Etnografie in de virtuele wereld

KWALON ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harald Warmelink ◽  
Joost Beuving ◽  
Fred Wester
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Virtual Ethnography ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Organization Science

Ethnography in the virtual world: a methodological struggle (with introduction and debate) Ethnography in the virtual world: a methodological struggle (with introduction and debate) The author discusses problems in the ethnographic study of online, virtual worlds through a presentation of his research of the internet game EVE Online. It attracts many millions of players worldwide, who navigate in a sciencefiction type of environment in which they compete for dominant positions and scarce resources. The author problematizes three aspects of EVE, that are relevant for discussions of ethnography in online, virtual worlds: (1) the place of interaction, (2) the design of the game, and (3) access to the EVE corporations: organisational units in which players collaborate. Based on this, the author advocates a novel methodological approach in the study of online, virtual worlds, which he terms ‘virtual-organisational ethnography’. It combines elements of organization science and Christine Hine’s virtual ethnography, and that presents a step away from classical ethnography. Fred Wester and Joost Beuving present a reply to the article, and the author responds to this.

scholarly journals The Internet as a field and a means in contemporary ethnological and anthropological research

2011 ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Gordana Blagojevic
Keyword(s):  
Virtual World ◽  
Electronic Mail ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Digital Culture ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Virtual Ethnography ◽  
Existing Structures ◽  
Cyber Culture ◽  
Anthropological Research

Cyber culture (synonyms for this term are: virtual culture, digital culture, net culture and the like) represents a multidisciplinary field of research. This paper focuses on the ways in which contemporary Internet technologies are used in ethnological and anthropological research. While studying cyber culture one needs to take into consideration the relativity of the division into virtual and real. The so-called virtual communities are often more real to their users than certain constructed communities from the so-called real reality. The Internet can be observed as a field and as a means for conducting research. Anthropologists introduced virtual ethnography as a conceptual and methodological approach to studying cyber culture. However, if we speak of actual scientific research, the term virtual ethnography is not an adequate one. The examined contents and communication with examinees are real. The other possible term is ethnography of the virtual world, but this term is not precise enough either, since the 'virtual world' is not limited only to the Internet. In my opinion, the most adequate terms are ethnography of the Internet and anthropology of the Internet. The Internet as a terrain for ethnological and anthropological research can be observed on several levels. Available information can be used as a data base, but also as material for analysis of existing textual, visual and audio contents. Previous research results show that in analyzing Internet phenomena one needs to take into consideration their physical background as well. Otherwise, the total context is lost. People with many different local identities enter the global cyber space. In this way cyber communities often portray the existing structures of relations. The Internet can be used both for establishing contacts with distance examinees and collecting data by methods of polls (by using electronic mail) and interviews (by using a camera and Skype). Theoretically speaking, a researcher who has access to fast Internet is able to contact examinees from different parts of the world (although they must also have access to the Internet). The advantages and faults of this kind of research conduct are viewed here as compared to research that demands immediate contact with examinees.

scholarly journals Virtual Goods: Good for Business?

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nic Mitham
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
User Experience ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Online Communities ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Good For ◽  
Mini Games

Whilst 2008 saw the emergence of the virtual worlds sector, 2009 has to be called the year of the virtual good. With online destinations such as social networks seeing a creation of brand-new revenue steams and virtual worlds ‘giving the users want they want’, the virtual goods sector is one of the fastest growing areas of the Internet. In its most popular form, virtual goods relate to accessories for avatars–clothing, hair and other person-related apparel. These are purchased by users to customize their appearance and are popular across all types of virtual worlds, from kids and tweens right through grown-up worlds and also apply across all genres. There is an incumbent demand for users to want to change andcontrol how they are seen in virtual worlds. But virtual goods don’t just include avatar appearance customization. Online communities are learning how to monetize all aspects of the user experience, including the ability, for example, to buy a bespoke user name or access specific areas inside a virtual world. On the SocNet side, virtual goods are being used to great effect with social/mini-games, providing ‘tools’ to complete a game faster/level-up.

Comparing situated sense-making processes in virtual worlds

2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
CarrieLynn D. Reinhard ◽  
Brenda Dervin
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Media Reception

What happens when a person engages with a virtual world? Are there unique processes of engagings that occur? One approach to understanding how a person makes sense of a virtual world is to compare the engaging processes with other media technologies, focusing on situated performative and interpretive sense-makings. This article reports on a study conducted to compare how novices make sense of four media technologies: film, console videogames, massively multiplayer online role-playing games, and social virtual worlds. Using Dervin’s Sense-Making Methodology (SMM) and our conceptualization of media reception situations, we extracted five potential overlapping sense-making concepts to make comparisons that do not presume a priori the influences of characteristics of technologies and other structures. The five comparative concepts all focus on situated sense-making processes. Our purpose in this article is not to present a full study report but rather to illustrate the methodological approach used in the data collection/production and analysis of the study. Results of our analyses indicate the complexity of media reception situations, how they converged and diverged, and how they involve multiple potential influences on media reception outcomes.

