Backroom Research

As I read through the Hine article on defining technological and internet boundaries of ethnographic research I found myself skeptical of the broad boundary scope: offline/online, between sites, institutions, web developers etc. The boundaries are so wide that it seems to be getting beyond the point of any meaningful analysis. However in the conclusion Hine acknowledges many of the limitations of widening boundaries- it should be practical and allow for depth and engagement. I left the article slightly less skeptical as a result the explanation on TouchGraph Google Browser- a visualization tool which shows how site networks. As well, the article on twitter gathered a huge amount of data on different users that I would not have thought possible. Basically these references to online data collections and tools made me aware of my lack of knowledge of what types of data and how much can be collected from the internet. 

Also, if anyone is interested in exploring multi-sited ethnographies, a methodology I always liked was called: "follow the thing." The basic concept is to follow commodities and see what meanings people attach to these objects.