ACTIVITY 9.3
Making Sense of Your Observations

After you have visited your virtual community for a given period of time, collected data, and taken extensive notes about your observations, you need to start making sense of what you've observed. That is, you need to analyze it. Remember, your goal is not merely to describe the community, that is, the "what," but rather to analyze some aspect of the community-the "so what?"

Step 1: Reflecting on Your Data and Observations

Launch your word processor and open a new file. Freewrite for as long as you can and address the following:

What are your initial impressions about your community? Is it friendly, social, intimidating, serious?

What are your initial impressions about the language the community uses? Do participants tend to use informal, speechlike language? Do they tend to use formal, "written-type" language? Is there a wide range of language styles?

To the best of your memory, what is the purpose of the community? Do members pretty much stick to the purpose, or do they stray often? What is the range of topics?

Are there any particular messages that you remember as being insightful, poignant, or which in some way or another had an effect on you?

Do any particular "characters" stick out in your mind?

Do any particular "events"-a flame war, the death or illness of a member, a blossoming on-line romance-stick out in your mind?

What impressions do you have about the social relations among the members of the group? Is there a wide range of participants, or do most of the participants have much in common in terms of gender, interests, occupation, and so on? Does one group seem to dominate another, such as males over females, technological experts over technological novices, content experts over content novices?

Step 2: Looking for Patterns

To this point you have hung around your virtual community, collected and categorized data, and reflected on your observations. Now you need to start looking in a more detailed fashion for patterns or themes that arise out of your data and observations. The most dominant of these patterns or themes may well become the focus of your analysis. Look back on your freewrite reflections and ask yourself the following:

Of all the observations you made, which two or three stick out most in your mind?

Were there any memorable flame wars?

Were there any examples of sexism, racism, ageism, classicism?

Who were the "best" writers in the community?

Who among the membership seemed difficult to understand?