I volunteered to maintain a new collaborative blog (ASIST SIG-BWP) created to support the ASIST special interest group on blogs, wikis and podcasting. As its name shows, the blog will collect and post information related to blogs, wikis, and podcasting (news, conferences, resources, etc.)

In addition to being another read in the relevant area, for me it will be a great chance to be in the community of smart and like-minded people.

Media Bloggers Association is a non-partisan organization consisted of bloggers and writers, who are interested in the development of media blogging and emerging citizen journalism.

Following up on recent discussion at Blogher conference as well as many others on "where are female bloggers?", here are the numbers of males and females in this association (I might have incorrectly figured out one or two but I tried to check all unclear cases):

• Out of 27 founding members there are 23 males and 4 females.
• Out of 133 other members there are 112 males and 21 female.
• Therefore, out of 160 members of MBA 25 are women. It's 15.6%.

I don't have any particular point here but it'd be interesting to estimate how many female media bloggers are out there. Is it the actial gender ratio of media bloggers represented? Or is it something else? Women's indecision or reluctance to join? Lack of information among them? Other circles of media bloggers with more women in them?

Following some links from slashdot.org I found an interesting report on "The Economist" website on video games. From that report I found a very thorough study of the effects of violent fantasy role-playing games on young adults and adults by D. Williams and M. Skoric ("Internet Fantasy Violence: A Test of Aggression in an Online Game", 2005, Communication Monographs, 72 (2))

Hypotheses

1. Game play will result in beliefs more accepting of violent behaviors.
2. Game play will result in more aggressive social interactions.

Method

• 213 participants completed the whole study
  (characteristics of participants: 167 male, 45 female, 1 unstated; mean age 27.7 years, predominantly white (85%), male (84%), educated, and middle class (annual income $30,000-$40,000), which is consistent with the typical player profile from the previous literature)
• Power analysis method, aimed to detect medium or large differences between the treatment group (75) and the control group (138). Participants assigned to these groups randomly.
• The treatment group played MMRPG game Asheron's Call 2 (a game based on combat and conflict) for a month. The control group didn't play.
• Pre- and post-online test questionnaires collected demographic, behavioral and personality variables for both groups.
• Aggression-related beliefs were measured with the Normative Beliefs in Aggression (NOBAGS) general scale.
• Aggressive social interactions were measured with two questions: one asked if, in the past month, participants had had a serious argument with a friend; the other asked if they had had a serious argument with a partner.

Result

Some differences in percentages but nothing statistically significant. In one paragraph,

Despite a robust exposure that averaged 56 hours over the month of the study, the results did not support the hypotheses. Simple correlations between hours played and the three dependent variables [NOBAG, argument with a friend, argument with partner] were non-significant. In the controlled regressions, game play—controlling for gender, age, and time one aggression scores—was not a significant predictor of aggressive cognitions.

This article is a great contribution to the shift from prophecies and condemnations, which dominated the discourse on video and computer games, to empirically supported studies and thoughtful discussions.

According to its latest August 2005 report, Technorati tracks over 14.2 million blogs.

• The blogosphere continues to double about every 5.5 months
• Over 80,000 blogs created daily
• About 55% of all blogs are active
• About 13% of all blogs are updated at least weekly

More results are promised on Technorati weblog later on.

Virtual ethnography can be a way to combine content (discourse) analysis and interviewing people.

Thomsen et al. (1998) discuss methods to study online (virtual) communities and argue that to be rigorous and valid, the research should "triangulate" discourse analysis and interviews. The discussion starts with a question "are virtual communities "real" communities," i.e. do they have dense, systematic interpersonal relationships between members. The authors refer to the literature (Rheingold, Oldenburg, Jones) to demonstrate that the number of those who think virtual communities are in fact communities is growing.

To study online communities as communities it’s necessary to re-define the following concepts: social interaction (physical co-presence is not necessary for intimate quality interaction,) social bonds (close personal relationships can be built over computer-mediated communication,) and empirical experience (virtual encounters are incorporated into people’s daily, lived experiences.)

If the assumptions about virtual communities are re-defined, it’s possible to study them using ethnography. The focus of ethnography shifts toward textual analysis but other characteristics of the method remain. The legitimacy of observations and results depend on the researcher’s ability to immerse him/herself in the world of the observed. Textual analysis alone without interactions with people is not enough. Therefore it’s necessary to adapt the strategies of participant observation and compliment the textual analysis with interviews. Principles of participant observation applicable to studying online communities: prolonged engagement, persistent observations, use of “insiders” or informants, development of trust (this may be hard when dealing with dissimilar people).

Conclusion: the study of online communities can be methodologically rigorous, we need more discussion to develop the method.