Group items tagged

I was looking back at this (really interesting) multimedia writing work by Anne Wysocki and noticed how many of the pieces required special players and ample download time/space - Flash Player, Shockwave Player, 1.5 MB of download space - which got me thinking about platform/storage restrictions and digital accessibility. In many instances, a researcher may need not only specific digital skills/knowledge, but also specific platforms, players, software, memory space, etc. to conduct her work. And as players, platforms, software, etc. are upgraded, older digital texts may become less accessible. On that note, I have been taking screen shots of all of the scenes in the Facebook game I'm currently studying. Why? One reason is so I can put these screen shots into a presentation, but the more pressing reason is that another game I'm really interested in looking at (Food Force, a social media game from 2005 - so ancient, right?) is no longer accessible. In its place is a Facebook page with a big bandaged thumb and a "Sorry! This page has been removed." message. An ethnography conducted in a digital space, it seems, requires just as much "recording" as one in an offline space.

The life and preservation of the digital world is a huge question, and one that I don't think enough people are considering. I see more and more of my friends taking all their photos with smartphones and loading them to Instagram or Facebook, or worse never moving them beyond their phones. I wonder what photos will have survived in 20 years when their children are looking to make wedding or anniversary slide shows, or simply becoming interested in their own pasts. There are no hard copies of these images, and while hard copies are vulnerable, so are digital copies for a number of reasons.

great points in this discussion, especially around issues of "access"...which range from having the "right" tech to get into a site to ADA regulations/requirements. Also, preservation is a complicated facet of access and one worth discussing seriously in this course as we think about digital data.

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 the website: The Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) is a key component of the Museum of Anthropology's Renewal Project, "A Partnership of Peoples." In addition to the RRN, the Renewal Project comprises several complementary and innovative components, including a new Research Centre, Major Temporary Exhibition Gallery, and Community Suite. Together, they support collaborative, socially responsible, and interdisciplinary research across local, national, and international borders. The RRN is an online tool to facilitate reciprocal and collaborative research about cultural heritage from the Northwest Coast of British Columbia. The RRN enables communities, cultural institutions and researchers to work together. Members can build their own projects, collaborate on shared projects, upload files, hold discussions, research museum projects, and create social networks. For both communities and museums, the RRN is groundbreaking in facilitating communication and fostering lasting relationships between originating communities and institutions around the world.

There is not much access to the site without an account, so I requested one. I am interested in looking at how this site functions (where there seem to be numerous projects being created with the materials) in contrast with the Danish Folklore Nexus I posted earlier. Both resources might offer insight in to how new projects are being created with already collected materials.

I finally got an account set up and was able to look around the webpage. The images are worth looking at in the very least, although it looks like you have to join sections to see what is going on with projects. You can also see "user submitted" information in a specific heading to see what information users have contributed to the objects.

VersuS is a series of works about the possibility to listen in real-time to the emotions, expressions and information generated by users on social network and using ubiquitous technologies, and to publish them onto the cities which they are related to. A scenario emerges according to which it becomes possible to realize information landscapes which are ubiquitously accessible and which change our experience or urban spaces. These projects also suggest the possibility to use these methodologies and technologies to promote novel forms of participatory practices in urban spaces, for decision-making, policy-making and urban planning and design.

Interesting how this intersects with Meta-Nerd's idea of "scenes." The video is interesting - it plays without sound, and provides very little context (sns platforms, time scales, etc). For me, this made the video less a visualization of data than a weird, undulating monster (or earthquake? Why am I using negative metaphors?). Without the context, it veers away from a piece that will make an argument about the role of social media "in today's society." I appreciate that, even as I want to critique the video for not providing the promised "participatory practices in urban spaces, for decision-making, policy-making and urban planning and design."

This is quite fascinating! The notion of mapping conversations on social networks with /place/ opens many pathways to exploration and innovation. I wonder if the 3D visualization software will be released to the open source community.

I think this article is really spot on in providing an important model for empirically studying and representing the spread of ideas (or controversies) between media and how participatory and professional media influence one another. The fact that this article is written as much for academics as for activists is also exciting (and scary) to me, as a means of thinking about agenda-setting and influence. How might access to these tools help activist campaigns, and how might they swing back to challenge them? How can you really measure effect? "Even when we are able to access the data we need for analysis, interpretation is complicated by the specificity of individualized media experiences, where we've each curated our own individualized lists of sources on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. This can leave us with very different understandings of the day's news. Is it possible to speak meaningfully about a media agenda when agendas are set by individuals following a combination of friends and professional sources they've chosen to meet personal preferences and needs?"

Marko Pelijhan is an incredible digital artist, a lot of his work comments on surveillance. This project is a cool collaboration with North and Arctic Peoples and climate scientists - and brings up some important questions for me around open authoring and traditional ecological knowledge, how might platforms like this incorporate the necessary feedback loops or knowledge-ownership protocols of a particular person/group. How do you protect the sacred in the digital sphere? "The Arctic Perspective Initiative (API) is a non-profit, international group of individuals and organizations, founded by Marko Peljhan and Matthew Biederman, whose goal is to promote the creation of open authoring, communications and dissemination infrastructures for the circumpolar region. Its aim is to work with, learn from, and empower the North and Arctic Peoples through open source technologies and applied education and training. By creating access to these technologies while promoting the creation of shared communications and data networks without costly overheads, continued and sustainable development of autonomous culture, traditional knowledge, science, technology and education opportunities for peoples in the North and Arctic regions is enabled."

The Wayback Machine! This is a great tool for retrieving old copies of web sites or completely defunct/ missing websites. It has been helpful for me to delve into everyday digital content (calendars, announcements, etc.) that wasn't archived clearly. It also gave me access to abandoned sites years after the community had moved on.

And, depending on the site, can be a sort of auto-ethnographic document or snapshot...great for comparing design changes and/or significant shifts that might occur when a community changes (rather than moves on). Sort of an archaeology, I suppose.

An admittedly vague response: http://roundtable.kein.org/files/roundtable/Foster.pdf see page 305, "...a kind of ethnographer-envy consumes artists..."

This is also kind of interesting: http://www.lindalai-floatingsite.com/content/video/data/unpublished/Excitable-Speech_Cinderella/index.html ; the person putting together this site has a number of 'ethnographic' videos, which she accompanies with a section entitled "Concept/artist statement", suggesting the ethnographer as an artist...

A useful article. I pulled out this section: "This confirms the willingness of cultural heritage institutions to start using new media resources and the improvements in accessibility that these new media technologies can offer. This being said, the range currently available leaves one with the distinct impression that it has been developed on an ad hoc basis, with public sentiments perhaps more important than a considered strategy." I wonder how much the development of this media has incorporated general public sentiment as opposed to public input into how they would like the media to look or be used.

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

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.

Wow! poked around just a little bit - great open-source tutorials on accessing census data, representing data in maps, creating news apps, coding, as well as some more manifesto-y pieces on new directions! "Source Guides are collections of tutorials, project discussions, and advice on topics of interest to developers and interactive designers in newsrooms. Is there a Guide topic missing that you'd like to see here?"

Great place to look up book, journals, articles and grey literature. Open Folklore is a scholarly resource devoted to increasing the number of useful resources, published and unpublished, available in open access form for folklore studies and the communities with which folklorists partner.

There are 112 apps on this extensive list of qualitative research apps for mobile devices. They range from interview assistance, to specific research methods, to building basic communication bridges across multiple parties. This list is interesting and should be investigated by anyone looking to research their subjects via mobile access/pathways.

Just click on the link and input your duckid and password.