The curious case of the game show neuroscientists, or how NOT to research an online community

I’m a fond member of the blogging/social networking site, Livejournal.   Over the last few days, I’ve seen the most incredible shitstorm unfold, over the cack-handed efforts of two rogue academics to research what they were pleased to call ‘the cognitive neuroscience of fanfiction’.
Background
First, a bit of background: Livejournal (one of the original social networks) is [...]

Twitter; and women in technology, for Ada Lovelace Day

I started using Twitter properly a couple of days ago, prompted by some of my friends taking it on, and so far I’m enjoying it way more than I expected. It’s also thrown me into contact with various market researchers working in new media.    It is brilliant to uncover some kind of community in this [...]