11 April 2005
Ethnographic research
The ethnographic research that I have conducted regarding online communities, was mostly a covert opperation. Although I participated in many forums on the www.inthemix.com.au site, I did not specificly ask questions relating to online communities. What I did find is that geographical location did play a rather significant role in participation on this site. I mainly focused on the Brisbane part of this site because that's where I am primarily allocated everytime I log on. It seems this suits many participants who are mostly discussing which music events are coming up in Brisbane. This partly surprised me because music is such an international language. I would have expected that the discussions would not concern where the participants were located geographicly. This demonstrates to me that music is not just something to be shared over the internet for the comfort of private listening. People still need that physical presence of being able to go to a communal event and feel the music together. In this way the online community was able to transfer enthusiasm for music into participation or at least attendance at music festivals at various locations. Geography does still matter online.
