General Guidlines
Start with "how" and "what" questions, leave "why" questions until later in the interview. This gives people a chance to start with straightforward questions and build to ones that require some reflection. Employ native terms you hear right away in follow-up questions.
Profile
For each interview subject, get the following information:
o Name (or pseudonymn if anonymity preferred)
o Gender
o Age
o Occupation (type of work done)
Background
- How long have you been a Cyborganic member?
- Could you describe a typical day for you, from start to finish, highlighting the ways the Cyborganic netowrk might be involved or come into play?
- Can you tell me about the community's history--how it got started?
- If they don't know, ask who to go to for a deeper sense of group history?
- What is the purpose behind it, its reason for being?
- Is the history, or are past activities, archived or recorded anywhere?
- Is knowing about the history important to you? Why or why not?
Structure
Assuming I know nothing at all about Cyborganic, could you give me a guided tour of all it includes? Just sort of draw me a mental map of all the different parts. If it's helpful, you might want to use a piece of paper to sketch an overview of what Cyborganic consists of.
Using whatever map informant has drawn, ask about the functions of various areas. For example, Cyboragnic uses the following modes of communication:
| spacebar |
real-time chat |
| cc.list |
mailing list for the entire community |
| sf.list, nyc.list |
regional mailing lists |
| Cyborganic Gardens |
website |
| Thursday Night Dinners (TNDs) |
weekly IRL gatherings |
| tnd-sf.list |
mailing list for info on SF TNDs |
| tnd-nyc.list |
mailing list for info on NYC TNDs |
For each area/mode, ask:
- Where do you spend the most time? the least time?
- How is it valuable/useful to you?
- Is it an individual or group area--do you go there by yourself or meet others?
- What sort of activities occur there?
- What is the purpose of this area?
- What is the mood or tone of each?
- Relative pros or cons?
Tell me what communal resources people share?
Meaning/Identity with the Whole
- What's valuable or meaningful to you about being a member of (the community)? [Use whatever term they use to refer to the group].
- What would you say being a member of this community means to you?
- Probe why and how? Could you give me an example?
- What kinds of relationships have you developed in this community?
- What keeps you involved? Why? What do you think keeps others involved?
- Is this just for fun, or for work, or a part of who you are?
- What other communities do you feel a part of?
- How is this community similar/different?
- Why do you think (SGI/HP/Cyborganic) set this up?
- Do you have a sense that the community shares a picture/idea of where it's headed in the future?
Rules/Sanctions
- Do you feel trust among the members? What do you think it's based on?
- What would happen if I came into one of the communication areas, say a chat room or discussion forum, and started acting inappropriately, what would happen to me?
- What constitutes acting inappropriately?
- Are there rules or guidelines for how people should behave to each other? FAQs, group principles....etc.?
- Can you think of any times when trust has been eroded?
- Is there much concern about security?
Roles/Responsibilities/Reputation
- If I'm a new person in the group, how do I find out what I need to know? To whom do I go?
- Are there people who are known for being especially helpful to newbies? Or, for being especially rude/impatient?
- Say you needed something from the group, like an answer to a question, would you know whom to go to? Why and how would you approach that person?
- How would you find out, if you didn't know?
- Would you say there are formal roles in the group, or only informal ones?
- What do you see as your role?
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