From: Anita Colyer

Date: Thu, Apr 25, 1996 12:33 PM

Subject: ethnography thanks & some stats

To: cinema-l@american.edu

An ethnography update follows, in case any of you are interested . . . (Warning: no cinema content!)

Many thanks to the very generous list members who volunteered to help me out on my "ethnography of Cinema-L" project. I was very pleased to find so many willing and helpful folks on the list. There have been two parts to my ethnography so far:

1) analyzing statistics for the list (numbers of messages each day, gender breakdown, etc.); and

2) conducting interviews, off-list, with list members, on issues related to use of electronic mail & listservs in general.

Here's the latest update on both of those portions of my research.

1) Statistics.

Since the beginning of the month, I've collected data related to the list itself and to the 1389 messages that have been sent so far. There are currently around 575 subscribers (in 1993 there were about 330). The volume on this list averages about 58 messages per day (in August 1993, they averaged 41 per day). The daily gender breakdown of the messages posted is averaging 46% messages from females, 46% from males (a pretty even split, with about an average of 8% of messages with insufficient info to determine gender). The percentages in April of 1993 were: 23% female, 75% male, and 2% insufficient info.

At the risk of throwing the discussion off the topic of cinema, I'd like to make the observation that these statistics reveal a significant change in the list over time (an increase in the number of messages posted by females). I would invite anyone to speculate on the reasons for this shift (on-list or off--either is fine with me, if the rest of the list doesn't mind).

2) Interviews.

I have had about 16 volunteers, and 13 of those have responded to a questionnaire I put together. I am in the process of summarizing those responses for a paper I'm writing, and am delighted at the candor of the responses. The gender split of the group I've received questionnaires from so far is 4 male, 9 female. Additionally, 10 of my survey respondents are from the U.S. and 3 are from outside the U.S. The average age of the group is 31 (the average age of my 14 respondents in April 1993 was in the mid-thirties).

One of the questions I asked the survey respondents that I got some interesting responses to was: "If you had to create an analogy in which you compared the use of a listserv to the use of another, preexisting communications technology, which of these do you think it is most like and why? face-to-face conversation, phone, fax, letter writing, television, movies, radio, two tin cans and a string, or other." Three responded that it was most like face-to-face, 2 compared it to letter writing, 1 said it was most like phone, 2 said fax, 2 said it was a mix, and 3 said "other." (Actually, in explanations, the analogy of a cocktail party came up several times.) I'd invite anyone else who would like to to share an opinion on this issue.

I also asked respondents what aspects of the list they liked and what aspects they didn't like (if any). Some of the positive aspects mentioned were: the relaxed atmosphere and friendliness, the variety of opinions expressed, the ability to use the list as a quick reference source, humor & individual personalities, and the expertise of other list members. Some of the less favorable aspects of the list that were commented on were the repetition of popular threads, the occasional flame war, the list's reluctance to accept new members into the group, and the fact that sometimes there seem to be too many messages to keep up with them all. (I'd have to say, though, that overall, comments were very positive.)

I also asked respondents, "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being lowest and 10 being highest, how "social" do you feel Cinema-L is?" The respondents rated the list on average a little higher than an 8, and many commented on the relaxed atmosphere and the friendships that have developed, on-list and off, because of this listserv.

I'm still in the process of summarizing my results, but again, I'd like to thank everyone who has provided input. I welcome additional comments on my findings, on or off the list.

Anita Colyer

afc1@cde.psu.edu