Christine Hine's "Virtual Ethnography"

One of my friends, Jo (child sociologist from the UK), posted a comment on the ethnographic study in online communities under my Sasha Barab post.

She suggested a really neat book (which is going on my Amazon wishlist!) called Virtual ethnography by Christine Hine. Here's a paper which summarizes some of her basic ideas.

I find her work particularly interesting in relation to the work of Sasha Barab - who is making use of what he calls critical design ethnography.

I am interested in studying how people transfer lessons learned by their avatars (virtual selves) in the virtual domain into their everyday lives. For example, if a teen plays out particular life scenarios in an online world, does this play a consequential role regarding the choices they make in everyday life.