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Ethnochat: an instant messenger program for ethnography

Published: 04 April 2009 Publication History

Abstract

This paper describes the design of Ethnochat, an instant messaging (IM) program built for ethnographers to conduct computer-mediated, semi-structured or unstructured interviews. To our knowledge, this is the first program of its kind. Ethnographic techniques are becoming a common method to investigate social interactions and settings in digital contexts, and this creates a demand for a proper tool with which ethnographers can practice their craft. This paper details the design and articulates how Ethnochat will have significant implications for HCI practice.

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Dourish, P. Responsibilities and implications: Further thoughts on ethnography and design. In Proc. DUX 2002, ACM Press (2002), 2--16.
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Fontes, T.O., & O'Mahony, M. (2008). In-depth interviewing by instant-messaging. Social Research Update. http://sru.soc.surrey.ac.uk/SRU53.pdf
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Kazmer, M. M., & Xie, B. (2008). Qualitative interviewing in internet studies: Playing with the media, playing with the method. Information, Communication & Society, 11(2), 257--278.
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Leong, T., Howard, S., & Vetere, F. Choice: Abdicating or exercising? In Proc. SIGCHI 2008, ACM Press (2008), 715--724.
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Mainwaring, S., March, W., & Maurer, B. From meiwaku to tokushita!: Lessons for digital money design from Japan. In Proc. SIGCHI 2008, ACM Press (2008), 21--24.
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Stieger, S., & Gööritz, A. S. (2006). Using instant messaging for internet-based interviews. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 9(5).
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Stieger, S., & Reips, U. (2008). Dynamic interviewing program (DIP): Automatic online interviews via the instant messenger ICQ. CyberPsychology & Behavior, 11(2), 201--207.
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Zotero: http://www.zotero.org/about/

Cited By

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  • (2020)Reflections on Using Chat-Based Platforms for Online Interviews with Screen-Reader UsersProceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3373625.3418000(1-4)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2020

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI EA '09: CHI '09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2009
    2470 pages
    ISBN:9781605582474
    DOI:10.1145/1520340
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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    Published: 04 April 2009

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    Author Tags

    1. ethnography
    2. evaluation methods
    3. instant messaging
    4. online interviews

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    CHI EA '09 Paper Acceptance Rate 385 of 1,130 submissions, 34%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,164 of 23,696 submissions, 26%

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    • (2020)Reflections on Using Chat-Based Platforms for Online Interviews with Screen-Reader UsersProceedings of the 22nd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3373625.3418000(1-4)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2020

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