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Introduction
This presentation is prompted by the growing
number of qualitative research studies in technical communication whose
sites are not physical but electronic/"virtual"–this
is not a definitive list, but it gives you a sense:
- commercial websites
Gurak, Laura. "Technology, Community, and Technical Communication
on the Internet: The Lotus MarketPlace and Clipper Chip Controversies."
Journal of Business and Technical Communication 10.1 (1996):
81-99.
- synchronous student brainstorming sessions
Mabrito, Mark. "Real-Time Computer Network Collaboration: Case
Studies of Business Writing Students." Journal of Business
and Technical Communication 6.3 (1992): 316-336.
- asynchronous international collaboration
Tumminello, Joanna and Pär Carlshamre. "An International
Internet Collaboration." Technical Communication 43.4
(1996): 413-418.
- desktop video-conferencing
Duin, Ann Hill, Lisa D. Mason, and Linda A. Jorn. "Structuring
Distance-meeting Environments." Technical Communication 41.4
(1994): 695-708.
- electronic help exchanges
Mirel, Barbara. "Analyzing Electronic Help Exchanges: An Inquiry
into Instructions for Complex Tasks." Technical Communication
41.2 (1994): 210-223.
- World Wide Web documentation
Beason, Gary. "Redefining Written Products with WWW Documentation:
A Study of the Publication Process at a Computer Company." Technical
Communication 43.4 (1996): 339-348.
- e-mail and Internet relay chat collaboration
Duin, Ann Hill and Ray Archee. "Collaboration via E-mail and
Internet Relay Chat: Understanding Time and Technology." Technical
Communication 43.4 (1996): 402-412.
- a technical communications discussion
list
Ray, Eric J. "TECHWR-L: A History and Case Study of a Profession-specific
LISTSERV List." Technical Communication 43.4 (1996): 334-338.
Book-length studies have also been published: for example, Gurak's
1997 Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace: The Online Protests
over Lotus Marketplace and the Clipper Chip, and Tharon Howard's
1997 A Rhetoric of Electronic Communities, in which Howard
studies the discourse of the now inactive PURTOPOI discussion list.
And what I want to talk about in the next
few minutes is what I see as being two problematic aspects of conducting
qualitative research in/on electronic venues:
- are electronic/virtual sites actually
sites? (I argue, in my "apology" [with a nod to Sir Philip
Sidney], that they are)
- is it ethical to "lurk," to,
in essence, eavesdrop on others' conversations? (This question moves
us to the larger issue of the ethics of research.)
Next:
Issue 1
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