Field Notes Guidelines

These field notes should serve as a report of some of your experiences online exploring online communities. Ideally, you'll be reporting on your experiences with one or two communities over a period of a few weeks. If this is not possible, perhaps you can report on one or two online chat or icq experiences. (If you're feeling particularly adventurous, perhaps experiment with different "identities".)

• Your report should probably be around 3-4 pages types. You should be sure to include the following:
  1. Description of the "community" you worked in. Include its name, URL, who it's targeted for, etc.
  2. A summary of your interactions. What did you talk about, when, for how long, with whom. There's no need to be exhaustive, but you should give a sense of what goes on in your community.
  3. How is language used -- is there a "local dialect"?
  4. What classes or groupings of people do you observe? Do male and female users act similarly? What, if any, evidence of hierarchies do you see?
  5. Additional comments: Do you think the community functions as a community? On what basis do you make this judgement? Did you enjoy your time in the community?

• You should participate in the online community, not just observe silently.

• Your report need not be a polished essay. Rather, it should be in the style of field notes -- careful, thoughtful observations about what you're seeing and participating in.

Web page maintained by dave@hornacek.coa.edu.