Charley Scull recently presented on “Market Research, Webnography and Chronic Disease” at the American Anthropological Association annual meetings.  His paper looked at whether such an approach is methodologically effective, both as a general proposition and by tracing a specific chronic disease medication across a number of online venues (e.g. blogs, forums, chat rooms, and comment boards). He drew attention to the fact that throughout the research process, the researcher is forced to make important decisions regarding anonymity, attention to context, and informed consent while also considering how these same factors may allow people to share information differently in the online context. His paper examines the kind of information this method reveals and asks the question of whether an online approach to healthcare issues can legitimately be called ethnographic.