Sonia Vougioukalou- Using web technologies to enhance research and dissemination

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Date of Event: May 26, 2010

What: Wednesday Seminar

Who: Sonia Vougioukalou- Using web technologies to enhance research and dissemination

Where: University of Kent

What happened:

The topic for the week’s seminar was using computers in fieldwork, and the presentation was given by Sonia Vougioukalou. To start off with for the class, we began by listing: How we are currently using technology in our fieldwork, how we would like to use computers further in our work and what sites we currently know about that we like.

Here is what I put down:

How using currently:

-        Blogging

-        Transcribing using audio programs and Word to type up

-        Skype to hold and record interviews

-        Zotero to for referencing, note taking and keeping sources (somewhat organized)

-        Delicious for bookmarking

-        The Internet for online research

-        Google News Alerts

-        Will be posting photography, audio and video online

-        Online Networking, mainly Meetup.com, Facebook and starting to use Twitter

-        Overall, putting everything I do online

What I would like to do more of:

-        Possibly get a forum started on the site. But not sure it would be necessary.

-        Gather more relevant websites and resources to post in my  links

-        I know there are more I can’t think of!

I could not think of any sites that do exactly what I want however, I would like to do a better job of linking my work within Facebook , Twitter and other social networking sites to get a conversation going.

Because there was a small group, the presentation functioned more as a conversation and we moved onto speaking about Interactive Ethnography. This made me realize that I should be thinking more about how I can use technology and the Internet to elicit information from people. So in the next weeks, I will be brainstorming ideas on how to do this. For a web based project, I am sure doing a lot of face to face research. Not that it is a bad thing.

Let’s see…She also brought up the group she had started on Wiser Earth: Methods in Anthropology and Conservation (http://www.wiserearth.org/group/anthropologyconservation). While focused on conservation, it does provide a push towards more interdisciplinary measures to open up the range of viewpoints on particular issues. Something I am also working towards.

Transfer Summit: Open Innovation, Development and Collaboration at Oxford.

Looks to have a great array of speakers and topics. Really showing how pertinent all fields are to the perpetuation of open source technologies. Take a look here: http://www.transfersummit.com/programme

I also signed up for the Anthropology Cooperative, and I will soon update my work online there. http://openanthcoop.ning.com/

Tags: design ethnography, Interactive Ethnography, relationship technology user
Posted in Anthropology, research methods | 23 Comments »