Dental School

Drawing upon an ethnographic study of the sociability practices of a virtual community, this paper identifies certain paradoxical respects in which the ethnographer can be regarded as both present in and absent from the setting. By definition, virtual ethnography describes places that are not spaces. Disembodied persons inhabit those places. Negotiating access to the setting and core aspects of data collection seem to involve deskwork rather than fieldwork. The virtues of conventional fieldwork activities for virtual ethnography are outlined. In particular, it is the trust bred by face-to-face dealings that enable some of the practical obstacles that researchers face to be overcome. Trust founded in the face-to-face also helps deal with some ethical dilemmas. Online ethnographers still encounter difficulties in precisely identifying the boundaries of their research settings. However, there seems every reason for continuing to insist upon the application of traditional standards of ethnographic conduct and recognized criteria of adequacy in this new field.

This paper looks at the presentation of self in one online community through examining the organisation of the “talk” that goes on within an ISP specific newsgroup. It looks not at the spectacular identity play often described as taking place in virtual environments but rather at the management of identity in the everyday newsgroup interaction. The sense of community that exists in the newsgroup relies heavily on posters' ability to know with whom they are interacting. A practised familiarity with others allows members to understand the nature of their online relationships, assess the validity of information offered to them by others, and place in context comments and actions of other posters.
Unlike the often-fantastical environments of some synchronous online interaction, the identities enacted in the newsgroup are taken to be “real” in a serious sense. When messages are posted to the group or address individuals a level of trust is offered and expected between those involved in the group.
To this end rather than bending gender and pick-and-mixing personal histories people posting to RumCom.local consistently employ techniques for sharing and reinforcing details of their “real life” with those with whom they share asynchronous interaction. This paper describes and illustrates a number of these techniques by, in turn, exploring:
Display - the offering of background information on the self such as physical make-up, employment, family, etc.
Management - Declining to offer requested information on one's self, choosing to deliver it in a different forum (i.e. direct e-mail, selective IRC, etc.)
Orientation - which types of thread does a contributor to the group regularly contribute to or demonstrate an expertise in
Transtextuality - reference to TV programmes, books, music., web pages, etc.either because of it “says” something about the poster or displays cultural capital
Signature practices - text files appended to postings that reinforce the identity with quotations from favoured, reference to hobbies and interests, and, URLs of their own web pages
We argue that these devices are used to present a commonly acceptable self to those copresent in the newsgroup and to blur distinctions between on- and offline selves.