Ethnography and Information Systems

[Tom Johnson]

All:

At some point Friday past the discussion turned briefly to ethnography
and information systems.  I had recently seen the following citation
and  attach the appropriate paper.

*Ethnography of Information Systems -- Course Syllabus* paper
<PAPERS/STAR/LIS450EI.PDF>

    Ethnographic research is becoming increasingly important at key
    points in the design, testing, and evaluation of new information
    systems. In this course, we propose to survey the rapidly growing
    body of ethnographic analyses of information systems, to extend the
    basic principles of ethnographic research and to lead students in
    the development of projects modifying these principles for the
    emerging electronic environment.

Susan Leigh Star,
Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego

Geoffrey C. Bowker,
    Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego

*Biographical Sketches:*

Susan Leigh Star is a Professor of Communication at the University of
California at San Diego. She was previously a Professor of Library and
Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She is
the author of /Regions of The Mind: Brain Research and the Quest for
Scientific Certainty/ (Stanford, 1989), /Ecologies of Knowledge/ (SUNY,
1995), /The Cultures of Computing/ (Blackwell, 1995), and with Geoffrey
Bowker, /Working Infrastructures: Classification and Practice/ (MIT
Press, forthcoming). Correspondence can be sent to [hidden email]
<mailto:[hidden email]>.

Geoffrey C. Bowker is a Professor of Communication at the University of
California at San Diego. He was previously a Professor in the Graduate
School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois
in Urbana-Champaign. His book Science on the Run: Information Management
and Industrial Science at Schlumberger, 1920-1940 is available from MIT
Press. He has just completed with Leigh Star a book on the history and
sociology of medical classifications (Working Infrastructures:
Classification and Practice) and has recently co-edited a volume on
Computer Support Cooperative Work (Social Science, Technical Systems and
Cooperative Work: Beyond the Great Divide, LEA Press, 1997).
Correspondence can be sent to [hidden email] <mailto:[hidden email]>.

=================================

NB: This comes from a book and CD.
Burton, Orville Vernon. "Computing in the Social Sciences and
Humanities." Univ. of Ill Press, 2002.

I first met Burton at what was either the first or second international
conference on computing and the social sciences at the U of I in March
1993.  Many of the papers in this collection were first presented at
that conference, so many of  the bibliographies are dated, as is the
case of the attached paper.

What was significant about that conference, though, is that it included
what may have been the first public demonstration of a new concept/tool:
a web browser called Mosaic.   I recall being blown away sitting in an
auditorium watching three monitors integrating the video of "Macbeth" on
one, the text of the play as it was being performed on the second, and
simultaneous concordance-type commentary on the third.  One feed was
coming from a U of I server, the second from a server from the
Smithsonian and the third at the CERN facility.  (Of course it never
hurts to hold a conference at one of the super-computing sites in the
country.)  Somewhere in packing boxes I have a video tape of  that
presentation, and if I can ever find it, I will digitize it and post for
the group.

All the best,
-Tom Johnson

 
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[Parks, Raymond]

Tom Johnson wrote:

> All:
>
> At some point Friday past the discussion turned briefly to ethnography
> and information systems.  I had recently seen the following citation
> and  attach the appropriate paper.
>
> *Ethnography of Information Systems -- Course Syllabus* paper
> <PAPERS/STAR/LIS450EI.PDF>

   Looking at the attached syllabus reminded me of computer science
coursework in systems analysis.  The emphasis on human-machine interface
and cybernetics doesn't seem to be ethnography, in either the
traditional or expanded sense (from Mike Agar's encyclopedia article).

   I would have thought the coursework would include more emphasis on
the various cultures (traditional ethnography) of the cyber domain as
well as subjects such as the problem of how a systems analyst interprets
user requirements through personal filters (expanded sense of ethnography).

--
Ray Parks                   [hidden email]
IDART Project Lead          Voice:505-844-4024
IORTA Department            Fax:[phone]
http://www.sandia.gov/idart Pager:800-690-5288