Comments on: On Issue crawler, key informants and black boxes http://vksethno.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/on-issue-crawler-key-informants-and-black-boxes/ moments, movements and memories of ethnographers at the VKS Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:57:21 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Jane http://vksethno.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/on-issue-crawler-key-informants-and-black-boxes/#comment-201 Jane Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:38:18 +0000 http://vksethno.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/on-issue-crawler-key-informants-and-black-boxes/#comment-201 Hi there, Just a quick reaction: As far as I know Issue Crawler is a great tool for tracing Web debates, but what I missed in this blog is a link to the actual tool, developed by Richard Rogers et al. Please, see for more info at: http://www.govcom.org/publications.html cheers, Jane Hi there,
Just a quick reaction:
As far as I know Issue Crawler is a great tool for tracing Web debates, but what I missed in this blog is a link to the actual tool, developed by Richard Rogers et al. Please, see for more info at: http://www.govcom.org/publications.html

cheers,
Jane

]]> By: Elisenda http://vksethno.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/on-issue-crawler-key-informants-and-black-boxes/#comment-21 Elisenda Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:45:15 +0000 http://vksethno.wordpress.com/2007/06/13/on-issue-crawler-key-informants-and-black-boxes/#comment-21 Yeah! the question about maps as tools for representing "the field" are really intriguing and fascinating. The problems we were discussing were of different textures. As analysts, if maps represent relationships among "things" in terms of space and distances between "locations": first, we have to know and understand the parameters by which software like Issue Crawler or Touch Graph identify and relate different "sites", and how these relations are graphically represented. Second, we have to learn how we must interpret these graphics. And, third, we have to give meaning to the results. As ethnographers, we can also study how people are using these kind of maps, for example, to legitimate some claims about collective identity, influence, power or social networking. In this sense, we cannot interpret a network of hiperlinks as a representation of a social network, but may be some people we study with, do. For me, another interesting example realted with Adolfo's work is to see how the "blogsphere" can be "materialized" by this exercise of mapping, and how maps can be used to pretend that they describe its shape. By the way, I am just getting familiar with Issue Crawler and I cannot evaluate it, yet. I only have been playing with Touch Graph, and until now, the results show no clear evidences that it will be useful for our online ethnographies, more than Google itself can be. But... Yeah! the question about maps as tools for representing “the field” are really intriguing and fascinating. The problems we were discussing were of different textures. As analysts, if maps represent relationships among “things” in terms of space and distances between “locations”: first, we have to know and understand the parameters by which software like Issue Crawler or Touch Graph identify and relate different “sites”, and how these relations are graphically represented. Second, we have to learn how we must interpret these graphics. And, third, we have to give meaning to the results. As ethnographers, we can also study how people are using these kind of maps, for example, to legitimate some claims about collective identity, influence, power or social networking. In this sense, we cannot interpret a network of hiperlinks as a representation of a social network, but may be some people we study with, do. For me, another interesting example realted with Adolfo’s work is to see how the “blogsphere” can be “materialized” by this exercise of mapping, and how maps can be used to pretend that they describe its shape.

By the way, I am just getting familiar with Issue Crawler and I cannot evaluate it, yet. I only have been playing with Touch Graph, and until now, the results show no clear evidences that it will be useful for our online ethnographies, more than Google itself can be. But…

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