Early-stage research questions in socio-technical internet research, interest areas and possible theoretical cornerstones - in preparation for a workshop in the context of IR10 - Association of Internet Researchers, Annual Meeting 2009.

1. Engaging Multidisciplinarity in Sociotechnical Internet Research
Pre-conference workshop at IR10 on 7th October 2009
AoIR annual meeting and conference in Milwaukee, WI, USA
Conference http://ir10.aoir.org/
Workshop http://sociotech.net/wiki/index.php?title=IR_10.0_Workshop
* Current affiliation and position:
Graduate Student -
MSc Social Research Methods + MA Online and Distance Education
@ Institute of Educational Technology (IET), Open University, UK
* A list of research questions that currently interests you - especially
early-stage research questions:
How can informal learning processes contribute to second level digital literacies?
Hargittai identified as second level digital divide (2002 the ability to use the medium
effectively but we also require skills in developing more advanced [online] social and
cultural competencies.
Which mental model is best suited to support participatory cultures that are marked
by inclusiveness, social responsibility and self-regulation?
How can national societies and online cross-national communities harness affinity
[online] spaces that are marked by low barriers as to sharing and creating of content
in order to facilitate peer-to-peer support cultures?
What practices contribute to exclusive online space and the formation of online "gated
communities”? What practices can help counter this effectively and cross-culturally?
What strategies, practices and mechanisms foster participatory cultures which
empower online communities? Which of them have spill-over effects in offline life?
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Britta Bohlinger
http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com

2. * A list of phenomena in the world that currently interests you, that you
would like to study. This can be combined with the above list:
1. ethical standards: respect, intellectual property/attribution in a [not fully] globalised
context
2. cross-cultural interaction among online users – fostering understanding or hostility
and increasing stereotyping?
3. [academic] data sharing and [online collaborative] data collection by utilisation of new
open methods (c.f. Helen Barrett’s Open Collaborative Action Research Project on
web 2.0 and ePortfolios http://electronicportfolios.org/web2researchdesign.html )
4. ways to introduce micro-rewarding mechanisms in academic research (incentives to
promote participatory culture, resulting in sharing research with public ‘crowds’)
5. ways to reduce institutional barriers in order to facilitate interdisciplinary research
* A list of theories or theoretical perspectives that you find interesting
or that you currently use in your work:
1. Power and knowledge production: Michel Foucault (c.f also hybrid
producer/consumer roles, ‘produsage’)
2. Self and Other, Identity construction in mediated spaces: Erving Goffman, Anthony
Giddens, Stuart Hall
3. Social Capital (cultural capital, economic capital, symbolic capital): Pierre Boudieu
* A list of methods that you use or would like to use in your work:
1. ethnographic (including auto-ethnographic) research
2. participant observation
3. in-depth focus-group interviews (participant validated)
4. content analysis (participant validated)
5. self-administered online survey/questionnaire
6. 2ndary data analysis (based on large scale online surveys)
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Britta Bohlinger
http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com

3. * One (or more) favorite reading(s) on socio-technical/social informatics or
multidisciplinary research:
Ess, C (2009) Digital Media Ethics, Cambridge: Polity Press.
http://www.polity.co.uk/digitalmediaandsociety/bookinfo_dme.aspx
c.f. also http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/blog/2009/01/charles-ess-digital-media-ethics.html
Hargittai, E. (2007). Whose space? Differences among users and non-users of social network sites.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), article 14.
Available http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/hargittai.html [22 September 2009]
Jenkins, H (2009) [official blog]
If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead (Part Three): The Gift Economy and Commodity Culture
(Part three of an eight part series. The report written by Henry Jenkins, Xiaochang Li, Ana Domb
Krauskopf With Joshua Green)
Available http://henryjenkins.org/2009/02/if_it_doesnt_spread_its_dead_p_2.html
[22 September 2009]
* One favorite reading highlighting method (either by example or
description) for socio-technical/social informatics or multidisciplinary
research. We intend to use the readings to build a core reading list
relating to this activity and thus a resource for students:
Hargittai, E & Walejko, G (2008) The Participation Divide: Content Creation and Sharing in the Digital
Age. Information, Communication and Society.11(2):239-256.
Available http://www.eszter.com/research/pubs/A23.Hargittai.Walejko-ParticipationDivide.pdf
(22 September 2009)
Wilson, Brian. (2006) Ethnography, The Internet and Youth Culture: Strategies for Examining Social
Resistance and ‘Online-Offline’ Relationships. Canadian Journal of Education, 29(1), 307-328
Available http://www.csse.ca/CJE/Articles/FullText/CJE29-1/CJE29-1-wilson.pdf
(22 September 2009)
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Britta Bohlinger
http://britbohlinger.wordpress.com