6.3 what the book will be about(writing so far)?

An open-for-discussion post about what I'm thinking the ethnographic chapters will do.

1. Set up a focus relevant to the particular culture of your community & that uses connective ethnographic methods that:

• account for interconnections between online/offline culture + experience; 
• construct complex, not necessarily coherent representations of community life through the use of multiple critical lenses; 
• examine the Internet as culture and cultural artifact (Hine);
• watch for links between technology + performance (Wakeford); 
• are careful not to prematurely bracket literacy practices based on the "space" where they take place (Holloway & Valentine); 
• compare practices across participants and contexts (Lam);
• etc.

2. Characterize "generic" purpose(s),  assumptions, values, beliefs, literacy practices, identities of participants, texts (and other features of Discourse communities as we set up our definition) for a your Discourse community (Fanfiction, blogging, fantasy sport league, gaming writing group, NaNoWriMo, IF-ingLoveScience). 

This characterization will be drawn from:

• what the research literature says about the community (and generically related communities);
• cultural Conversations surrounding the community => how the popular press, people in general talk about this community =cultural stories re the practices, participants, sites, uses etc.  For example, there are many assumptions associated with ownership, writing, and stories in this recent article about Kindle Worlds move to "pay" fanfic writers.  Analysis of some of the Conversations (see Gee) surrounding your community (as in Hine's approach described in Leander)

3. Develop a data-driven characterization of your particular community based in observations & analyses of significant elements typically present in your community's social life and being.   Elements might include: phenomena, "texts", conditions/contexts,  actors, actions, interactions, and outcomes within your community's social life

4. Develop the characterization  from 3 in terms of the focus for your chapter  (e.g.  Robyn may look at gender, power relations and silence, Mark may look at indentity issues, practices, & ideologies as they bear upon feedback systems, etc)

5.  Include analyses of flow & circulation among identities, ideologies + literacy practices in your characterizations for 3 &4.  This would include reflection on positionings that facilitate changing perspectives or integration of new practices, as well as any characterizations relevant to your focus.

6. Write a conclusion which:

• sums up your observations with respect to your focus
• points out how your study supplements/reflects approaches under point 1
• poses local theory to extend and supplement  larger theory grounded in cultural Conversations from point 2
• notes features of points of movement discussed in point 5.