1. INF5220 - 4 Lecture 30th of December 2005

2. Ethnographic and interpretive studies Example papers: We will discuss them in terms of –Approach and methods used –How detailed is the description of the data gathering process? –Which kind(s) of material is collected? –What is the amount of time in the field? –Selection of people, sites etc. –The analysis –Formulation of contributions –Degree of self-reflection, e.g. on limitations of fieldwork

3. Using ethnography in IS research Six misconceptions (1-3): –Is it just about common sense? No, you should problematise things that are taken for granted. –Is an ’insider’ view best? Not necessarily, the task is not to replicate the insiders’ perspectives –’Anything goes’ in terms of methods? Preformulated study design are avoided, but epistemological discipline and systematic method are pursued Diane Forsythe: ’”It’s just common sense”. Ethnography as invisible work’ Journal of CSCW, vol. 8 (March 1999), no. 1-2, pp. 127-145.

4. Using ethnography in IS research Six misconceptions (4-6): –”Doing fieldwork is just chatting with people and reporting what they say”. No, people’s views are data, not results. Understanding and analysing. –”To find out what people do, just ask them”. Well, the predictive value of verbal representations and the generality of short-term observations are questionable, and must be complemented with extended observations. –”Behavioural/organisational patterns exist, we must just discover them”. It is not a matter of ’looking’, the expertise rests with the analyst, not in the recording technique. Diane Forsythe: ’”It’s just common sense”. Ethnography as invisible work’ Journal of CSCW, vol. 8 (March 1999), no. 1-2, pp. 127-145.

5. How to organise an ethnographic study? Harper (2000) addresses the question of how you can design an organisational ethnography to ”cover a sufficient spectrum of organisationally situated tasks to enable proper examination of any particular subset of those tasks”. What do you do, where do you go, who do you talk to, in what order etc? Harper’s principle for organising (i.e. planning and conducting) the organisational ethnography is to follow the life cycle of information (and its various modalities). The life cycle of information is its ’birth’, ’life’ and ’death’: where is it produced, worked up, reviewed, circulated, used, stored and then forgotten about. Harper, R. (2000): “The Organization in Ethnography. A discussion of Ethnographic Fieldwork Programs in CSCW”. Journal of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 239-264.

6. Ethical issues of ethnography ’Overt’ (open) versus ’covert’ (hidden, secret) observation Informed consent Legal issues on collecting personal and sensitive data (Norwegian laws require registration of research project with authorities) How do you handle your field data? –Physically: locking up tapes and transcripts? –Analytically: how do you consider and treat those whom you write about?

7. Contextual Design (chapter 6) From Beyer and Holzblatt’ book ”Contextual Design”: Five work models are suggested. These may give some ideas about how to conduct fieldwork: –The flow model: To get work done, people divide up responsibilities among roles and coordinate with each other while doing it. –The sequence model: Work tasks are ordered, and is executed stepwise –The artifact model: People create, use and modify things in the course of doing work. –The cultural model: Work takes place in a culture, which defines expectations, desires, policies, values, and the whole approach people take to their work. –The physical model: what happens in a physical environment either supports and enables the work, or gets in the way.

8. The Work Flow model Describes the communication and coordination neccesary: This perspective describes: Who are the individuals involved and their roles and responsibilities. The relevant other groups. The communication flows and the artifacts used, and breakdowns/problems in the communication flow. (see page 92-93) Look for: –Coordination –Strategy (motivation, reason for action) –Roles (how does tasks hang together to create a role?) –Informal communication structures

9. The Sequence Model Aims at discovering people’s strategies behind their action, their intentions, and what matters to them in organising their work. Shows: intent, triggers, steps, order (lines, loops, and/or branches), breakdowns. (see page 98) Look for: –Hesitations and errors –Triggers –Intents

10. The Artifact Model Aims at focusing on the role things play in getting work done.(E.g. to-do-lists, forms, documents etc). Artifacts reveals the assumptions, concepts, strategy, and structure that guide the people. (see page 104) Look for: –Structure –Information content –Annotations –Presentation –Usage

11. The Cultural Model Work takes place in a culture, which defines expectations, desires, policies, values, nad the whole approach people take to their work. THis approach aims to describe the persons or groups that influences others, the nature of the influence and the extent of this influence on work, as well as conflicts/problems Look for: –Tone –Policies –Organisational influence

12. The Physical Model How the physical environment matters for work (enables and/or constrains it). Describes places/spaces, physical structures, and layout, the usage and movement in these spaces, the location of hardware, software, communication tools and other artifacts, and breakdowns/problems. Look for: –Organisation of space –Division of space –Grouping of people –Organisation of workplaces –Movements