[Cancelled]

Tutorial: Methods for Theory-Building in the Study of Information Technology
------------Use (half-day)
Leaders: Lori Kendall and Elizabeth F. Churchill

In this tutorial we will provide instruction in methods for incorporating theory building into studies of information technology use. We will briefly present an explanation of inductive research logic and grounded theory, and discuss practical considerations for the use of this research strategy. This discussion will include a consideration of research questions, data gathering methods and interpretive and analytical practices. Our presentation will include illustrative examples from our own and others' research. In addition to introducing and illustrating concepts, our aim is to underscore the importance of being explicit about this process of question production, selection and execution of methods for data gathering, and data interpretation. We have found this perspective to be well suited to developing understandings of new and emerging practices and behaviors within complex socio-technical systems.

Our methods for theory-building based on inductive logic fits with the observational methods that many researchers find useful, particularly in examining computer-mediated communication, online community, and other forms of online behavior. Thus, this tutorial will be useful to researchers across a broad spectrum of HICSS tracks and minitracks.

Lori Kendall (loriken@uiuc.edu) is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests center on online community, identity, and culture. Her background is in sociology, and she has conducted several ethnographic studies of online groups. Her book Hanging Out in the Virtual Pub provides an ethnography of one such group. She has also published several articles on methodologies for the study of information technologies.

Elizabeth Churchill (elizabeth.churchill@yahoo-inc.com) is a Principal Research Scientist at Yahoo! Research. Her research interests center on social aspects of mediated communication: including social networking, internet media production and consumption practices and experiences, and mobile connectedness. A psychologist by training, she was the project lead of the Social Computing Group at FX Palo Laboratory, Fuji Xerox's research lab in Palo Alto, worked at PARC (the Palo Alto Research Center in Palo Alto, California), and joined Yahoo! in 2006 to develop an agenda in Internet Media Experiences. She has edited 5 books on various aspects of mediated communication and is completing a book with MIT Press: The ABCs of HCI: An introduction to the Design of Interactive Systems.