Yeslam Al-saggaf, Kirsty Williamson, School of Information Studies; John Weckert, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University
The Saudi Arabian government introduced the Internet to the public in early 1999. Since that time the number of Internet users in the country has reached one million. Of this one million 53 % (according to a recent study) participate in online communities. The use of online communities, in the country where Islam acts as a major force in determining the norms, traditions and practices of society, is creating new forms of communication across gender lines, interrupting traditional social rituals and giving people new autonomy in how they run their lives.
Many researchers have written of the existence of online communities and their unique cultural characteristics but little has been said about their effects on people's offline lives. Moreover, there is a notable absence of research on online communities that is being done in Arabic and Islamic countries. Towards that end, this ongoing ethnographic research about online communities in Saudi Arabia (part of it is presented in this paper) is being conducted.
Although data collection and data analysis for this research will continue, the key findings presented in this paper from the first 10 online semi-structured interviews (with 5 males and 5 females), will address only one question of the research questions, that is, what are individuals' perceptions about how their online community experience affected their offline lives? In addition to presenting the key findings, the paper will discuss briefly the research design, the sampling and the recruiting of participants. The paper will also discuss the procedures carried out in interviewing the participants and analysing these interviews.