Joseph Reaglehttp://reagle.org/joseph/blog/method/coleman_2005Joseph Reaglehttp://reagle.org/joseph/blog/method/coleman_2005Copyright 2003-2010 Joseph Reagle
PyBlosxom http://pyblosxom.sourceforge.net/ 1.4.3 01/10/2008
2005-09-09T18:32:57ZColeman, History v. Ethnographyhttp://reagle.org/joseph/blog/2005/09/09/coleman_20052005-09-09T18:32:57Z2005-09-09T18:32:57Z
<p>Yesterday I read a <a href="http://healthhacker.org/biella/coleman-chapter-six.pdf">chapter</a> from Gabriella Coleman's dissertation on the Debian community. (She <a href="http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0406/02_Coleman-Hill.php">co-authored a piece</a> with <a href="http://mako.cc/">Mako</a> in the M/C Journal issue in which I wrote about <a href="http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0406/06_Reagle.rft.php">open content communities</a>.) I was quite excited to read it because it reminded me of another paper had just read a couple days ago by Tom Chance -- sharing themes of
hacker culture -- but more importantly because it includes many the
same questions I have about my own community, the Wikipedia. My
inspiration and template of sorts has been Michael Sheeran's study of the Quaker community.
However, that dissertation is nearly 30 years old and has no
theoretical or methodological text. (And while I hope to not linger on
those things in my own dissertation, I have to have a sense of them in
order to write it!) In particular, both Sheeran and Coleman conduct a
combination of history and ethnography. </p>
<p>In my case, I've been wondering if my project is:</p>
<ul>
<li>an ethnography, but of notable and public persons and events -- so purposefully anonymizing is inappropriate.</li>
<li>a history, but of a community and work that is ~5 years old.</li>
<li>an oral history, but the majority of the material is not be oral but textual (e.g., email, Web pages, IRC, etc.).</li>
</ul>
<p>It appears the Coleman did a mix of both. When referring to the "public
history," she names names where appropriate; but, developer interviews
are anonymous. However, there are some oddnesses which I find
confusing. For example when she speaks of the "Vancouver incident" she
quotes an e-mail, without citing its source. It's a <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2005/03/msg00012.html">well known email</a>,
and not citing it directly strikes me as odd. I'd love to see
her methodology secion and IRB proposal. In fact, I hope to chat with
her soon. (Additionally, it appears she's studied religion and I wonder
if that would be relevant to my own interests in sectarian
decision making.)</p>
<p>While reading the dissertation, I made this little table comparing Debian and Wikipedia:</p>
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" >
<col /><col /><col />
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><br /></td>
<td>Debian (Coleman 2005)</td>
<td>Wikipedia (Reagle 2005)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>charter</td>
<td>social charter</td>
<td>"an Encyclopedia"</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>policy</td>
<td>Constitution</td>
<td>NPOV?</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>final arbiter</td>
<td>technical committee</td>
<td>arbitration committee/Jimbo</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>leadership</td>
<td>Democratic/meritocratic</td>
<td>Jimbo and meritocratic lieutenants</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>socialization</td>
<td>new maintainer sponsor mentorship</td>
<td>radically open</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>"witnessing"</td>
<td>one's biography and explanation of the policies in one's own words</td>
<td>user pages (or people describe how they came to and what Wikipedia means)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>decision making</td>
<td>contributed, discursive, and voting</td>
<td>discursive, persistent, and occasional voting (deletion)</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>