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Now online: EASA-conference papers on media anthropology

Published on September 27, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, internet, journal articles / papers, media

(via Xirdalium) Understanding Media Practices was the name of one of the numerous workshops at the conference Europe and the World by the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).

Some papers are now freely available:

The online nomads of cyberia (PDF, 337 Kb)
Alexander Knorr (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen)

Foreign correspondents/ foreign news production (PDF, 260 Kb)
Angela Dressler (University of Bremen)

Game pleasures and media practices (PDF, 160 Kb)
Elisenda Ardèvol, Antoni Roig, Gemma San Cornelio, Ruth Pagès and Pau Alsina (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)

Finding our subject: media practice, structure and communication (PDF, 240 Kb)
Daniel Taghioff (School of Oriental and African Studies)

Introduction to “Media Worlds”: Media an important field for anthropology

Working papers in Media Anthropology

(via Xirdalium) Understanding Media Practices was the name of one of the numerous workshops at the conference Europe and the World by the European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA).

Some papers are now freely available:

The online nomads of cyberia (PDF,…

Microsoft anthropologist: Let people be online at work or risk losing staff!

Published on August 27, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, cyberanthropology, internet, technology

Anne Kirah, a senior Microsoft anthropologist, says IT staff believe they’re supporting workplace productivity by limiting private use of the Net. But they may be doing the opposite. Companies that filter Internet access or block IM communications are going to find it harder to hang on to staff, she told at a recent conference.

In an interview with the APC Magazine, Kirah talks about how this new generation of employees is turning the traditional notion of productivity on its head. They’re using the Net to stay in touch with their social circle and do personal tasks during work hours, but also logging on and working from home after hours. For them, the 9-5 work day no longer applies and IT managers may be dealing with nothing short of a revolution that’s based on universal availability of Net access:

The conflict arises because the employers’ benchmarks of productivity are based on something that doesn’t exist anymore. In the old world we measured productivity by just sitting your butt down 9 to 5. We were coming to work 9 to 5, what else would you do at work except work? (…)
I think the whole point is that there’s a cultural change going on. We’ve really moved from this 9-5 world to ‘just give me the deadlines and I’ll decide when I want to do it’…

This is especially true for the younger generation, she says:

What’s happening is that society has placed a lot of limits on children today. We don’t have free play any more, it’s gone. So free play has gone onto the Net. (…) What’s happened in the world today is that activities after school are all orchestrated by adults. There’s always an adult in there somewhere. (…) In terms of the social, in terms of the child-to-child, the internet is Mecca; this is the place where they can be.

>> read the whole interview in the APC Magazine

>> Anne Kirah: Unlock work internet or risk losing staff

E-mail has become the new snail mail – Text Messaging on Rise

How written language and technology are changing work place culture between two generations of people (Anthropology.net)

E-mail has become the new snail mail – Text Messaging on Rise

Published on July 19, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, corporate & business anthropology, cyberanthropology, internet, youth

E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder – a parent, teacher or a boss – or to receive an attached file. But email is increasingly losing favor to instant and text messaging, according to an ap-article:

Much like home postal boxes have become receptacles for junk mail, bills and the occasional greeting card, electronic mailboxes have become cluttered with spam. That makes them a pain to weed through, and the problem is only expected to worsen as some e-mail providers allow online marketers to bypass spam filters for a fee. Beyond that, e-mail has become most associated with school and work.

“It used to be just fun,” says Danah Boyd, a doctoral candidate who studies social media at the University of California, Berkeley [and blogger]. “Now it’s about parents and authority.”

(…)

When immediacy is a factor – as it often is – most young people much prefer the telephone or instant messaging for everything from casual to heart-to-heart conversations, according to research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Boyd says, young people have developped skills for chatting with “a bazillion people at once”. They understand how to negotiate the interruptions a lot better than adults.

Anne Kirah, design anthropologist at Microsoft, even thinks young people’s brains work differently because they’ve grown up with IM, making them more adept at it.

Companies really need to respond to the way people work and communicate. The focus, she says, should be the outcome:

“Nine to 5 has been replaced with ‘Give me a deadline and I will meet your deadline,'” Kirah says of young people’s work habits. “They’re saying ‘I might work until 2 a.m. that night. But I will do it all on my terms.'”

>> read the whole story in the Washington Post

Ethnographic Study on “Digital Kids”

An interview with Anne Kirah: Lead design anthropologist

E-mail is so last millennium. Young people see it as a good way to reach an elder - a parent, teacher or a boss - or to receive an attached file. But email is increasingly losing favor to instant and…

New blog: Sarapen. Online anthropology on Filipino bloggers

Published on July 8, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, globalisation, internet, migration, Northern America, Us and Them, websites

(via Livejournal Anthropology Community) Jesse de Leon, Master’s student in Social Anthropology, has started blogging on his research on Filipino bloggers – a very interesting blog about migration, transnationalism, identity and internet research. In his second post he explains:

I’m what’s known as a 1.5 generation immigrant: someone who immigrated as a child old enough to remember the country they were born in. In my case, I immigrated to Canada from the Philippines when I was ten years old. I consider myself as having grown up in both countries. I know that if I had grown up entirely in the Philippines, I would be a different person than what I am today.

It’s therefore understandable that I’m interested in issues of migration, transnationalism, and identity. I’m particularly interested in what identity is like for other Filipinos who have migrated. Do they consider themselves as being completely Filipino? Or do they see themselves as being Canadians now (or American, or Australian, or so on)?

(…)

Now, this is all well and good, but lots of other people have examined these issues. What am I doing that’s new? Well, I’m investigating Filipino migration and identity, but I’m investigating them through blogs. Specifically, I’m looking at how Filipino bloggers talk about these issues. I’m also looking at how Filipino bloggers don’t talk about these issues.

>> visit Sarapen. Online anthropology on Filipino bloggers

His blog is hosted at edublogs.org – a free blog host that he recommends.

(via Livejournal Anthropology Community) Jesse de Leon, Master’s student in Social Anthropology, has started blogging on his research on Filipino bloggers - a very interesting blog about migration, transnationalism, identity and internet research. In his second post he explains:

I’m…

How internet changes the life among the First Nations in Canada

Published on June 11, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, development empowerment, indigenous people / minorities, internet, inuit, technology

(via FieldNotes): These are the first words in an article on how the internet is changing life in First Nations communities in Canada:

“This year, the internet saved a child’s life.”

For Internet may mean different things to life up there in the North:

A broadband connection doesn’t mean downloading the latest Bedouin Soundclash album or “messengeing” a friend who lives down the street. For the aboriginal communities that are being wired, internet means school, family, health-care and job opportunities.
(…)
High-level physics courses are now available online, and bright aboriginal students who choose to stay in their villages … have the drive to take online classes and strive towards university.
(…)
First Nations leaders think keeping kids in the community — educating and mentoring them — might stem some social problems.

And previously isolated villages might cooperate and share news via the web:

Turtle Island Native Network has a forum page where aboriginals post essays, ideas and concerns. Chief Tommy Alexis of the Tl’atz’en Nation posted an essay on clean water issues on the afternoon of May 22. By 9:00 p.m. on May 30, it had been viewed 3250 times. Other communities facing water pollution problems now know that they are not alone. Maybe one of the communities new to the web will learn for the first time that other First Nations have similar land-rights issues, or water-quality issues. It is possible that isolation will no longer disempower nations.

>> read the whole story in TheTyee.ca

(via FieldNotes): These are the first words in an article on how the internet is changing life in First Nations communities in Canada:

"This year, the internet saved a child's life."

For Internet may mean different things to life up there…