#AAA2014 Presentation on Ontology and the Wolfram Language
I am excited to be attending the American Anthropological Association Meeting again this year! I will also be presenting a paper with a great panel of digital anthropologists,…
Tag: Technology
Why do we need to have so many meetings?
These days my calendar is a source of stress. My morning routine of reviewing my appointments for the day during my commute often leaves me dreading the coming…
quantification prescribing interaction
Artist and composer ↑Ben[jamin] Grosser, currently teaching at the School of Art & Design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, two days ago has published his fine article “&da…
brandnew ancient games
Obviously I am not at all informed, let alone up to date—granted. But then again this wasn’t really to be expected. Not that I’d have any time for…
Lessons on Branding & Loyalty from the Popcorn Seller
How can a brand give something for free that is helpful to their consumers and also creates brand loyalty? Apple has recently shown that this is not easy…
From Sligo to the Big Apple
One hundred years ago, in October 1914, Irish fiddle player Michael Coleman left his native County Sligo to travel to America. He first got work performing at music…
From Sligo to the Big Apple
One hundred years ago, in October 1914, Irish fiddle player Michael Coleman left his native County Sligo to travel to America. He first got work performing at music…
From Sligo to the Big Apple
One hundred years ago, in October 1914, Irish fiddle player Michael Coleman left his native County Sligo to travel to America. He first got work performing at music…
From Sligo to the Big Apple
One hundred years ago, in October 1914, Irish fiddle player Michael Coleman left his native County Sligo to travel to America. He first got work performing at music…
Inorganic life and ayahuasca plant spirits
As icons of the difference between nature and culture, there is arguably nothing more opposite than plant life and computers. Such is common sense and is based upon key…
The Problem Isn’t Just Facebook: It’s You Too.
Lately, news of the Facebook emotional contagion study and Facebook Messenger’s permissions, have flooded feeds and inboxes. The former was a paper published in the Proceedings of the National A…
Squeaky Dolphin
From an article about the anxieties of big data by Microsoft researcher Kate Crawford. 2014 is the year we learned about Squeaky Dolphin. That’s the Pynchon-worthy code name…
The moral economies of material things
The concept of moral economy is a natural fit to analyses of material culture. In this working paper, I show how the concept has applications to all three research projects…
Making! The Other Story: Robot#10, Twins Separated at Birth, and Hacker Mama
Silvia Lindtner Amelia Guimarin Editor’s Note: Silvia Lindtner (@yunnia) and Amelia Guimarin (@femhacktweets) round out the March-April theme on makers, hackers, and engineers with this post tha…
Engineering obsolescence
Marisa Cohn Editor’s Note: Marisa Leavitt Cohn writes to us from Stockholm, where she is a postdoctoral scholar studying the politics of software systems and computing work practices. In…
Ethnography as Diaspora
Lilly U. Nguyen Editor’s Note: Lilly U. Nguyen (@deuxlits) tells us how in her own work on the ethnography of software in Vietnam, she both studies and embodies “diaspora” –…
Measurements: The Qualitative Work of Quantitative Work
Katie Pine Max Liboiron Editor’s Note: Katie Pine and Max Liboiron continue this week’s theme of makers, hackers, and engineers with a post about the politics and performativity…
Falling in: how ethnography happened to me and what I’ve learned from it
Austin Toombs Editor’s Note: Austin Toombs (@altoombs) brings a background in computer science and a critical sensibility to his ethnographic research on maker cultures. He explores the formati…
Studying Up: The Ethnography of Technologists
Nick Seaver Editor’s Note: Nick Seaver (@npseaver) kicks off the March-April special edition of Ethnography Matters, which will feature a number of researchers at the Intel Science and Technolog…
March-April 2014: Studying Hackers, Makers, and Engineers
This month’s theme – ethnographies of hackers, makers, and engineers – is edited by Morgan G. Ames, who made the transition from being a hacker to studying them…
Tell Me More danah boyd: an interview with the author of “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens”
danah boyd (@zephoria) is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, a Research Assistant Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University, and a Fellow at Harvard’s…
A shift in the business environment that ethnographers can’t ignore
Ken Anderson (@kxande2) manages the Cultural Transformations Lab at Intel. He is an iconoclast by nature and a symbolic anthropologist by training. Over the last 20 years, his…
eReader/Tablet Review: Barnes & Noble Nook HD 7"
Nook HD 7″ and a piece of toast, courtesy of barnesandnoble.com. I don’t know why. For the paperless academic on a budget Virtually every article about improving one’s…
Travels in the Congo: First Things First
So, I’ve been travelling and working in the Congo for about a month now and I already have an awful lot to write about – both the awesome…