The ethnography of virtual reality

This paper discusses possible application of ethnographic research in the realm of virtual reality, especially in the relationship between cultures in virtual communities. This represents an entirely new area of ethnographic research and therefore many adjustments in the research design are needed for example, a development of a specific method of data gathering and tools for their verification. A virtual, cyber space is a version of social space more or less synchronous with it, but without the, "real", that is, physical presence of the people who create it. This virtual reality, defined and bounded by virtual space, is in fact real - and though we are not able to observe real, physical parameters of its existence, we can perceive its consequences. In sum, an innovative ethnographic research method is fully applicable for exploring the realm of virtual reality; in order to do so we need to expand, in addition to the new research design and methods, the field of science itself.