Responding To Readings

Hines view of a methodology for virtual ethnography spoke to me. The need for a flexible method that no longer dresses up the research process as a form of observation that then collects data interprets and clunks out an end product that will speak the truth of the culture. The same could apply to a host of other disciplines and ways that research is taught. While not arming oneself with a predetermined answer the recognition that in the end a paper is rarely a linear process by which one comes to a conclusion that is either worth reading - and that people do not end up having to alter their beginning after they have finished the project.
So anyways - connectivity and flows as a method which involves entering the virtual and focusing on the meanings one finds within it. Hines writes that an ethnographer will never be able to do all the internet, and I do not think we should try to do all the internet. Could a user generated interactive live ethnographic experience - with also a self reflexive aspect possibly extend throughout the interwebs further?

Ethnography as Hines quotes Clifford & Marcus's Writing Culture is a story telling institution. So - what about letting history write a new story?
*another note I had while reading* Hines talks about the virtual environment as not being a boundary or space that can be temporally closed off - along with the ethnographic project, or subject. What happens when history itself is also less theorized linearly? No longer is their an authentic hope of finding an exact event but rather multiple interpretations of any one event - and many internet foresight was seen in the eyes of science fiction. It becomes possible to create new historical narratives - or literature reviews - or family trees etc. that are not based on what the grandparents said. History reveals itself as strategic - as does writing - I really appreciated the way Hines explained her method as a strategy -
In relation to my project....
When I ask is Anon a Woman? I ask because it is 1-strategic place for me to start - I have read more feminist work than not - I am defined as a woman in my 1st life when I walk into a room - And I can gain insight from this place - Also my original thought was that if women have been super visible or on display and look to how some despite constraints within society at the time were able to write, speak, etc. and enter the historical conversation that we may find they had to seek anonymity. Where men had the space and time and guise of man as the norm to hide - their speech was not in excess but expected - But this is not really just women, artists, revolutionaries, academics, writers of all genders, sexualities, races, have had to find strategies in response to the constraints around them in order to create.
So if identity theoretically--as man/woman ---than what strategies makes the / into a bird that can fly? ^
I think part of the answer lies in the bird ^ and in the flock. Benkin's reading of the internet as a new tool that does not mean the end of communication and family but rather a new grid of networking is important. At a rapid pace the possibilities to connect with others becomes possible. But just because it is possible does not mean people will seek out ways to use this. Throughout history those who had the determination and creativity were able to create networks with others that helped give them the freedom to live a life as they wished. In terms of me I have been strategically learning history and discovering the Ada Lovelaces, Mary Shelleys, Lynn Herschman, Helene Cixous - and maybe a future avatar who is already born or about to be? these are some of my tracings has inspired me to enter the technological world and seek out those who I want to work with like all of you digital ethnographers! I never really considered studying technology until I saw the web 2.0 video. Things clicked - and slowly or at the speed of light I am entering the online world in both research and my personal and creative life. This weekend I started making a virtual story inspired by our emails and a personal website on a easy pre done flash website and now I need to learn its flashy language- and I will. It is all only a click or maybe a lot a lot of clicks away, so lets get the world clicking?

So as I see right now I am looking at the subjectivity of the pirates - women - rebels etc to understand how despite either end anonmie - hypervisible - someone does anything at all. I think it requires a mix of the personal the past and the future.

I read that Whitehead article and I have things to say but realize I probably have already exhausted the reader. That article is super interesting. More later.

Articles Read-
Virtual Ethnography by Christine Hine
Chapter Ten of the Wealth of Networks by Yochai Benkler