Internet research

Internet research is the practice of using the Internet for research. To the extent that the Internet is widely and readily accessible to hundreds of millions of people, in many parts of the world, and can provide practically instant information on most topics, it is has a profound impact on the way in which ideas are formed and knowledge is created.

Research is a broad term. Here, it is used loosely to include any activity where a topic is identified, and an effort is made to actively gather information for the purpose of furthering understanding (no matter how trivial-seeming the subject).

Prior to the Internet, and particularly, the World Wide Web, print - books, magazines, newspapers, and other printed publications - was the primary source of in-depth information in the most of the world. In print, the book is the basic research unit. Consulting several books on a topic, and related subjects, was the usual research method for most people.

Compared to the Internet, print physically limits access to information. A book has to be identified, then actually obtained. On the Net, the Web can be searched, and typically hundreds or thousands of documents can be found on a topic, within seconds. In addition, email (including mailing lists), online discussion forums (aka message boards, BBS's), and other personal communication facilities (instant messaging, IRC, newsgroups, etc) provide direct access to experts and other individuals with relevant interests and knowledge.

As the Internet continues to expand, Internet research could become the predominant mode of informing ourselves. More people will form ideas based on what they believe is their active "research" ("looking it up", "reading up about it"), rather than more-or-less passively (environmentally) acquired information (the daily news, "someone told me about", "saw an article on").

However, though books are nowadays produced using a digital version of the content, for most books such a version is not available on internet. Thus, not all valuable information is on internet.

Questions & Notes

• Print articles are appearing with a bibiliography entirely referencing online sources (ie: written using only Web resources) - is this "credible"? Is an article trusted more, or less, or the same?
• How can the quality of available information measured? (ie: On a practical level, given a range of everyday subjects, what is the difference between the available info found by visiting a fair-sized library, and on the Web?)
• Trusted sources: how can info be vetted? (eg. AskFactMaster.Com)
• What effect does keyword/key phrase searching (combined with instant access) have on the way information is located?
• Facts and figures: What percentage of "essential" texts are available online? What materials are available only online (eg: full text of out-of-print books)? How has the (non-fiction) print publishing business been affected?
• How have people's active research habits been changed (seeking specific info, vs passive "research" from, for example, current media and casual conversation)?
• What effect is the availability of Internet research having on regular people (not students, professional researchers, etc) - are people feeling more empowered? Putting more thought into things? Is the level of expectation for factual presentations (eg: the nightly news) affected?

Methodology

There are a number of research methodologies that are recommended for Internet Research including:

1. Visual Ethnography 2. Content Analysis 3. Discourse Analysis 4. Statistical Sampling 5. Survery Research 6. Action Research 7. Marxist Approaches 8. Habermasian (Public Sphere Approaches)

Internet Research Ethics

Internet Research Ethics is becoming more important now that Institutional Research Boards (IRBs) are having to approve research in Universities.

Broadly speaking there are the following ethical approaches

1. Consequentialist (Or Utilitarian) Ethics

2. Deontological Ethics

3. Ethics of Care

4. Open Source Ethics

References

Some useful reference texts are:

Anscombe, G. E. M. (1958). Modern Moral Philosophy. Philosophy, 33.

AoIR. (2001). Ethics Working Committee: Preliminary Report for Ethics, from http:/aoir.org/reports/ethics.html

Berry, D. M. (2004). Internet Research: Privacy, Ethics and Alienation - An Open Source Approach. The Journal of Internet Research, 14(4).

Boehlefeld, S. (1996). Doing the Right Thing: Ethical Cyber Research. The Information Society, 12(2)(2).

Ess, C. (2001). Internet Research Ethics, from http://www.nyu.edu/projects/nissenbaum/projects_ethics.html

Jones, S. (1999). Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net. London: Sage.

King, S., A. (1996). Researching Internet Communities: Proposed Ethical Guidelines for the Reporting of Results. The Information Society, 12(2)(2).

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