Note: this blog text was co-created in etherpad by Visci and Somus researchers.
(Pe3): ‘oh, is everyone talking about these issues together for the first time’?
The day-long event on research methods for social media (seminar and workshops) on 31 August was a success. Approximately 90 participants from a wide range of disciplines gathered to discuss on social media research and methodology at the Aalto University School of Science and Technology in Otaniemi. The seminar was organized by Visci and Somus projects and funded by the Academy of Finland MOTIVE program.
The day consisted of three inspiring keynote lectures and plentyful of interesting discussions inspired of them. The discussions continued in the afternoon workshops within the themes of net ethnography, social networks and user research.
Lisbeth Klastrup (IT University Copenhagen) stressed the need for a nuanced vocabulary of ”user” behaviours. According to her it is also important to note that social media presence differs from social media participation – hence it is crucial to look at what users don’t do, and even the “slurker” behaviours (so called “click-readers” of social media). People engage in social media for various uses and thus it is dangerous to consider social media/networking service (SNS) users as one public. Furthermore, one should not forget the non-users who are the majority of all people! There is also a need to grasp on different dimensions of online participation in research. When people enter social media with their different social and cultural identities they should be perceived as such, not only for instance as users.
Jaakko Suominen (University of Turku) encouraged the use of triangulation – mixing of several methods to get better results – since we are in some ways dealing with an uncertain and undefined research area. Jaakko also warned about the ethical issues such as “community abuse”.
Minna Isomursu’s (VTT) speech also touched on research ethics, one of the themes that created a lot of discussion. The questions concerned how to gather research material online ethically, how to deal with semi-private co-created material, for instance Facebook discussion, and how to blend in communities. It seems that so far there are no clear guidelines for the researchers working with online empiria.
Social media also changes the way, how research can be done together with people (users, participants, audience). New kinds of roles and relationships between researcher and participants emerge, when former research subjects become co-researchers. It was discussed in the seminar, how the users should be acknowledged of being part of co-creation and how scientific practices, like publishing, may need reconsideration.
One of the aims of both Visci and Somus methodologically is to work online, and so the seminar was videostreamed online. At the same time, keynote lectures were reported and discussed also in Qaiku microblogging channel (http://www.qaiku.com/channels/show/someme/). The workshops used etherpads as working platforms. These enabled the following and also attending the seminar online.
We hope that the seminar function as a start for the increase of interest in social media research methodology. Clearly the main function of the seminar was not to provide clear answers to existing questions but rather to collect issues, perspectives and questions for further discussion and scrutiny.
The seminar could also be attended via social media. During the morning there were about 30 viewers of the video stream. Some of these were probably present and some were remote participants.
The presentation slides and discussion logs can be found here:
Lisbeth Klastrup: Users are Useless – Some Reflections by a Social Media Researcher
slides: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1714470/someme/klastrup-someme-slides.ppt
discussion: http://www.qaiku.com/go/8kmo/
Jaakko Suominen: How do you do, Social Media? On triangulation matrixes and everyday research practices
slides: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1714470/someme/suominen-social-media-methods.ppt
discussion: http://www.qaiku.com/go/8kmp/
Minna Isomursu: Social Media in User Research: Immersion, Privacy and Contribution
slides: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1714470/someme/isomursu-SocialMediaWorkshop0810.ppt
discussion: http://www.qaiku.com/go/8kmq/
Panel discussion: http://www.qaiku.com/go/8kms/
Afternoon workshop notes
Net etnography http://somus.etherpad.vtt.fi/159
Social networks at the net http://somus.etherpad.vtt.fi/161
User research http://somus.etherpad.vtt.fi/163
During the morning session we started collecting links and references based on the keynotes and discussions. You can access (and continue) the list here. http://somus.etherpad.vtt.fi/166
We always aim to improve our activities. Therefore, please remember to give your feedback for the event. http://tiny.cc/feedback_form
