AusWeb: What Did We Say? A Qualitative Data Analysis of the Papers

J. Dale Burnett, University of Lethbridge, Email: dale.burnett@uleth.cau

Allan Ellis, Southern Cross University, Email: aellis@scu.edu.au

Keywords

AusWeb, Conference, Papers, Qualitative analysis, Education, Technical, Business and Society.

Abstract

Qualitative data analysis techniques were applied to the papers from four AusWeb conferences in the period 1995 to 2001 to provide a metadata description of the themes and topics. Comparisons among the descriptions for the four conferences were then made in a search for commonalties and trends. Using the four major categories of Education, Technical, Business and Society, a number of patterns were identified. Education papers showed a shift away from building operational Web sites to a concern for pedagogical principles that take into account the technological character of the Web. Design, collaboration and a concern for the learning process became increasingly mentioned. Technical papers maintained a focus on integrating database technologies with the Web, interest shifting from cgi-scripts to client-side approaches as well as to new software developments such as DHTML and XML. Business papers, as might be expected, focused on e-commerce but with a continuing interest in small business environments. Society papers have predictably discussed social issues such as equity, gender bias, government control, privacy and security.