Anthropology

Sticky post. Scroll down for the most recent post
Hi and thanks for dropping by – this sticky post is to explain (a bit) the anthropological research I’m doing on Malaysian blogs and bloggers for a PhD in Social Anthropology at Monash University.

If you’re a Malaysian blogger, or a blogger living in Malaysia, my research is about YOU!

Please read on if you would like to learn more about my research, give some feedback or even participate in the research. Otherwise, just skip to the post below.
Continue reading "Anthroblogology – Commercialisation in the Malaysian Blogosphere)"

I did my first interview this week – it’s kind of early but the blogger was around and I wanted to take the opportunity. My planned schedule for research is somewhat messed up because the ‘traditional’ read --> fieldwork --> write-up stages are getting mixed up; my ‘fieldwork’ is blogging, taking notes and recording aspects of blogs, and meeting bloggers, and I’ve been doing that for about a year already. And I was blogging before anyway.


Anyway, I practiced on a fellow student last week (which was very useful), and met up with the first interviewee for about four hours. I’m calling this blogger ‘AlphaBlogger’: I decided to make them all anonymous, and this blogger gets ‘A’ as the first name – the blogger chose the name, I just said it should start with an ‘A’. The next one will be something starting with a ‘B’, and so on.

Unfortunately for AlphaBlogger the aircon gas in my car needs topping up (something I noticed in the morning only), so I drove an increasingly sweaty blogger through a somewhat jammed Bangsar and into PJ to try to catch some duck rice at the famous ‘Sunrise’ place in Taman Paramount, but unfortunately we were too late at 13.30! That place really runs out quickly. So we ate somewhere else, and after went to Monash for the interview.

Anyway, AlphaBlogger was very friendly and easygoing, which made it easier for me. The interview went well, and was very interesting; I learned a few things about the history of blogging in Malaysia, and blogging in general that I never knew. AlphaBlogger mentioned Blue’s News as one of the first ‘bloggers’ (not Malaysian) – apparently the website owner started a section called ‘Out of the Blue’, which was updates on his personal life and stuff. It’s something that has never come up in the literature: Blue’s News is a site related to gaming, whereas the typical chronologies are the one by (for example) Rebecca Blood, have blogs starting with tech/programmer-type people.

AlphaBlogger’s name is somewhat appropriate, as AlphaBlogger is [edited slightly - 1/8/08] a very early Malaysian blogger. There were very few Malaysian bloggers then apparently, but AlphaBlogger didn’t mention Oon Yeoh who’s been blogging since 2001. One of those mentioned was Absolutely Fuzzy who (according to the Copyright information) has had a blog since 2000.

This is also different from the ‘official’ story I’ve heard before about the ‘father’ of Malaysian blogging, Oon Yeoh, and Jeff Ooi , etc… It may have something to do with the divide between SoPo bloggers and ‘personal’ bloggers; SoPo bloggers always get more attention in the MSM, and – it seems to me – represent in most people’s mind what a blog is about. In fact, the great majority of blogs are not SoPo blogs.



Jorn Barger’s ‘Robot Wisdom’ is often cited as the first blog (1997), but I recently found out about Justin Hall who started in 1994 – said to be the first personal blogger. Again, it seems that in the conventional histories, the personal bloggers are often overlooked… interesting…

Anyway, it was very useful to talk to an ‘A-list’ blogger. I definitely learnt stuff that I would never know otherwise (unless I start getting thousands of daily visitors, which ain't gonna happen anytime soon). So, you know who you are, thanks again and hope to meet up sometime again

And if there's anyone who has any information about the history of blogs in Malaysia, please tell me! I'm about to start a chapter on it, and all information is good

**Sticky post – scroll down for the latest post**

Just a short one to announce that I’ll be giving a short seminar talk on some of my research on blogs next week, on Tuesday 29 July from 12-13.00. The title is: “Blogwars – Authenticity and Value in the Blogosphere”: it’s a case study of a blogwar centred around a hateblog, and I’m trying to say something useful about the way in which both commenters and bloggers together ‘make’ a blog.

It’s at Monash University Sunway (it’s the new campus, close to Sunway University College).
Details here; Location map here; Facebook event here.

Please do come along if you’re interested

Over the next three days I’ll be going to two blogmeets: All-Blogs “100 Days” this evening, and a Nuffnang Exclusive Private Screening of the movie Hancock.

I’m looking forward to them, to meet some bloggers and have some interesting conversations; though I always approach these events with a little trepidation, as I am not very good at socialising and I usually feel a bit out of place… At the All-Blogs meets, which are mostly SoPo and journalist-types, I am a non-Malaysian; and at the Nuffnang events, I’m an old fart! However, everybody is always welcoming and I always end up enjoying them

So far, I have developed a technique for preparing for these events, which are important for my research. As an anthropologist, I have to approach them from a slightly different angle: my job is to participate and observe, but without becoming totally detached…

My usual technique so far is:
• Prepare: camera with spare battery, mp3 player with spare battery, notebook, pen, name cards.
• Before I go: go over previous notes/posts about similar events, and try to remember who I spoke to and what about (I am terrible with names…). Check out posts online about the event. Write down some notes about what I expect to see, and my preconceived notions: think about how this might affect how I will perceive the upcoming event. Think about questions I’d like to ask if I get a chance.
• When I get there: go with the flow, try to socialise and talk to people. If possible, ask questions about blogging, but don’t overdo it – remember, people are there to attend the event, not to help my research! Take notes of any talks, or anything that comes up that is relevant; another option is to make voice notes on the mp3 player. Hand out my name card to anyone who may be interested, this will help them to remember me – I hope. Relax and enjoy!
• Afterwards: write/record more notes as soon as I can (I often record thoughts while driving home). The next day, write up the notes in my computer, and do a blog post about it. Check out what other bloggers are saying online about the event. Think about how it fits into the bigger picture of my research.

It’s quite a lot of work, really. But honestly, I thank my lucky stars to have such an interesting job!

Well, a morning rather. What I try to do every morning is add some blogs to my database. I made it using FileMaker Pro, which is relatively easy to use I find, and basically I try to collect information that I’m able to find from the blog itself, to which I occasionally may add information I know from other sources. The point is to gather ‘demographic’ information about all these ‘inhabitants’ of the Malaysian blogosphere: what kind of blog they have, what ads they have, which groups they’re part of, age, occupation, gender, etc.

What I also do is note down specific posts that I find important as examples of types of behaviour, like the other day I noticed someone talking about how they’d been blogging for three months but made less than a dollar (which is more than I have :/ ), and there were some comments with advice and so on. A good example of people sharing practices and therefore building common practices and ‘socialities’ as John Postill might say.
Continue reading "A day in the life of an anthroblogologist"

One thing I’ve found since I started my PhD is that mostly academics are very contactable and happy to share material. So far I have contacted a few out of the blue, because I had difficulty getting hold of a paper written by them, and they immediately sent me a copy. Which is very nice.

I knew of a paper that talked about 9/11 and blogs, and had a interesting model relating to types of blogs in it, but I couldn’t remember the name (except that it started with a K and it was long) or where I’d seen it mentioned (now I think of it, it must have been in Blood’s book, anyway…). So I did a bunch of Googling and eventually tracked down this

Krishnamurthy, Sandeep. "The multidimensionality of blog conversations: The virtual enactment of September 11." AOIR Internet Research 3.0: Net/Work/Theory. Maastricht, The Netherlands. October 13-16 2002.

I emailed Sandeep Krishnamurthy and he kindly sent me a copy. Here is the model in it:

Continue reading "Blog typologies"