Issues in methods and reuse for hypermedia ethnography Presented at QUADS Showcase day September 28, 2006 Louise Corti

Work undertaken MIQDAS has been exploring the methodological implications of archiving, distributing and sharing multimedia qualitative data sets The project has been working with an existing multimedia data set in order to consider the interface between data sharing, research design and methodological decision making data generated and stored in a variety of media present particular challenges for effective, integrated and ethical archiving and potential reuse

Work the project has thus been able to build up a picture of the challenges, tasks and dilemmas involved in developing complex and contextualised qualitative data environments the difficulties confronting researchers wishing to archive methodological information and frameworks along with their datasets have been explored the volume, particularity and complexity of this information enhances the need to consider web- based and digital platforms for archiving and data sharing

Data used primary fieldwork was conducted during a previous project at an interactive science discovery centre, where our substantive research focus was based around the production and consumption of science in the context of an educative, entertainment setting methodological project designed to explore the possibilities of utilising digital and hypermedia technologies for qualitative work the fieldwork generated an extensive multimedia data set, archived in digital form - including audio and video materials, photographs, scanned documents and ethnographic fieldnotes the teams experiences of archiving multimedia qualitative data, alongside the provision of necessary methodological and contextual information underpin the MIQDAS project

Ethnographic Hypermedia previous project created an Ethnographic Hypermedia Environment (EHE) based on the ethnographic study of the science centre EHE - a multimedia, hyperlinked presentation created on DVD using XHTML. Includes both: representation – the ethnography Multimedia data set – cleaned and hyperlinked

EHE main page

MIQDAS outputs addressing the ethical dimensions of preparing multimedia qualitative data sets for reuse the provision of contextual information to enable appropriate reuse of qualitative data sets the challenges of archiving data generated and stored in a variety of media the possibilities and challenges of including analyses and interpretations as part of the archived material

Two guides produced Online Guide discusses and illustrates how researchers might document their methodology in a way that allows re-users to make the best use of the data generated Methods Trail illustrates the ways in which research design and methodological context can be included in preparing data for reuse

Online Guide uses exemplars to illustrate four major dilemmas that researchers preparing their data for re-use need to consider how to: ensure multimedia data can be contextualised so that inherent problems of ambiguity, data reduction and re- usability can be minimised decide upon what contextual information to provide, both methodological and substantive, and how best to describe it in relation to data generation issues organise the data-set in a way that allows re-users to identify data records, understand the evidence-base and navigate through the data-set tackle the ethical dimensions of deposition through considering the legal and regulatory frameworks as well as the ethical dilemmas of re-use

Methods trail An interactive example of how a projects methodology might be represented electronically designed to enable future re-users to understand how a dataset was generated from actual fieldwork processes. It documents the methods adopted in an ethnographic project on the production and reception of scientific knowledge at a science discovery centre illustrates the kinds of information about methodological principles and processes that could be presented in order to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by hypermedia technology designed to be both accessible and reflexive, it presents a warts and all account of research design and execution hosted by the Wales E-Science Centre via password-protected access; please contact the project team for access comsc.grid.cf.ac.uk/EHE/trails/methods/methods-cover.html

Using XML Best practice is for fieldworkers to provide appropriate metadata/context for each data record from a complex project Metadata requires a common language hence use of XML XML facilitates common descriptions of diverse data sets Best practice does not require fieldworkers to know XML