Another self-serving post from me about ethnographic principles applied to researching online communities. The authors say, "The often highly specialized nature of these online communities, and the fact that they transcend geography and the need for physical presence, pose a challenge for sociologists and communication researchers, however, because they do not possess all the traditional dimensions of 'real' communities that have often been the focus of ethnographic and social research. [. . .] When the researcher selects an online community as the focus of his study, however, where does he actually go and what is he really observing? The answer to these questions is the focus of this essay." This article, despite its sexist language, is very good, especially for someone who doesn't know much about ethnography. I won't attempt to go into a summary of the argument here, but I'll instead recommend reading it in its entirety.