Friday, March 23, 2012

Things I don't know

















I know I conceived EthOS and briefed our developers. But this means nothing in the grand scheme of things. Here is an analogy:

"Steve! I want to build something that looks like a horse but goes faster than a horse allowing two people to sit on it. It needs to have 4 legs too and not have a mind of it's own. And it can't poo everywhere either."

" Why does it need 4 legs? We can use wheels..."

"Wheels? What are wheels?"

"They go round and round helping your thing to drive forward. We can also use something called a combustion engine to make it work too!"

"Why not steam?"

And so it went on. I began to realise that rather than trying to explain the mechanisms, I should simply focus on the end result. And then listen to the solutions the expert(s) came up with.

So hear is something which was discussed in a meeting the other day. 'How can we use EthOS to build a panel?' Not a pre-recruited panel but a self recruited one.

Here is the scenario: You open a magazine and see a QR code to scan with an explanation/invitation (to get onboard a study). You scan and download the app with the project already embedded. No sign up, no accepting the project! It's all there - tasks, tags and questions. Ready to go.

There is no limit to where these can be used. I would, for example, love to allow people to download the primed apps in car parks around Florence Italy: "Download the app and share the best parts and the most frustrating parts of your visit."

See what I mean?

I asked 'Steve' how we could make this work. His reply, which knocked me over, was that it already works! We just need to do it. And do it we will, though not by ourselves.

Will share more when I know more.


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The first of many
















We have been slow (at EthOS) with making any films to bring to life what the app can do. My own excuse is that the platform has been changing so much and so quickly that by the time any film is completed it will already be out of date!

That said, we decided to just do it. Make a film and what the heck if it's rendered obsolete within 24 hours. It's intentionally short and conceived as an appetite wetter rather than a detailed walk through. If anyone wants a detailed walk through, they should call us directly.

Genuinely curious if it makes you curious to know more. BTW you might want to watch it full size on YouTube in HD. We'll be making other films so stay tuned.


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Wednesday, March 7, 2012

My NewMR talk about farmers vs hunter gatherers
















"Asking respondents to fill in screeners is effectively asking them to agree to behave in a particular way for the duration of your research study..."

You can watch my talk here. It's just under 20 minutes long. Once again, get a cup of tea/coffe and a biscuit then press play.


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Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Webinar time





















Webinars are good things.

You invite everyone you can think of to a session and tell them all about a bunch of things they never knew they should know.

Things such as:

What does in-the-moment mean when you are doing mobile ethnography?
Why does self-ethnography open up two streams of analysis and interpretation?
Why should coding and noting of entries be done in layers?
How can you create an audit trail of your thinking around entries?

And as much as I can fit into 45 minutes.

So if you want to learn something that you can apply to any, not just our own EthOS platform, then you should make some time to join me on the morning or afternoon of Thursday the 22nd of March. And here is the newsletter.

Hope to see you on the day!


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Monday, March 5, 2012

The last of my travel films - this one was to the US


















I was supposed to fly to NY for a meeting the day before, have my meeting the following morning and fly home in the evening. Because of delays and missed flights, I flew into Newark in the morning, had my meeting and flew home again the same night. Exhausting but fun. Again filmed using my laptop camera.
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Thursday, March 1, 2012

My Travel film

















This was a Unilever project reconnaissance trip to four countries. The client wanted me to write my own brief which they, in the end, hated!!! We still got the project.

This film is only from 2007 yet feels like 30 years ago!

Anyway - can anyone tell me how I filmed this? First correct answer will win one of my favourite books ever!


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