Online methods for data collection: observation, forum and website analysis and e-mail interviews analysis and e-mail interviews

The use of online data collection methods in social research is on the rise (Im and Chee 2006). O’Connor and Madge (2001) stated that, the Internet produces:

“A virtual social arena which is not bound by temporal and spatial restrictions where researchers can, therefore, interact with participants in ways which may not be possible in the real world” (2001, p. 2).

Gaiser (1997), also, stated that the use of online methods is important when:

Advantages and limitations of semi structured in-depth interviewing Advantages:

- An adaptable technique enabling probing of specific themes taking account of each participant’s particular experiences. This in turn makes it a flexible technique because as data collection progresses and new ideas relevant to understanding the research topic emerge, interview schedules can be refined to collect these insights.

- The face-to-face nature enables the researcher to read body language and other non verbal forms of communication in addition to speech, which can elicit valuable insights.

- Possible interconnections between experiences and views can be explored.

- It allows for comparability across interviews, as the same questions are asked of each respondent.

- This technique can be highly validity, as interviewers can ensure that questions are understood by the interviewees by adapting the wording, or probe to elicit more in-depth responses.

Limitations:

- Misinterpretation of views by the researcher and/or participant is possible.

- The method require training and confidence to be fully effective in data-gathering, and some theoretical insight to be able to probe for more detail on valuable ideas as an interview is conducted.

- The value of the data is dependent on the honesty of the interviewee.

- Interviews, transcription and analysis of interview data are all time consuming activity.

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“The research question involves an online social phenomenon, [because] a potential strength of the method is to be researching in the location of interest” (1997, p. 136).

In this regard, informed by a qualitative research strategy, this study investigates the effectiveness of a web-based information system (i.e. Touregypt project), in which online users’ perspectives need to be explored in their natural context. The use of online data collection methods, therefore, helped in getting close to Touregypt users experiences, which they expressed in their own words. In the same line, Best (2004) asserted that tourists are encouraged to talk openly in familiar settings such as Internet forums or e-mails contacts.

Among online data collection methods, discussion forums observation, website analysis, and e-mail interviews were carried out for the purpose of this study.

Generally, online discussion forums (web message boards) and e-mail interviews allow asynchronous³ interactions, through which participants can join the discussions or respond to the e-mail at their convenience, unlike other methods requesting synchronous ⁴ interactions, e.g. chat rooms or groups (Im and Chee 2006).

Observation of Touregypt forums is widely used in this study to grasp perspectives and interactions of system users and the Touregypt Management Company (project owner and forum moderators). The e-mail interviews have been used in a limited extent to investigate more of tourists’ views (some active members of the forums) about the Touregypt system during the forum observation stage.

This study has benefited from the advantages provided by Internet research.

Researchers argued that the online data collection methods allow people in different geographical areas to communicate and exchange their experiences and opinions

3 Asynchronous interviews take place in non-real time, e.g. e-mail interviews and discussion forums.

Neither interviewer nor interviewee needs to be online at the same time. It involves the interviewer emailing interview questions to respondents to answer at their own convenience. (O’Connor and Madge 2001; Im and Chee 2006).

4Synchronous online interviews are those which similar to a traditional research interview in that they take place in 'real time' in an environment such as an Internet chat room. All participants have to be online at the same time and questions and answers are posted in a way that looks like a traditional interview (Im and Chee 2006).

108 without long-distance travel. Also, Internet research methods increase the ability of studying sensitive topics, and help in generating (and simultaneously record) high quality data (McGivern 2005). In agreement, Cantrell and Lupinacci (2007) added to the advantages of online research being less expensive, decreasing data collection time, increasing accuracy and efficiency of data entry and analysis, as well as having the ability to follow-up with participants.

However, articles of online studies asserted that researchers need to be cautioned with some possible disadvantages of online research. For example, participation in virtual interviews require a higher level of motivation and interest from the interviewee than in a usual interview (Chen and Hinton 1999), low response rates, lack of engagement during conversations and the negative influence of forum moderators (McGivern 2005; Im and Chee 2006). This study has experienced only two of the above listed disadvantage. Firstly, one of the Touregypt forums moderators has not agreed of posting a particular prompt through the forums. The prompts concerned with tourists’ views on the difference between the public and private sector management of Touregypt project. The moderator saw it is not appropriate to post such question in a time where stakeholders were conflict (for details see Section 6.1.2.). Secondly, the low response rates to the e-mail interviews were another disadvantage. However, the researcher did not depend on e-mail interviews in collecting tourists’ views, rather other online methods such as archival analysis and forum observation were carried out.

5.4.3.3. Observation

The Touregypt discussion forums are the place which most of the observation of this study took place. This is in addition to the observation that took place during the face-to-face interviews. Observation is useful in providing rich description about a phenomenon (Bryman and Bell 2007). It can be used to reveal characteristics of groups or individuals which may be impossible to be discovered by other means (Bell 2005). Bell (2005) stated that “observation can be useful in discovering whether people do what they say they do, or behave in the way they claim to behave” (2005, p.

184). In this study, an observation was used to back the interpretations of stakeholders’ perspectives (Greene 2000) about system effectiveness and how it

109 differs between different groups of stakeholders. For acquiring rich and in-depth data for the purpose of this study, it was important to observe the interactions between the staff and owner of Touregypt project and the users of the system through Touregypt forums (see Section ‎6.2).

In general, observation can be participant or non participant, and structured or unstructured.

In structured observation the researcher depends on predetermined categories and he/she has a view on what to be observed. In contrast, unstructured observation focuses on the larger picture without predetermined categories; it is a natural open-ended way of observation Goodson and Phillimore (2004). Punch (2005) stressed that in the case of unstructured observation:

“The behaviour is observed as the stream of actions and events as they naturally unfold. The logic here is that categories and concepts for describing and analyzing the observational data will emerge later in the research, during the analysis, rather than be bought to the research, or imposed on the data, from the start” (2005, p. 179).

Hence, this study adopted an unstructured approach to observation. Although the fieldwork has been started with a clear idea on the purpose of conducting forums or interviews observation, there was no detailed clarification on exactly what need to be observed (Bell 2005).

Additionally, observation can be divided according to the degree of involvement the researcher has in the research setting, either participant or non participant. Non-participant (direct observation) is distinguished from Non-participant observation in that the researcher is watching rather than taking an interactive part in the context of the study (Schutt 2006). In this study, although the researcher posted some discussions through Touregypt forums, these posts were not related to the focus of this study.

There were two aims of these posts; establishing rapport with members of the forums, and providing prompts and probes to encourage discussions on a particular topic (see Chapter 6). Therefore the type of observation conducted in this study can be classified as unstructured, with no participant or direct observation. The researcher also was an

110 overt observer, since users and moderators of the forums knew the researcher’s identity, as well as the purpose of her study.