I just last week downloaded the trial version of NVivo 7, and after a day of playing with it decided to buy the full licence (which is not cheap, even at the student discount, so I hope it’s going to be worth it).

NVivo is a qualitative data analysis tool, which adds codes to data for tracking ideas and arguments that occur in conversations. It’s designed mainly for transcripts of interviews and focus group discussions. But I’ve found it works really well for blog posts.

It has a auto-coding system based on heading styles formatted to transcripts. So transcribing a set of blog posts (and their comments) to a document would have the following style:

Blogger/commenter

Tag or category

Date/timestamp of blog post or comment

I’ve found that by formatting blog posts like this and hitting the autocode button I will get a whole pile of blog posts arranged according to who said what and in what discussion. That way I can compare ideas and arguments happening between the tags applied by each blogger, and keep an eye of discussions occuring across a range of blogs.

NVivo I think will work for me, but there are literally hundreds of records to transcribe, and I’ve never known such tedium. Last night I experienced for the first time the phenomenon of cut/pasting while dozing. Nvivo also requires a lot of hertz (at least 1Gig) and a fiar bit of disk space. I’m only through a few blogs right now and the file is already a few dozen MB. It’s made the cut/pasting slow and adds to the tedium. The only thing pulling me through it is that I’m finally getting to read everyone’s comments to everyone’s blog posts, and not just the posts themselves. So I’m watching a real community of people engaged in risky, heartfelt and humble conversations.

About six weeks ago I was talking to this really smart guy from some top-notch university about all things media, religion and culture, and thought I was doing well impressing him with my research and the reasons I want to do it. He then asked me, “So, what’s your conceptual framework?”

Because I’m that good at impressing people and talking from the hip, I faked a surprised look and called out “Look over there!”, pointing over his shoulder. As he turned I hid behind the nearest bush, panting away to myself in shock and fear. God, I’m good.

So, anyway, I’ve been asking myself, “Wtf is a conceptual framework?!” After about four books expounding great new steps in researching religion online, scratching my head and playing Internet Checkers, I think I kinda know wtf it is, and what mine might be. Well, at least the beginnings of it. Could be the start of one of the chapters, I don’t know. Hopefully my supervisor will help out.

But for now it’s here for all of you, to help, like you’ve nothing better to do.

I think if I were reading this I’d probably say to me, “Hey Paul, you’ve made some clever inferences here but clearly you need to some more reading. By the way, have I told you before how cool and funny you are? Here, have fifty bucks.”

Jetstar, a relatively new and growing passenger flight carrier in Australia has just announced new international flights, including Hawaii, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. Pretty cool for us who like to fly cheap and not pay extra on the unnecessary conveniences of complimentary food, drinks, pillows etcetera. For a one-hour flight to Syndey or Adelaide, if we really needed a beer or a coffee we could pay that extra three bucks, knowing that it’s saved us at least fifty bucks on the airline ticket. So why not with a seven-hour flight to Bangkok or a nine-hour flight to Tokyo.

But what if spending that extra three bucks on coffee or eleven dollars on that limp-lettuce sandwich actually determined the salary of the nice person handing you the product? Well, it will, apparently.

I heard tonight that flight attendents on international Jetstar flights have been forced to sign individual workplace contracts, which has effectively meant no trade union can support them in ensuring good working conditions. Secondly, their wage includes a commission on foods, pillows and gifts sold in-flight to passengers.

The ALP leader tells us it will be like ordering food at an American restaurant, where the waiters will rely on your tips for a good day’s pay. It sounds like it to me.

What if I took a flight to Asia and decided not to buy anything on the flight, either having brought food with me, or deciding to survivie on the bathroom’s tap water for hydration? How will I expect to be treated by the attendant staff?

Worse, what if everyone of us who flew Jetstar decided to do that? How much would a flight attendant get paid? And what if every flight attendant got less than they expected when they joined the Jetstar team? Who would look after them? Not the unions, not the customers, not management. All contracts have been signed.

Methinks a new transit culture is coming, one where it’s always good to keep a fiver or a tenner in your boarding pass envelope when you board, you know, just in case.

Stephen offered a comment on my last post, with two more issues. Here’s my own take on them.

Issue 3: Authority

Following on from issue 2, as new religious communities develop in cyberspace, new authorities will emerge, as well as new structures of authority, that will be different from the structures of traditional religion. Heidi Campbell is working on how new media is affecting authority at four levels: authority of doctrine, authority of people, authority of scripture and authority of position (I think, Heidi please tell me if I’ve got it wrong). There are those with offline authority that have no online presence, just as there are many of us known in the cyberworld who are nameless offline. What impact cyber-institutions like Google and Technorati will do to traditional structures of authority is not yet fully known, though already they are treated with disdain by many traditional institutions (schools, journalists, bishops, etc).

Issue 4: Sacrament

Sacraments are material. The material is what the virtual world lacks. Those in present authority believe the church is wherever the word is preached and the sacraments are given. Can there be a church without sacraments? Can we do without sacraments?

I’m not so sure if online religion is calling for the end of material sacraments. After all, sacraments are only given locally. Therefore sacraments could also be integral in the “glocal” expression of religious community. If online religion calls the global to the local, then it can call the church to the sacrament.

Those who fear loss of the sacred material in the growth of cyberspace are fearing a replacement of real church with virtual church. Though many would not see that occurring - just that virtual church will change the reality of church, not take away real church altogether.