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Plans to study anthropological online communities and Open Access movement

Published on February 26, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, fieldwork / methods, internet, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, technology, University / Academia, websites

Anthropology of anthropology: How do anthropologists form online communities? How are open access publishing and other developments that have sprung up online changing community boundaries? Soon, an anthropologist will do fieldwork among us online anthropologists. http://nodivide.wordpress.com/ is the address of the blog by anthropologist Owen Wiltshire, grad student at Concordia University, Montreal, where he writes:

I am interested in collaborative research methods, and the growth of anthropology online. (…) I’m particularly interested in open-access journals, and feel that opening up academic publishing is an enormously important step for anthropology.

(…)

Delving into the interesting colonial history of anthropology, and into discussions of globalization and neoliberal economic injustice, it’s pretty easy to see how it makes sense to make anthropological work freely available to the world that it studies.

In this way I’ll be exploring ways to study online communities – in this case communities of anthropologists. Its an exciting time for anthropology online. I’ve been following anthropology blogs for a year now, and its amazing how fast its growing. Its quite inspiring, and I think reflects a very vibrant community thats just itching to work (and fight) with each other!

So while my research proposal is extremely vague, and I’ve been made aware of this, I’m absolutely confident that the internet, blogs, and the desire to liberate anthropological knowledge from the world economy are fueling a change in anthropology, and that within this excitement I’ll find an interesting “field” of study.

In an email to me he tells that he’ll be handing in a proposal in April and hopefully be doing fieldwork over the summer. He has already been investigating the ways faculty at Concordia University use the internet in classroom, and is working on getting access to an anthropological journal to investigate the publishing world “face to face”.

Owen Wiltshire worked as a web developer for a number of years prior to studying anthropology: “I’ve always followed developments in open source – so I’m excited to see how similar developments work their way into academic culture”, he writes.

>> visit Owen Wiltshire’s blog “Just another anthro blog”

antropologi.info survey: Six anthropologists on Anthropology and Internet

Anthropological research: Online dating as disappointing as the real-life dating scene

Published on January 14, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, cyberanthropology, gender, internet, media, Northern America, technology

Sounds familiar: People on online dating sites are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene. This is one of the findings of research by anthropologist Susan E. Frohlick. She is conducting an ethnographic study of online dating among women age thirty and above.

She says the women on the one hand gained a sense of empowerment from their online dating experiences. But they still wanted the man to make the first move and expected him pick up the tab:

Women are finding it as a useful tool to enter into the dating world, they find that it’s safe, they find that they can be a little more bold than they would in face-to-face relationships. But, at the same time, they are experiencing frustration because it does seem that the internet in many ways is just the same old bar scene.

Complaints include a preponderance of men who are looking for much younger women, as well as men who misrepresent their looks, interests or marital status, or who show little interest in moving the relationship offline, she said.

>> read the whole story on News.com.au LINK UPDATED 30.6.18

Furthermore, women are hesitant to admit that they meet men through the Internet.

Frohlick says:

One of the most striking findings so far is that there’s a huge contradiction between what women say about the popularity of online dating sites on the one hand and, on the other hand, their own sense of almost shame, and certainly secrecy about it. They talk about how it’s for losers.

Frohlick says she hopes the study will shed more light on how the online dating world might be changing women’s sexuality. She would like to find more study participants from across Canada, including women who are looking for same-sex partners.

~~>> read more in Canoe.ca~~ LINK NO LONGER AVAILABLE

She is part of the project “Surfing for Love” at the University of Manitoba. The study will be completed in May, 2008, and a summary of the results will be posted online, she writes on her homepage.

