tavie.com

I was talking to J-Dawg yesterday about his experiences on the internet, which seemed to run an interesting sort of parallel to my own, and I'd like to pick his brain some more. It's funny how I can snap into anthropologist mode when I want to. It's hard to know when it sounds like I'm being nosy, because what I'm being is just curious. I wonder how real anthropologists deal with that. I guess it's about context. When you're engaged in an "official" researcher-informant relationship, you can probe in the interest of science; when you're just asking people about their experiences on the internet, you run the risk of sounding nosy. I think what saves that is that people generally love to talk about themselves if someone is genuinely interested.

It's interesting because it seems to be that despite all the time he's spent on the internet, in forums relating to his topic of interest, that interest was so specific, and somehow... productive?... that it doesn't seem like a sense of "community" was felt among the participants. I want to know things like what specific forums he visited, with what frequency, did he get to know anyone in them outside of the context of the topic of interest, and if not, why does he think not... I've been so focused on what makes an internet community that I haven't been looking at what doesn't make one.

I'd sort of like to hear a lot more about that from other people, too. When I was talking to Gina's Al-Franken-blog friends, I got the very specific sense of a community bond from them. The cybertalk shifted naturally from politics to other things and back, and personalities emerged through the talk. Whereas if someone is in a forum that's dedicated to, say, sharing guitar tablature, you're not, I suppose, going to see the talk deviate much from the topic at hand. What's the difference?

And what do I mean by productive? What do I mean at all?

I'm babbling.

I have an crumb of an idea that I'm toying with. I want to try and develop the kind of questionnaire I wrote about in my cyberanthro research proposal last year. I wonder, if I was able to come up with one, if any of you would mind being my guinea pigs?

I don't know why. It's not for a grade; I'm done with my anthro classes and if I ever go to grad school for something like this, it will be way in the future. I'm afraid of it. I'm not... I don't want to say smart, but I'm definitely not disciplined enough to be a real anthropologist. All that writing...

Maybe I just want to see if I can do it. Amateur science. Can you imagine me playing at scientist? Or being an academic for the rest of my life? Can you imagine me being anything?

If anyone has any ideas of what kinds of questions would be helpful in uncovering people's experiences with online community (or lack of!), shoot 'em at me. I don't know why I want this sort of data, but I do. Maybe just to see if I can sustain my own interest. I don't expect to "learn" anything, but it might help me get an idea of what the point of any of this could be...

Where the hell is Ade? I need my mentor right now.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 6:54 PM | shower me with attention