online interviews.
So, I ended up working with a master's student who did the code and my phd
advisor who helped us get the initial work published.

I do have the code if you or anyone wants to mess around with it. My hope
was that the concept would spark interest and people would build upon the
Ethnochat concept. It's a great project that could use a grant and some
open-source community help.

As for me, it's become a side project, although, if someone wants to work
with me on making this into a full-fledged digital project, I would love to
give it a go! I really do think it could turn into something special. I
just decided to do my dissertation on something else and put Ethnochat on
the backburner.

Let me know if you are interested.
Rock on,
Jay




On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 8:08 PM, Monica Barratt <tronica at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Jason
>
> I have used instant messaging as part of qualitative research within
> an ethnographic framework. This is the first I've heard of Ethnochat
> and of your work. Is it available for use by researchers as I would be
> interested in trying it.
>
> I've just published an article on my experiences of online
> interviewing which you may be interest in:
>
> http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-3362.2011.00399.x/abstract
>
> And I'd like to thank all of the AoIR community for the many
> discussions of online interviewing we have had over the years which
> have helped shape my thoughts/practice.
>
> Cheers
> Monica
>
> On 19 February 2012 10:18, Jason Zalinger <jasonzalinger at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Ashley,
> > I have struggled with this question a lot, and I don't think there is one
> > solution. I would include Zotero <http://www.zotero.org/> to the list of
> > programs already mentioned. I use it for more than just bibliographic
> > management. You can save snapshots of sites to it, make notes, save pdfs
> > etc.
> >
> > I'm also going to use this opportunity to shamelessly plug a chapter I
> > recently published about an instant messenger program designed for
> > ethnographers. "The Story of Ethnochat: Designing an Instant Messaging
> > Program to Conduct Semi-Structured or Unstructured Interviews"
> >
> http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/online-research-methods-urban-planning/62396
> >
> >
> > :)
> >
> > -Jay
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