Group items tagged

One perspective on which digital tools are most effective (and practical) for ethnographic fieldwork.

Pretty convincing post about the potential for using the ubiquitous smartphone and cloud-based tools in ethnographic settings...but there are some assumptions, as well as some breaks with "tradition" (a few obvious, a few not so much...). I've been using my iPhone in a few ways that parallel the systems Horan has developed, and would be happy to explore some of these tools/apps/affordances...

I agree with some of his techniques, although I still find hand written field notes to be useful. You might be more inclined to write certain things down in the field rather than speak them out loud to be recorded in front of the people you are working with. I also was interested in his section on "local currency." ("Local Currency Whether we want to admit it or not, money talks. Obviously, one should adhere to the local customs regarding the proper use of money in every situation, but spending money can gain you access to areas of life that may otherwise be closed off to you. Generosity in time and money goes a long way, so remember to bring cash to gain access to people and places that you may be unfamiliar with.") This section seems to leave out the fact that spending money in a way which is not culturally appropriate can be as detrimental in certain cases, as it is helpful in other situations.

From website: "This portal is a gateway to the cultural materials of Plateau peoples that are held in Washington State University's Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections (MASC), the Museum of Anthropology and by national donors. The collections represented here have been chosen and curated by tribal consultants working in cooperation with University and Museum staff." The About section has a good description of the curation process. In summary, the digital collection allows annotation and content submission by registered tribal members and organizations; also allows visitors and guests to leave text, audio, and video comments on content. The Tribal Links section for each category connects the historical content to contemporary cultures. Content controls allow participants to flag content as sensitive; presumably there is non-public content that is somehow managed. Here is a record that has some annotation by tribal organization: http://plateauportal.wsulibs.wsu.edu/html/ppp/display.php?tid=2&cid=4&fid=147&pgst=0 Metadata seems to include geospatial metadata that allows mapping of buildings, etc. From what I understand, the software used to support this collection is based on an Australian project with similar approach. Unfortunately, not much on the site about the software tools. I will try to locate and add the Australian project and related documentation. Is this digital ethnography? It seems to approach it; but limited markup by tribal members and organizations gives limited view of offline implications of online data.

This is the article by Henry Jenkins talking about the trends in young generations and their participation in the digital world creation. This article seem relevant because it explores how and why these digital communities are forming, which would give us a better sense of how to study them.

I am admittedly bad at finding links that aren't already posted here... I thought this person brought up some of the key points we have been discussing concerning where digital ethnography can take place in relation to traditional ethnographic terminology... specifically, defining a 'field site'... if this link works...

This is an interesting article about those domains where the ethnographic work takes place. I thought it was really interesting how the case study shows how civic engagement is enable in both "on-line" and "off-line", making me think of how we construct meanings about place and time, carrying out the conversations from on "space" to another.

Must have had promise when I linked to this back in March, but now I get a "404" when accessing...backing into the domain a bit yields a rather dramatic "untrusted connection" message from Firefox! Beware!

Techneos and the Royal Wedding: http://www.techneos.com/newsandreviews/ipsos-techneos-citizen-journalism-mobile-market-research-tools-royal-wedding

Great title. Not a very useful link.

the "iWant" tool does not appear to work...nor is it very clear how it works. But, I think it is indicative of the kinds of data mining/harvesting approaches people are taking when it comes to "public" streams of discourse/conversation/knowledge that Twitter represents.

What is this? All Our Ideas is a platform that enables groups to collect and prioritize ideas in a transparent, democratic, and bottom-up way. It's a suggestion box for the digital age.

This article is written from the computer science perspective on how social sciences are used to analyze Human-computer-interactions (HCI) and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). Tthis article is talking about how ethnomethodology can help computer scientist to design systems allowing people to interact in groups through technology and computer networking. The article is concern on people's behaviors that takes them to interact with the technology and how they do it, some of these points can be stretched and transfer to understanding the behaviors of individuals that interact in digital communities. It continues talking about the influence of the participant in the design of the technology, which brings to my mind the discussion about how the data gathering and "aggregation of information" shape the actions, the behaviors and the data available, which at the same time can dictate how the technology is been developed

On taking risks in digital humanities.

As digital continues to influence behavioural change across all demographics and cultures, new tools and techniques are starting to allow greater access and insight into people's behaviours globally.

"As a planner I continually encourage the brands I work with to understand their audience behaviours and then create experiences and utilities that fit within this existing routine, rather than try and change behaviours, so when exploring research opportunities we should be doing the same thing - whether that involves simply listening, using mobile devices, creating videos / blogs / diaries / collages, gaming … or any combination of these." Little disappointed Lucas-Garner didn't reference privacy issues in her discussion of methodology in industrial research.

This is fascinating. A Kansas State professor encouraged his students to create individual YouTube videos (of themselves) in order to generate different types of creative, self-reflexive, and personal digital "ethnographies." Scroll down the webpage to view individual videos or visit the class's group page on YouTube.

This project by Michael Wesch has been going for some time and earned him much attention/respect. Check his bio here: http://mediatedcultures.net/michael-wesch/

Just testing diigo, but thought this service provided by WalMart(!) was interesting.

Nothing better than Walmart trying to control the media world :)

I keep intending to pass along this site - folkstreams.net - which has digitized and archived a number of "canonical" ethnographic films. You can watch them for free - check out Salamanders!