Session on Performing Qualitative Interviews in SL

On Wednesday evening (June 9th), I attended a session on Interviewing in SL. It was a round table discussion on CAVE island (ARVEL group meeting place http://www.arvelsig.com/). I was a few minutes late as I struggled a bit to find it but I made it right after the introductions. Discussion ranged from whether to use text chat or audio for interviews to the need for some standard protocol to approach IRBs for in world research.

Some thoughts as to why one might choose to perform interviews in SL as opposed to RL:

1) Broader sample - diversity

2) Sense of presence - better than other social media

3) Individuals are free (as is the researcher) to show an imaginative representation of self - I would argue that one's avatar may even represent that person to a greater extent than their actual self?? - hmm this is one to consider

Someone mentioned the author Dennis Beck - writes about avatar presentation

*There was additional conversation regarding public vs. private envs and whether this is different on SL?

There was discussion as to whether the information in one's profile should be accessed / whether special permission is needed on IRB for this?

Seems to be lots of disagreement on IRB - no standardized procedure - ARVEL may work on pulling something together

A good suggestion that came up was to, as a researcher, create a blog or something of that nature describing yourself and your project - this could put participants at ease and allow them to understand your research goals - see you as a professional. I wonder if this could be done within SL?

The presenter for the session was Soleil Lemondrop. Though she was not a phenomenal presenter, I very much appreciated her expertise and was impressed with her willingness to engage attendees.