I have as mentioned above taken my point of departure in an ethnographic approach; that is an approach where participant observation is the primary methodological tool. Participant observation seems the most appropriate methodology to study dynamic processes of normative change from the "inside" as they are developing over time in the virtual environment. An ethnographic approach allows a narrative form of reporting from the project, avoiding the necessity of prior theoretical or analytical models that might obliterate or obscure new, emergent phenomena that it may be important to draw attention to.
An ethnographically oriented researcher role as participant observer allows us to examine how such a role is constituted and developed in the virtual environment, and to idescribe how the participant-observer's own textual norms change over time. All writing within the framework of this project will be participant initiated and controlled. As a participant, I take part in the creation of the the socio cultural contexts where written commnication and collaboration take place. As observer I participate on a more or less an even footing with other participant-observers in the virtual environment, since they are also able to observe what is going on in much the same way as I do. Descriptions of on-going processes of meaning-making in the virtual environment made by other participants are also to be regarded as valid data, even though they may (and most probably will) be approaching their observations and descriptions from quite other positions than myself.
An ethnographic investigation involves choices of environments for the study, examining the field of study from different perspectives (methodological triangulation), choice of observers and the length of the period of investigation (Asher & Lauer, 1988).