Hi Nick,
I really appreciate the information and the outline you provided and needless to say I will keep it close at hand. I know interviewing cannot be perfect but I do not want to make as few mistakes as possible when it comes to the participants. I want to be prepared as best I can. This is unknown territory for me so I am gathering as much information as I can.
Thx
Ila
You're really welcome Ila and good luck with it. I should also have mentioned that before any of that is done it should go past your equivalent of an ethics committee for approval. If it involves other organisations or universities then they should be invited to approve it as well before continuing. A lot depends upon the context in which you carry out your research.
Also when you've briefed the interviewee you should let them know that they are welcome to withdraw from the research interview at any time during the interview with no consequences for them or their work.
Coincidentally, I am involved in writing some guidelines for ethics in social media and other technologies. That would include student-generated materials, immersive environments like Second Life etc. Those environments can add substantially to the ethical issues raised for researchers. That could constitute a whole seminar or course on their own so I won't drag on about it here.
It would be interesting to me if you would like to share something more about your context and your planned research. Who are your audience/sample, for instance?
Either way, the very best of luck and enjoy it too. I think the fieldwork is often the most fun initially.
Nick
Hi Nick,
My planned research is a virtual community of practice (VCoP)/doctoral support group. The doctoral students are at various phases in the dissertation process. My methodology is netnography (online ethnography) just in case you are not familiar with it. The premise of the study is to analyze why these doctoral students seek peer-to-peer help in a VCoP outside of ther home institution. I will be a participant-observer and the community has about 950 active members. I would have loved to conduct this in Second Life but I found it a bit hard to navigate (user issues :-) and need to take more time to become more involved. Thanks for asking!
Ila