A changing environment: the virtual world meets the physical world

1999 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-306
Author(s):  
William Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Environments ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Physical World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
And Function ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

With the coming of computers and the Internet, the relationship of the physical and virtual worlds has shifted. Virtual environments will not replace physical ones, but the nature, location, and function of the latter will change, creating both challenges and opportunities for architects.

scholarly journals Virtually Friends: An Exploration of Friendship Claims and Expectations in Immersive Virtual Worlds

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brooke Foucault Welles ◽  
Tommy Rousse ◽  
Nick Merrill ◽  
Noshir Contractor
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Friendship Formation ◽  
Recent Scholarship

Recent scholarship suggests that immersive virtual worlds may be especially well suited for friendship formation on the Internet. Through 65 semi-structured interviews with residents in highly-populated portions of the virtual world Second Life, we explore the nature of friendship within the immersive virtual world, examining friendship claims and expectations and the specific features of the virtual world that enable friendships to emerge. Results reveal that friendships in Second Life are common but not necessarily dependent on features such as co-presence and shared activities that are unique to the virtual world. Instead, frequent, text-based communication facilitates the emergence and maintenance of friendship in Second Life.

On the Internet, Everyone Knows You're a Dog.A Review Essay

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 997-1007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilana Gershon
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Phone Call ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Virtual Spaces

Ethnographers of new media face a challenge nowadays because they write about technologies people love to discuss and about which journalists love to write. They often find themselves writing against myths about digital media users that other digital media scholars, journalists, and even people interviewed hold in common. In the first decade of Internet research, skeptical scholars often wrote against assumptions about how social practices in virtual spaces differed from offline practices (see Dibbell 1998; Turkle 1995; Stone 1996). They were critiquing many of the premises that accompany an understanding of the virtual as “spaces or placesapart fromthe rest of social life” (Miller, Slater, and Suchman 2004: 77) in which people were supposedly experimenting with new forms of sociality and identity. While these debates continue to haunt more recent ethnographies of virtual worlds (see Boellstorff 2008; Nardi 2010; Taylor 2006), critical scholars of new media are now also addressing commonly held assumptions about the Internet when its use is explicitly understoodnotto be part of a sociality distinct from offline life. Indeed, the Internet now is taken to be a collection of interfaces for gathering information and conversing with other people—web-based communication can be as integrated into daily life as a phone call or reading a book (for an ethnographic study, see Gershon 2010). This transition from taking the Internet to be virtual to seeing the Internet as a collection of channels of communication has brought with it a new set of widespread presuppositions that ethnography is particularly adept at critiquing.

scholarly journals Interconnecting virtual worlds

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonel Morgado
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Web Browsing

The argument is put forward that current virtual worlds find themselves in a situation akin to that of BBS systems in the 1980s and 1990s vis-à-vis the Internet. A reflection from the technical viewpoint on the similarities between Web browsing and virtual world navigation is made, and to conclude a set of requirements for interconnection of virtual worlds and what that may achieve are made.

CYBERBULLYING: STUDENT’S BEHAVIOR IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Nur Wangid
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Mobile Phones ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Random Sampling ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Negative Behaviors ◽  
At Home

Abstract: Concerning about student’s negative behaviors in using of the internet encouraged the survey to describe the behavior of students in the virtual world. The sample consisted of 497 students, consisting of 336 women and 161 men, taken by proportional random sampling. Instruments of data collection using questionnaire. The results showed that mobile phones become the primary tool in the move to the internet is more widely used to send the message. Using internet lasting for more  two hours per day, and carried anywhere. Activities at home is higher than the on-campus in the surf. Most students use the internet to find the source of the task, followed by activities on facebook. Three major forms of cyberbullying behaviors students were  outing, flaming and harassment. While experience as a victim of cyberbullying was in the form of flaming, harassment, and cyber-stalking.Keywords: cyberbullying; students behavior 

scholarly journals Beyond Being There: A Grounded Investigation of the Value of Virtual Worlds for Remote Family Interaction

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lizzy Bleumers ◽  
An Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Family Members ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Family Interaction ◽  
Interdisciplinary Project ◽  
Remote Interaction ◽  
Being There ◽  
At Home

In our interdisciplinary project, HI-Masquerade, we investigated the potential of virtual worlds for remote interaction between family members of different generations. In this paper, we report on this study. Our methodological approach consisted of two components. We presented storyboards, visualizing use scenarios, to family members. In addition, we let these family members use a virtual world application at home. By doing so, we triggered both assumption- and experience-based reflection on the sense of using virtual worlds for family interaction. Our findings show that while family members have concerns about virtual worlds (e.g., possible replacement of real life activities), they also see opportunities (e.g., learning together). Family members felt that the virtual world that they had used was not a suitable platform for remote family interaction. Nevertheless, they appreciated the increased offline interaction that it generated because it helped to bridge the children’s and adults' worlds.

scholarly journals Meeting in the Ether: A brief history of virtual worlds as a medium for user-created events

1970 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Damer
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Second Life ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Human Presence ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education Business ◽  
Active Worlds

Virtual worlds, shared graphical spaces on the Internet, are an exciting new medium of human presence for the 21st Century. This article explores the origins, evolution and future of the virtual world medium from their humble beginnings in multi-player games to their use in education, business, science and engineering. Our focus will be on the development of social virtual worlds including environments such as Habitat, Active Worlds and Second Life.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document