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On fieldwork: “Blogging sharpens the attention”

Published on January 17, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, fieldwork / methods, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing

Cicilie Fagerlid provides a nice explanation on why she has started blogging while she’s on fieldwork. Her working title for her research is Communities in the making: Identity and belonging in postcolonial Paris and London.

After I started I have noticed that blogging sharpens the attention, just like taking a lot of photos (and probably painting) does; One starts to see motifs everywhere, and then one has to reflect on how to make the motif into a story so other people can understand what you want to tell them.

>> read her whole post “My blog, my project and I, part 1”

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Cicilie Fagerlid provides a nice explanation on why she has started blogging while she's on fieldwork. Her working title for her research is Communities in the making: Identity and belonging in postcolonial Paris and London.

After I started I have…

Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit: Invitation to a software fantasy

Published on January 16, 2006 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, technology

Cyber Ethnography both resembels and differs from traditional fieldwork. Livejournal user closedistances is beginning his /her dissertation research and designs the (imagined) ideal software tool for cyberanthropologists:

“I have found myself wishing on more than one occasion that I had software capable of automating certain tasks. With this in mind, I want to use this entry to imagine a software package, which I will call “The Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit” (VET for short) that would be able to perform the tasks that existing programs do not seem able to do.”

His or her expectations are quite detailed. Much is related around search and content grabbing. I guess, a part of it could be solved via RSS – at least this wish:

If I wanted to do a textual analysis on SavageMinds.org, VET would be able to generate a text file consisting only of posts within the “Technology” category, only posts containing the phrase “virtual ethnography” within them, or only posts by Rex.

The post ends with an invitation:

If you have ever done a virtual ethnography, I invite you to participate in this fantasy and add whatever features you think VET should have that I did not already think of.

>> read the post: Virtual Ethnographer’s Toolkit: a software fantasy

"I have found myself wishing on more than one occasion that I had…

Virtual Armchair Anthropology: Trend Watching Fieldwork Online

Published on November 30, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, corporate & business anthropology, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet

“I predict that we will slowly see the return of the “armchair anthropologists” Malinowski so famously dethroned.” The reason: “The web offers a tremendous, and ever growing database of lived experience”, Kerim Friedman wrote in an earlier post on Savage Minds. Via del.icio.us/anthropology I found the article “Visual Anthropology” by trendwatching.com. They list several tips on how to conduct online-fieldwork – anthropology light – to find out about peoples’life. From their introduction:

As consumers around the world pro-actively post, stream if not lead parts of their lives online, you (or your trend team) can now vicariously ‘live’ amongst them, at home, at work, out on the streets. From reading minute-by-minute online diaries or watching live webcam feeds, to diving into tens of millions of tagged pictures uploaded by Flickr-fueled members of GENERATION C in Mexico, Mauritius, Malaysia and dozens of other countries.

What’s so interesting about this feature are the large number of links to explore. In many cases, the photo sharing service flickr gives insight into peoples life. Or obscure sites like What’s in your fridge?

>> continue to Virtual Anthropology. An emerging consumer trend and related new business ideas

"I predict that we will slowly see the return of the “armchair anthropologists” Malinowski so famously dethroned." The reason: "The web offers a tremendous, and ever growing database of lived experience", Kerim Friedman wrote in an earlier post on Savage…

The Smithsonian Institution starts blogging

Published on November 30, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, art, internet, technology, websites

(via vrulje) Museums start blogging! It’s called Eye Level and is the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s blog and according their self-description “the first blog by the Smithsonian and one of just a handful of museum sites in the blogosphere”.
Their hope is that their blog “hosts a vital conversation among artists, curators, collectors, and enthusiasts on a broad range of subjects related to American art”:

Over the long term, Eye Level will look at both art and museums, offering the kind of close examination that new media affords, in part simply to find out how new media can enhance the museum’s role.

Especially interesting from an anthropological point of view:

(…) To cite the old cliché, the eye is the window to the soul. If art is a window to a culture, Eye Level is a way to take it in.

>> visit Eye Level

(via vrulje) Museums start blogging! It's called Eye Level and is the Smithsonian American Art Museum's blog and according their self-description "the first blog by the Smithsonian and one of just a handful of museum sites in the blogosphere". …

INTEL-ethnographers challenge our assumptions of the digital divide

Published on October 27, 2005 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, Asia, corporate & business anthropology, development empowerment, internet, Latin- and Central America, technology

(via Bits and Bytes Interesting story by INTEL-etnographers Tony Salvador and John Sherry (one of them – Sherry – is actually an anthropologist!) on their work in India, Peru and Hungary. They summarize some of their findings after four years circling the world to find out how computers are being used by typical people in different cultures.

One of their main points:

The split between those with and those without access to digital technologies is referred to as the digital divide. But that phrase hides the complexity of the problem, because it focuses on the “having” and the “not having” of technology. Instead, what really matters is the ability to benefit from technology, whether or not that technology is personally owned.

They go on with various examples, among others they show how even the computer illiterate reap the advantages of the Web, made possible by public Internet facilities. The ethnographers remind us of that only about 10 percent of the people on the planet are familiar with the Internet and what it can do.

>> read the whole story in Spectrum Online

UPDATE Kerim Friedman comments:

I believe we can better understand the impact of new communications technologies if we emphasize the similarities, rather than just the differences, with older technologies.

>> read his post on Savage Minds

SEE ALSO

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“How Media and Digital Technology Empower Indigenous Survival

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More and more blogging anthropologists – but the digital divide persists

(via Bits and Bytes Interesting story by INTEL-etnographers Tony Salvador and John Sherry (one of them - Sherry - is actually an anthropologist!) on their work in India, Peru and Hungary. They summarize some of their findings after four years…