of new methodologies for conducting ethnography (e.g., auto-ethnography); the problematizing and ensuing drastic reduction in emphasis of the passive observer; and the promotion of action, participatory, and transformative-oriented research;
(6) post-experimental inquiry (1990–1995), which involved researchers whose works were driven by a quest to move towards a free and equitable democratic society; and new forms of qualitative writings being published that reflected multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary research;
(7) methodologically contested present (2000–2004), which represented a period of conflict and tension, especially between qualitative and quantitative researchers, and the emergence of a growing body of literature on paradigms and methods;
(8) unnamed (2005–present), which represented a period of confronting the methodological ramifications of the promotion of evidence-based research; and
(9) fractured future (2005–present), wherein methodologists would divide themselves (i.e., “gold standard” of scientific research [i.e., randomized control designs] vs. various forms of qualitative research), and the value and significance of qualitative research might become marginalized (see also Ravenek & Rudman, 2013).
Just as the field of qualitative research is situated in a cultural and historical context, so too is the Internet. Indeed, the evolution of the Internet can be mapped onto the aforementioned nine qualitative moments. Specifically, the World Wide Web was invented in March 1989 by Sir Tim John Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist. Thus, Web 1.0, representing the first generation of the World Wide Web, and which was characterized by hierarchically arranged separate and static websites with information predominantly controlled by a small group of content providers (i.e., read-only web), came to the fore during the end of the fourth moment and the beginning of the fifth moment.
Further, the sixth moment marked the date when the phrase Web 2.0 was first coined on April 1, 1999, by Darci DiNucci (1999, p. 32); the seventh moment marked the date when Web 1.0 officially was switched to Web 2.0 (i.e., November 20, 2001) and marked the period during which social media websites were developed and used, including the launching of MySpace (January 1, 2003) and Facebook (February 4, 2004), as well as the hosting of the first Web 2.0 conference on October 1, 2004, by O’Reilly Media Live, which popularized the term Web 2.0; and the eighth and ninth moments marked the creation of resources such as Wiki Spaces (January 1, 2005) and YouTube (August 20, 2005).
Since the introduction of Web 2.0, the number of users of Web 2.0 platforms has increased exponentially—leading my coauthors and me to call for a 10th moment in qualitative research, which we labeled as “the period of Methodological Innovation, in which qualitative researchers go beyond the traditional ways of collecting primary and reflexive data” (Onwuegbuzie, Leech, & Collins, 2010, p. 697). In so doing, we argued that qualitative researchers would “transcend this methodological contestation and methodological divide by taking advantage of the innovative approaches to reflexivity... and the latest technology and computer-mediated communication” (p. 697).
The use of Web 2.0 platforms has permeated many communities and nations—for example, with more than two billion people using the Internet worldwide. According to the Pew Research Center (2015), in the United States, the proportion of adults who use the Internet increased from 14 percent by the end of the sixth moment (i.e., post-experimental inquiry) to 66 percent by the end of the seventh moment (i.e., methodologically contested present) to 87 percent within the eighth (i.e., unnamed) and ninth (i.e., fractured future) moments—specifically, as of January 2014. Of these Internet users, the proportion of adults who use social networking sites (i.e., social media) increased from 8 percent by the end of the seventh moment to 74 percent in January 2014. Further, by April 2015, 68 percent of U.S. adults owned a smartphone, 45 percent owned a tablet computer, 19 percent owned an ebook reader, 40 percent owned a game console, and 14 percent owned a portable gaming device (Pew Research Center, 2015).
Globally, Internet use has grown by 566 percent from the beginning of the seventh moment in 2000 to deep into the eighth and ninth moments in 2012. And even though every region has reported proportionally fewer Internet users than does the United States, Internet usage worldwide still is significant—with 34 percent, on average, of the world’s population using the Internet: comprising 68 percent in Oceania/Australia, 63 percent in Europe (63 percent), 43 percent in Latin America/Caribbean, 40 percent in the Middle East, 28 percent in Asia, and 16 percent in Africa (Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2013). In the parlance of quantitative researchers (cf. Peters & Van Voorhis, 1940) and some qualitative researchers (cf. Onwuegbuzie, 2003), all of these proportions represent large effect sizes in the context of their sociocultural and geopolitical milieu. In fact, as someone who has been extremely fortunate to have travelled to numerous countries and states that represent six continents, I have witnessed first-hand the widespread and diverse use of Web 2.0 platforms—from Bedouin Arabs in Israel and Palestine (Bremaud, 2013) to members of the Masai Tribe in Kenya (Dimbleby, 2010)—to provide just a couple examples.
However, the use of Web 2.0 tools by researchers has not kept pace with the use by people in their daily lives. For example, in an article that I published as co–guest editor of a special issue in the International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Snelson (in press) used a systematic literature review process to examine trends in qualitative and mixed methods social media research literature published from 2007 through 2013 by searching the three major databases: Academic Search Premier, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Of the thousands of articles published during this time period, Snelson (in press) identified only 174 peer-reviewed qualitative research journal articles wherein social media played a central role. Although this represents an increase in the qualitative media research literature in recent years, this low proportion of published articles involving the study of online environments relative to the study of offline environments does not reflect the popularity of Web 2.0 platforms as a means of communication. Thus, it is not surprising that Greenhow, Robelia, and Hughes (2009) declared, “A stronger research focus on students’ everyday use of Web 2.0 technologies and their learning with Web 2.0 both in and outside of classrooms is needed” (p. 246). Interestingly, Windschitl’s (1998) call, made between the sixth and seventh moments, for researchers to utilize qualitative research methods in order to explore, to discover, and to describe complex changes that occur in the context of Web-based teaching and learning, as well as to understand technological, ethical, educational, professional, and/or social practices pertaining to technology use not only across people’s life span, but also across a whole day (e.g., home, institutions of learning, work place, social spaces) is still very much applicable today in the ninth moment, justifying the need for the tenth moment, as stated previously.
Despite the importance of studying online spaces (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, forums, and listservs), the major research methodology textbooks focus primarily—if not exclusively—on methodologies pertaining to the study of offline spaces, with not even a chapter allocated to methodologies that are applicable to the study of online spaces. Unfortunately, the methodological tools presented in standard research methodology books for studying offline spaces are insufficient, per se, for examining many Web 2.0–related research questions. Further, of the few textbooks devoted specifically to online research methodologies, most of them were published during the early years of the eighth and ninth moments, and although they contain some useful information, they need updating, such as Fielding and Lee’s (2008) excellent edited book—which represents the year that the earliest forms of file hosting services (e.g., Dropbox) and Internet-based social bookmarking services (e.g., academia.edu) came to the fore. Further, very few graduate school programs provide students with the option to take formal courses on online research methods.
This lack of (current) published works in the area of online research methods coupled with the lack of formal and systematic instruction on conducting online research likely explain the relative lack of attention to the study of online spaces. And such lack of attention
