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February 21, 2007

Lecture: How much of comm tech is 'technical'?

Key concepts: social norm, breaching experiment

GUEST SPEAKER: Dawn Nafus, Intel Labs (via videoconference)

About The Speaker: Dr. Dawn Nafus is a research anthropologist with the People and Practices Research Group (PaPR) at Intel Labs in Portland, Oregon. Nafus holds a D.Phil in Anthropology from Cambridge University, and she previously worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Social and Technical Research at the University of Essex. She has published widely on communication technology and society. Her recent work has focused on communication technology and its relation to time, mobility, and gender.

About PaPR: PaPR researchers travel the globe to conduct field investigations, using a variety of tools and techniques, from in-depth interviews to observations of people as they go about their daily activities. In the process, they develop valuable insights into potential new applications and technologies. The group works closely with product developers to ensure that the insights gleaned through field work are translated into new technologies that address the needs and desires of people.

Announcement: The midterm has been postponed to 2/28

Announcement: Midterm review sheet was passed out on 2/21

Announcement: Readings due 2/21 and 2/26 have been reorganized

Help/Handout: Midterm Review Sheet

Download file (PDF, 2 pages)

Class Reader: Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities

Garfinkel, H. (1967). Chapter 2: Studies of the Routine Grounds of Everyday Activities. FROM: H. Garfinkel, Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. pp. 36-37 and 47-49. Password Protected Online Full-Text (PDF) [Get Password Help]

Textbook: portions of 13 and 15: Media Uses and Effects / Media Ethics

Read ONLY pp. 392-400 (from "Studying Media Impacts" to the next red heading) in Chapter 13, Media Uses and Effects AND pp. 486-487 ("Research Ethics") in Chapter 15, Media Ethics.

Assignment: BLOG POST: Do-It-Yourself Digitization

Imagine you are an inventor who has created a new process of digitization. In this post, write a patent abstract (*) to describe your work.

Part I. Choose something analog that fits one description from the following list: a photograph, a song, a sculpture, the weather, an experience from your senses. State what you chose in your blog post.

Part II. Invent your own process for digitizing it. It should not be exactly the same as a digitization process covered in the book or in lecture – use your creativity! Write up your process in a blog post, and illustrate it with at least one picture, photograph, or diagram.

Part III. Briefly evaluate the success of your process. Discuss at least one benefit of your digitization process and at least one drawback of the process. In your write-up, use at least two words from the following vocabulary list and cite the source of your definition for each word. (Tip: To "use" one of these words, it must be clear to the reader that you know what it means.)

Vocabulary List:

• Discrete
• Resolution
• Fidelity
• Quantization
• Sampling

Tips and Advice:

• You must think of both a benefit and a drawback. If you can’t think of any, change your process (or think some more about it).
• Your process does not have to be technical in any way. A pen and paper process is fine.
• Extra points will be awarded for particularly creative digitization processes and/or particularly insightful drawbacks/benefits.
• All vocabulary words were defined in the textbook, the Manovich reading, or the lecture. Cite your source appropriately.
• name your process!

Post an answer of at least 250 words to your blog. DEADLINE: 11 a.m. -- one hour before class begins.

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(*) - Patents aren’t usually given for processes, but we will make an exception for you.