Increasingly, social science researchers are turning to the internet to study forms
of ‘virtual’ culture. In tandem there has been a degree of
trepidation and innovation in the application of research methodology to the online
arena. As its focus this article takes the application of participant observation to
the virtual field. Drawing upon narratives elicited from community members of an
online graphical social space, methodological questions are raised about the
viability of a ‘virtual ethnography’, while a more practical
discussion focuses upon the re-engineering of participant observation for operation
in an online pseudo-physical field. The impact of graphical pseudo-presence, avatar
representation, physical online boundaries and multiple online sites upon the
practice of participant observation are examined. The article concludes that the
advent of new broadband technologies and the expansion of graphical online
environments require online methods that are both responsive and adaptive in order
to elicit reliable and valid data from rapidly changing online environments.
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