ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the dilemmas facing qualitative researchers as people struggle to come to grips with the new dynamic. Mainstream qualitative researchers have been active in making changes to ontological and epistemological approaches to research and tools for data collection and representation. Thirty years after the initial development of Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS), qualitative researchers now stand on the brink of a global technological revolution in the form of the Internet and the World Wide Web. The next quarter century of qualitative research history represents five moments in Denzin and Lincoln's framework, during which qualitative researchers struggled with issues of representation, social justice, and reflexivity. For qualitative researchers being raised in the new era, not using available digital tools is not an option. If qualitative researchers are to meet the challenges of global contexts, they must have digital tools that provide support for this new, challenging, and complex environment.
