Welcome to the Listening Post!

Research 2.0

Tweet

 

Having inherited a speaking opportunity that included the phrase "Research 2.0" (thanks, Marketing!), I found myself searching for a nice image to graphically convey whatever Research 2.0 might be. While I confess to finding the Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 distinction useful, research is a little late to this 2.0 party (Enterprise 2.0, Marketing 2.0, Health 2.0, etc.). We can take solace only in the fact that the CRM 2.0 folks are even bigger dorks than we are:

Even Wikipedia wants no part of this:

And this from a site that lists every episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

Sadly, I was not able to find a nice graphic depicting Research 2.0. To me, the 2.0 abbreviation is all about mash-ups and intellectual borrowing and remixing, so this was particularly disappointing. I wanted someone else to have done the heavy lifting using an ugly font and a hideous color scheme so I could "improve" it.  Oh, well.

Since I intended to talk about social media research and MROCs, my illustration of Research 2.0 focuses on social media research and MROCs. You could probably come up with a slide that makes Research 2.0 all about brain mapping and virtual-worlds ethnography, if you wanted. I wouldn't say anything against you if you did (though the brain map would show that I was thinking bad thoughts about you while playing Second Life).

I did eventually warm to the task. I started with this graphic, which I've used in the past to distinguish research in panels, communities and social networks:

Click this link for a full recap, but basically panelists only talk to the researcher, community members can talk to one another as well as the researcher, and social network members talk with other members not in the researcher's network.

So that could be one dimension. The second dimension is whether the research is directed (for instance, with a questionnaire structuring the dialogue), moderated (a discussion guide, letting the respondent shape the discussion somewhat) or undirected (e.g., "let's see what people talk about"). Taken together:

Traditional methods:

• Survey - directed, one-on-one communications between the researcher and the respondent
• Interview - moderated communications between the researcher and the respondent
• Focus Group - moderated communications between the research and members of a group
• Ethnography - undirected one-on-one between the research and the respondent

• MROC (Marketing Research Online Community) - somewhat between moderated and undirected communications of the members of a group
• Social Media Research - analysis of undirected conversations between members of a social network, with many conversations taking place outside of the sight of the researcher.

I hope those of you forced to talk about Research 2.0 might find this to be a useful illustration.

Note to Marketing: You put "Research 3.0" in a webinar title, and you're writing that slide deck!