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Visual designanthropology: Watch film about the design chair online

Published on September 26, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, art, design anthropology, Visual Anthropology

Anthropologist Kristiina Lavia has already three years ago made a film about designing a chair: She portraits the Norwegian designers Svein Gusrud, Torstein Nilsen and Sigurd Strøm – and the way they experience their work with design and creativity. Lavia is currently giving the first course in design anthropology for designers at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design. She even encouraged her students to publish their fieldnotes in a blog (only in Norwgian, though).

>> more about the film / watch the film (English subtitles) (I have problems with viewing the film with Firefox, it works with IE)

To provide better services at the library: Another anthropologist is studying college students

Published on August 10, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, design anthropology, fieldwork / methods, technology, University / Academia

“Rebekah Nathan” isn’t the only anthropologist who is studying students.

The article in Democrat & Chronicle starts like this (quite typically for journalists who are somehow puzzeled by recent changes in anthropology)

On and off for two years, anthropologist Nancy Foster lived with and observed the Wapishana, an indigenous tribe in Guyana and northern Brazil whose members live as hunters, farmers and fishermen. Now she’s studying a group nearly as exotic — college students.

And it goes on:

Employing the same methods numerous companies use to study their workers, University of Rochester’s River Campus library system is dissecting how its students live and work. The goal is to figure out ways of making the library more accessible to them for research papers and other projects.

The work comes on the heels of a similar study led by Foster of UR faculty to see how they used the library, particularly its online offerings. The result was that UR faculty now have personalized pages on the library’s UR Research Web site — it being a repository of various studies and papers done by faculty.

PS: We read about the possible consequences of this research. Students might be able to send an instant message to a reference librarian with questions. Something similar is already possible at the public library in Oslo. You can send sms and chat with librarians, see here

www.biblioteksvar.no/en/

"Rebekah Nathan" isn't the only anthropologist who is studying students.

The article in Democrat & Chronicle starts like this (quite typically for journalists who are somehow puzzeled by recent changes in anthropology)

On and off for two years, anthropologist Nancy Foster…

Intel is using locally hired anthropologists in new development centers

Published on August 1, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, Asia, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, technology

RedHerring

In a bid to eventually sell more chips, Intel plans to announce Monday that it has set up four new offices around the world that are staffed with anthropologists and engineers to help design computers with features for emerging markets. Traveling from dusty rural villages in India to busy Internet cafés in Brazil, these Intel employees will collect data from weather to the content needs of people in regions where computers are not yet popular.

The company began sending ethnographers to study how people interact with technologies. One anthropologist spent a year living in rural China. With the creation of its new business unit and four development centers, Intel has set up permanent and locally hired staff to do ethnographic studies and engineering. The efforts appear to be paying off. >> continue

Comment by Judd Antin, Technotaste: What I particularly like about their approach is that they aren’t just sending Western researchers overseas, they’re hiring local folks to help understand their own communities

Anthropologist helps Intel see the world through customers’ eyes

When cultures shape technology – Interview with Genevieve Bell

RedHerring

Anthropologists on fieldwork for Microsoft in India

Published on January 12, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, Asia, corporate & business anthropology, culture traditions, design anthropology, technology

RedNova News / Seattle Post – Intelligencer

Microsoft Corp.’s research unit is turning to social scientists in a new effort to understand the long-term possibilities for computer technology in developing countries.

A Microsoft Research lab, to be inaugurated tomorrow in Bangalore, India, plans to employ anthropologists, ethnographers and others to observe and document the lives of people in India’s rural villages.

A primary aim of the new group is to help Microsoft understand the situation in rural villages before the company tries to create appropriate technologies for them – rather than first creating the technologies and then trying to find areas where they might apply. >> continue

SEE ALSO:
Microsoft hires five anthropologists (Inc Magazine, june 2004)
antropologi.info’s special on Corporate Anthropology

RedNova News / Seattle Post - Intelligencer

Microsoft Corp.'s research unit is turning to social scientists in a new effort to understand the long-term possibilities for computer technology in developing countries.

A Microsoft Research lab, to be inaugurated tomorrow in Bangalore, India,…

Ethnography, cross cultural understanding and product design

Published on December 10, 2004 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, technology

Ideas Bazaar reports from an interesting seminar about – among others – ethnography and product design and points to aviable conference papers online.

The Global Watch Mission Report Innovation through people-centred design – lessons from the USA emphasises that people in their social context rather than task-centric users should be considered a fundamental source of innovation. Furthermore it states that “cross-cultural understandings are becoming increasingly important for companies such as Intel who are using multi-sited worldwide research as part of the innovation process” >> download the report

>> to Ideas Bazaar’s comments

>> Anne Galloway’s comments / summary of the report

>> Louise Ferguson’s comment: “The user/human/people agenda is hitting the mainstream rather than being the preserve of a niche community.”

>> Press release University of Surrey: Innovation Through People Centred Design – Lessons For UK Business From the USA

>> Corporate Anthropology

>> Social Software: Video presentations of a conference in Oslo

Ideas Bazaar reports from an interesting seminar about - among others - ethnography and product design and points to aviable conference papers online.

The Global Watch Mission Report Innovation through people-centred design - lessons from the USA emphasises that people in…