A reflection on the article Virtual Ethnography by Christine Hines

http://www.scribd.com/doc/9525221/Hine?secret_password=qpbbu5ew2t4j408ir93

This entry is referring to the article above on Virtual Ethnography by Christine Hines.

Hines presents some very pragmatic ideas on how to approach ethnography in such a recent, uncharted environment as the internet. Although it seemed that much of her writing on the historical aspects of ethnography were a bit redundant, it was important that she built up a context for her ideas on how digital ethnographies should be conducted. One of the most difficult hurdles is in reexamining this new media on its own terms instead of referring to mental schemas we have already formed (pre-internet or by tradition), on how people should interact and what technology is useful. It would be more fruitful to understand that never has humankind seen such communication, and therefore human identity, relationships, and ideas etc. will too be like almost nothing we have seen before. The renaissance was a cultural and intellectual revolution, the industrial age was technological progress, but none of the revolutions before now have had All components of cultural and technological change so easily attainable, rapidly progressing, until the internet.

In digital ethnography I think it is extremely important to evaluate the reasons for which certain media are adapted and some are discarded. This could shed some light on HOW the cultures connected are changing and if and how there is a "superculture" emerging within the web since it is not constricted by space or time (unfathomable until just recently) It is also crucial to focus on how this web of information will affect future generations' overall knowledge about the world.

Hines' most important acknowledgment is that anthropology and any other field studying the internet, and arguably almost any other social construct that has been affected by this technology, must adapt the ethnography or study to fit into this intangible sphere of reality. I agree with Hines that a virtual ethnography will necessarily have to be extremely dynamic and multi-disciplinary in order to be accurate.