technology

Marc Erickson, channels.lockergnome.com

Ian Condry:

“What is this culture of piracy and what is at stake in trying to change it? In this essay, I take an ethnographic look at music file sharing, and compare the situation in the US with Japan. My findings are based on fieldwork in Tokyo, and surveys and discussions with US college students. By considering the ways social dynamics and cultural orientations guide uses of digital media technology, I argue that a legal and political focus on ‘piracy’ ignores crucial aspects of file sharing, and is misleading in the assumptions it makes for policy.”

>>continue incl link to original text (31 pages, 3,8MB!)(via flitzlog.blogspot.com and Voelkerkunde-Forum Wien)

Marc Erickson, channels.lockergnome.com

Ian Condry: "What is this culture of piracy and what is at stake in trying to change it? In this essay, I take an ethnographic look at music file sharing, and compare the situation in the US with…

Business Week

Timothy Malefyt is now an in-house anthropologist for BBDO New York, the advertising firm. His mission is to study a group of college students at Columbia University and figure out how in the world they process all of the information that comes their way, whether it’s from TV, movies, billboards, video games, cell phones, the Internet — just about everything but the fortunes wrapped inside Chinese cookies.

If a college student receives a targeted ad on her instant messaging (IM) screen, or a text message on her cell phone, is she likely to resent it? Consider it a joke? Would certain types of advertisements be welcomed? The answers depend, from an anthropologist’s perspective, on the communications rituals associated with each of these tools. >>continue / copy

Business Week

Cultures of Music Piracy: An Ethnographic Comparison of the US and Japan

Anthropologist tries to fathom how advertisers can approach today’s youth