linguistic fieldwork questions was New fieldwork for DARE

[Amy West]

On 5/22/13 12:04 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Tue, 21 May 2013 17:21:47 -0500
> From:    "Joan H. Hall"<jdhall at WISC.EDU>
> Subject: New fieldwork for DARE
>
> DARE has received a grant from NEH to do a pilot study in Wisconsin to
> test a new Questionnaire and a new methodology for a second round of
> nationwide fieldwork.
>
> This time we won't be using Word Wagons--instead, the survey will be
> conducted online. We are working with the University of Wisconsin Survey
> Center to develop the method, and we will include a recorded telephone
> interview to collect phonological data for comparison with the original
> DARE recordings.
Excellent that there's work toward a second round of fieldwork.

I have a couple of general questions that relate to linguistic fieldwork
in general:

With the above-described method, are linguists concerned about a
"digital divide" or do folks doing fieldwork think that there's enough
public library or smartphone access that there really is no "digital
divide"? Also does this differ from "old-style" fieldwork by having
"informants" (I can't recall what the new preferred term is) effectively
come to you instead of seeking them out? Is there concern about biasing
the sample by that self-selection?

I apologize if these are basic/rudimentary questions that have been
hashed over before and if folks don't want to rehash, that's peachy fine.

---Amy West

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