Digital Ethnography

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.

This is a book that I have read through in my previous attempts to approach the online-life of legends and ghost narratives. I found it really helpful to see how Kinsella approached the online community, and perhaps this might help some of you to read through some of his ideas. 

I am currently on the look out for the best transcribing tool, and here is one of my first finds.

This sounds very interesting. I will be translating and then having to transcribe in both Portuguese and English. If I can dictate the audio through a mic using both languages, that would be fantastic! I definitely want to explore this more and/or have someone look into doing a little teaching session on this!

Hey all! This is a fantastic transcribing app I've just started using. Wanted to share!

An upscale restaurant that both demands rigorous formal training in dining service, and googles customers to scoop demographic data and give them a deeply personalized experience.

ABSTRACT: This article provides an account of the question of method as it relates to collective modes of research organised, conceived and produced through the interplay between digital technologies of communication and offline strategies of investigation. It does so by exploring the orchestration of research platforms, which are mediating devices that constitute the production of knowledge across a range of geocultural settings. In the context of a project entitled Transit Labour: Circuits, Regions, Borders, the article maintains that research methods must contend with the ideological, technological and economic instruments that condition knowledge production at the current conjuncture. The platform, we argue, operates as a medium through which research, labour, subjectivity and knowledge are shaped in ways specific to hardware settings, software dynamics and the materialities of labour and life.

For those who may want to gather some quick demographics about an area in the U.S., BAO a free App from ESRI is very useful. Below are some of the features the App offers. Use on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Get up-to-date facts, using the latest Esri Data, about prospective customers (e.g., age, income, education, home ownership, lifestyle, and spending habits). Compare one address against another or against the county, state or US. Analyze an area within one-mile of your location. Instantly determine if a location fits your needs with Smart Map. Share your facts with others via e-mail.

Was Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer actions malicious or do you feel he was only trying to get AT&T's attention for their own mistake? Should he be prosecuted for his actions?

That's an odd one, and really highlights the different notions of public and private spaces online. He went to some effort to get that information, so my kneejerk reaction is to say that what he did was wrong and that he should be prosecuted for it. It would certainly be unethical for an ethnographer to gather data that way, but should it be illegal? EFF calls those pages public, but I think "public" web pages are more like "public" spaces in a private building. He was clearly on their corporate premises, trying to sneak into hidden areas-he had to bombard the site with fake device IDs to get to them, and built a tool to do so. It may not be akin to breaking and entering, but what constitutes trespassing in a digital realm? If a physical office kept records in unlocked closets, would it be illegal to check all the doors in the waiting room, and take pictures when one opened? Or would we be up in arms about that office's recordkeeping practices? Ultimately, the main outcome I'd have hoped for would be requirements for corporations like AT&T to revise their security practices. What Auernheimer did was wildly unethical and without even the veneer of true white hat hacking, but I have no idea what to do with him.

Definitely a must view. It is an amazing piece of work."Last month, the photographer Pieter Hugo went to southern Rwanda, two decades after nearly a million people were killed during the country's genocide, and captured a series of unlikely, almost unthinkable tableaus."

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/

An interesting look at Facebook, Twitter, Google, and LinkedIn considering where these each will be 5 years from now and 10 years from now.

"The computer science research community is going full speed ahead developing exciting new algorithms, but it seems a bit disconnected from what it takes to get their work used."

I thought this article is interesting, basically you need to understand more than just computer science to develop a program that is usable to a particular group.

the concept of "deep maps" invokes multimedia, and stems from thinking anchored in 18th onto late 20th centuries...what shifts does 'digital' provide in this concept? what is the 21st century discussion like?