Sensible Blog Research Approach from Liz Lawley
Liz opines with a ton of common sense: Many-to-Many: blog research issues
I don’t think it makes sense to lump all research and observation about blogs together under one rubric. Right now, I there are at least five different approaches to studying blogs that I’d like to see explored in more depth, and I suspect that readers here will add a few more.
Forshortened, here are the five areas:1. First, study of the form itself.
2. Second, related to the last bit above, is the study of interactions between blogs and blog authors, and the clusters (or communities) that are forming in this context.
3. Third, the kind of ethnographic studies that I referenced above, but done not in “the blogosphre” (if there is such a thing) as a whole, but in those clusters and communities that we’re able to identify.
4. Fourth, analysis of the content and style used in weblogs.
5. Fifth, study of the use of weblogs as tools in specific organizational contexts.
I'd add, of course, how people bridge between blogs and other tools - the wiki/blog combo has gotten some attention recently, but there is more. How does our RSS reader experience influence the community formation between blogs, for example? The tools shape the culture and the culture shapes the tools.
posted by Nancy White at 3:25 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Nancy, i would add that there is much to be unerstood around the 'sense of audience' and i believe that this would be athread of reserach in its own right. By this, I am thinking of the intrinsic difference between 'communty software' that we are all used to that to or greater or lesser extent makes communities private and the extent of the audience bounded. By contrast, Blogs are 'out there' and anyone with Internet access and a browser can take a read. Does tis matter? Does tjis cahnge the nature of posts? Have we been too conseravtive in the past in believing that private communities are needed for 'disclosure' and getting to the real nitty gritty issues.
At the moment, IN NZ were are running a project with 15-19 year olds and this is one of the questions we are addressing. My gut resction is that kids won't give a dam, but maybe adults will?
Stphen, I think in this world there is a place for both the private and the open. I know I participate differently in each -- sometimes to a subtle degree. What you will find about kids will be interesting. And I wonder how it will change over time as the world changes around them.
It's all a flow from where I sit!
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