Methodological issues of Internet research

Research project treats the Internet as a new tool in the process of survey data collection. In this context the Web survey method is of our primary concern. We discuss separately the methods that solicit the potential respondents and also the methods that publicly invite the potential participant – in this case we have a self-selected surveys. Special attention is given to the design aspects of the Web surveys and to the issue of the participation in these surveys. Besides the methodological issues of the Internet that are related to data collection, the projects also deals with general methodological problems of measuring Internet-related phenomena. There, the Internet stands as a research object and not as a research tool. The Internet is also closely related with other issues in information society research, so the efforts are directed towards the formation of the set of relevant indicators that would cover the developments these area. As an example, the indicators are developed for the case of Slovenia. Some international comparisons are also presented. The project communicates its results on http://www.ris.org.