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The development of
easy-to-use Internet tools for synchronous communications has made a new
research method possible: online focus groups. Attempts to apply them to
questions formerly addressed by face-to-face focus groups have resulted
not only in promising avenues for research, but also in substantive
criticism. We have chosen to adopt online focus groups as a research
methodology for a qualitative study of user beliefs and attitudes
concerning peer-to-peer filesharing systems. This project is still in its
early stages, so herein we describe not confirmatory findings of rigorous
research, but the issues raised by our exploratory study, and indications
of important issues to address in the use of online focus groups. This
paper also demonstrates a novel analysis method which visually maps one of
the unique characteristics of such groups, multi-threaded simultaneous
conversations, and uses such maps to identify some notable tendencies and
behaviors. We also identify some typical participant strategies we have
observed, describe some skills and techniques for use in moderating such
sessions, identify some powerful advantages provided by the instant and
automatic transcript generation capabilities of chat session software, and
characterize some important research questions to be addressed in future
research.
Keywords:
online focus groups, qualitative, focus group methodology, file-sharing,
digital music, digital media
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