Kozinets, Robert V., (2010) “Understanding Culture Online” from Kozinets, Robert V., Netnography : doing ethnographic research online pp.21-40, London: Sage

I thought this was one of the strongest points from Kozinets’ chapter. I thought this also demonstrated some of the issues I’ve been finding with this course, and as I start to try to think about my ethnography.

I’m a maker. Outside of the course, I blog from my postition as an insider, maintaining my networks of bloggers and readers across various social network platforms. I tweet regularly, and post original content regularly on Facebook and Instagram.

Inside the course, I have to be a Maker–blogging daily, tweeting; and I have to be a Networker–commenting on discussion boards, retweeting, video chatting, commenting on blogs etc. That’s easy, it just means I exist in a continuum where I have (or am trying to build) strong ties, and sometimes I’m the centre and sometimes I’m not.

But I’m about to move into a space where I need to be a Lurker, a Newbie. That’s a passive place to be, it’s a place where we have to not know. Of course it’s possible to be an ethnographer of your own group–but in this case I’m not. And I’d like to go slow, go gentle, step back, watch. Instead, I need to go in, go fast, and critically analyse what I’m seeing. I need to move my Newbie insights into Insider Maker insights pretty quickly–I need to produce an ethnography in a few weeks. That feels challenging.

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Hmmm, not so much a note-taking excercise this week as a personal reflection on a single aspect.