Why do ethnography?

This is from Sam Ladner's blog on technology design and research methods. Simple points are made but so easy to lose sight of how important these points are when trying to get to consumers' true needs.

New York Trip Film (no insights here)

Have a look at this film. It's a about missing a connection en-route to NY last spring. Not particularly well filmed or edited (I leave that to our experts). What, I hope, you will find interesting is that it was captured entirely using the built in camera of my MacBook Pro! It goes to show just how easily you can capture every day events using things other than a video camera.

QRCA Barcelona Conference Fun Film (no insights here)

This is a film I shot using a tiny hand held DV camera. I would recommend it to anyone but only for YouTube quality footage and no more. Much better than using the built in camera on my laptop. I even filmed our entire summer holiday with it.

Real Ethnography vs. Fake Ethnography

Dr. Aviva Rosenstein - "Fake Ethnography vs Real Ethnography" at URF08 from bolt peters on Vimeo.

A refreshing talk/perspective on what ethnograpy is and is not. My own very strong view is that ethnography must incorporate naturalistic observations, ideally captured on film. A lot of ethnography seems still to be qualitative interviews in people's homes. I could go on but won't. This clip is 30 miutes long so watch it over lunch or an extended break. But make time to watch it. It's good.

Orchards vs Wild Apples

Qualitative vs Quantitative delineation is fast becoming old hat according to my friend, John Griffiths of Planning Above And Beyond. Listen to him talking about web 3.0, wild ‘fruit’, hunter gatherers and the danger it poses for researchers. But (a big, but) the opportunity for ethnographic researchers is huge…

How to Fix EthnoPanels

I told, John all about our ethnoPanels experiment and how it went wrong. Listen to him suggest a much better way of energising our panels. He calls it ‘Super Moderation’. He shares a wonderful analogy about most qualitative researchers having no idea how to throw a great party. According to, John, most only know how to be good bouncers.

Gadgets for Qualitative Researchers

John, like me, loves gadgets. Here he talks about his latest discovery. See other gadgets on his website.

On the money: an interesting read in the Guardian online about Gillian Tett, social anthropology and predicting the credit crunch

"Because one of the things I learned as an anthropologist is that to understand how a society works you need to not just look at the areas of what we call 'social noise' - ie what everyone likes to talk about, so the equity markets and M&A and all the high-profile areas everyone can see. But you need to look at the social silences as well." Read it all, here.

International Student Ethnographic Film Festival 08

What is an ethnographic film? Is it rigorous enough to withstand commercial scrutiny? How do these films convey insight? Perhaps we will find the answers to these questions and more at an interesting event taking place next week on the 11th and 12th of November at Goldsmiths in London, UK. I'll be there too as a panelist and places are free! But you need to make a reservation. If you do come, be sure to find me and we can go for a drink somewhere afterwards.

Go here to read more.