ABSTRACT
All too often, initial activities undertaken in designing and preparing a research project are left unmentioned in subsequent reports and publications. This tendency can camouflage much important preliminary work that may, in fact, determine the subsequent direction of the research conducted. In this chapter we describe some of our considerations in developing a research project around two digital community networks in the Netherlands. The first section provides a theoretical backdrop, situating this project within the tradition of community media studies at the University of Nijmegen. The second section of the chapter sketches two community-network sites being considered as foci for a longitudinal study: Residentie.net and Purmerend Punt En El. A preliminary study was conducted of Residentie.net, situated in The Hague, and the results are reported in this section of the chapter. In the third and last section some of the tasks involved in developing a formal proposal for a long-term investigation of these two community networks are reviewed. Concerns regarding the theoretical perspective and methodological approach are also addressed and the overall theoretical framework for the study is presented. We conclude by indicating issues of continuing importance in developing this and other investigations of digital community networks.
