Telephone Interviewing as a Qualitative Methodology for Researching Cyberinfrastructure and Virtual Organizations

Abstract

Cyberinfrastructure (CI) involves networked technologies, organizational practices, and human workers that enable computationally intensive, data-driven, and multidisciplinary collaborations on large-scale scientific problems. CI enables emerging forms of mediated relationships, dispersed groups, virtual organizations, and distributed communities. Researchers of CI often employ a limited set of methodologies such as trace data analysis and ethnography. In response, this chapter proposes a more flexible framework of interviewing members of dispersed groups, virtual organizations, and distributed communities whose work, interaction, and communication are primarily mediated by communication technologies. Telephone interviewing can yield high-quality data under appropriate conditions, making it a productive mode of data collection comparable to a face-to-face mode. The protocol described in this chapter for telephone interviews has been refined over three studies (total N = 236) and 10 years (2007–2017) of research. The protocol has been shown to be a flexible and effective way to collect qualitative data on practices, networks, projects, and biographical histories in the virtual CI communities under study. These benefits speak to a need in CI research to expand from case studies and sited ethnographies. Telephone interviewing is a valuable addition to the growing literature on CI methodologies. Furthermore, our framework can be used as a pedagogical tool for training students interested in qualitative research.