Denise Carter: The Birth of a Cyberethnographer

Ethnographic research on Friendster’s online communities

Cyberanthropology: “Second Life is their only chance to participate in religious rituals”

More Podcasts by the Society for Applied Anthropology

Published on January 14, 2008 by lorenz Posted in anthropology (general), anthropology in the news, internet, media, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, technology

Last year’s podcasts from the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) have received much attention. This year they are continuing the project, Jen Cardew writes on the SfAA-Podcast Blog. She is also looking for six team members who can participate in the podcasting project at the 2008 SfAA Annual Meeting, March 24 – 29, 2008, in Memphis, TN. The deadline for applications is January 28, 2008. >> more inforation on the SfAA-Podcast Blog

Last year's podcasts from the annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) have received much attention. This year they are continuing the project, Jen Cardew writes on the SfAA-Podcast Blog. She is also looking for six team members…

New media and anthropology – AAA meeting part III

Published on December 10, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, ethics, internet, media, Open Access Anthropology and Knowledge Sharing, technology, websites

While new media can foster participatory ethnography and enhance access, one also has to reflect on the implications of the Internet’s openness and availability. This was one of the lessons of a session at the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association about new media and anthropology according to Inside Higher Education.

Kate Hennessy, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia, described an online exhibit on the indigenous culture of the Doig River First Nation that she helped to develop for the Virtual Museum of Canada. It makes songs, photographs and video of the Dane-zaa people freely available to the general public, in what Hennessy described as “a form of repatriation” — the term for returning objects and artifacts to the cultures from which they came, although here the term was used in a virtual sense.

(…)

Over the course of several meetings with community elders, the team came to realize that, according to the Web site, “it is not appropriate to show Dane-zaa Dreamers’ drawings to a worldwide audience on the Internet. Even though the drum is central to this website, in order to ensure that the Dreamers drawings are treated properly and with respect, no images of Dreamers’ drawings or the drum that we describe here are shown.”

(…)

(T)he online exhibit project extended discussions about when the display of cultural heritage crosses the line into appropriation, and how giving communities access to digital tools can provide a means for self-representation.

>> read the whole article in Inside Higher Ed “Downloading Cultures”

How to save Tibetan folk songs? Put them online!

New website helps save Kenai Peoples language (Alaska)

“A new approach to the collection of traditional Aboriginal music”

Multimedia Music Ethnography of Yodelling and Alphorn Blowing

How Media and Digital Technology Empower Indigenous Survival

Book review: Claiming the Stones, Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of Identity

Book review: Who owns native culture – A book with an excellent website

For more news on the AAA meeting see Circumcision: “Harmful practice claim has been exaggerated” – AAA meeting part IV, “The insecure American needs help by anthropologists” – AAA-meeting part II, and Final report launched: AAA no longer opposes collaboration with CIA and the military – AAA meeting part I

How anthropological research can reduce the paper usage in offices

Published on November 15, 2007 by lorenz Posted in anthropology in the news, applied anthropology, corporate & business anthropology, design anthropology, technology

(Links updated 14.2.2025) Another example of anthropologists in product development: As a consequence of anthropological research, Xerox is developing a new kind of paper where the printed information simply disappears within about 16 hours, allowing the paper to be reused.

Why this? Xerox-anthropologist Brinda Dalal, an anthropologist at Xerox, found out that 21 percent of copier documents ed up in the recycling bin on the same day they are produced. In most offices, paper is used as a medium of display rather than storage. Paper is only only printed out or copied when needed for meetings, editing and annotating, or reading away from a computer. The result is, of course, an enormous quantity of waste paper and environmental problems.

>> read the whole story on ZDNet

Actually, the New York Times wrote about this self-erasable paper one year ago. They called anthropologist Brinda Dalal for “garbologist”. She told, she was surprised by the results: “Nobody looks at the ephemeral information going through people’s waste baskets.”

>> Some papers by Brinda Dalal

Timo Veikkola – The Anthropologist as Future Specialist at Nokia

“The science of ethnography is an ideal tool to designing mobile phones”

Anthropologists find out why we (don’t) buy organic food

Ethnography, cross cultural understanding and product design

(Links updated 14.2.2025) Another example of anthropologists in product development: As a consequence of anthropological research, Xerox is developing a new kind of paper where the printed information simply disappears within about 16 hours, allowing the paper to be reused.…