Kris R. Cohen, from the University of Surrey (UK). Yayyy he's a blogger. And does some photoblogging too! But that's not what he is talking of. Design research is what he's talking of and the concept of the user. And forces that suture a 'who' to a 'what'. Landscapes of possibilities.

Am not sure what's new about this basic call to look at the landscape of possibilities and not narrow-focus on users. When I started working as a qualitative researcher over 17 years ago, I quickly learnt that your research is as good as your subject. So we looked at users in a broad context - users, non-users, users of competitive brands and services, lapsed users, heavy and light users, old and recent users. Maybe ethnographers and anthropologists need some grounding in market research:):):)???

He leaves us with an interesting thought that researchers can create 'publics' - public spaces and action. Products enter spaces and get transformed. Public action is unpredictable. Ethnographic methods try and suture the who to the what. Design research not only describes but also can predict 'publics'.

Great Question --- how can we get clients to pay us to landscape the possibilities? No real answer.

epic2005

11:52:53 PM    comment []  trackback []

EPIC starts with an introduction from Rick Robinson of GfK-NOP - his talk is called "Let's Talk - Introductory remarks for thoery section". He makes us smile when he says "I've never been in a room full of people who's mothers don't know what they do!"

1. Where's "here" ?
2. Who else is in this conversation?
3. Why theory matters .... quotes Richard Buchanan's diagram - from his paper, Design as Inquiry. He says case studies cannot be the only fodder for conversation, there must be active engagement - not just observe and collect artifacts, but work to the future. We act at this intersection of theory and praxis. We have considerable influence on the future, as a result.

He quotes as his conclusion -"I dont fuck much with the past, but i fuck plenty with the future" --- Patti Smith, Easter/Babelogue, 1978.

There's a live conference blog too. But no Flick'r photo feed (ethnographers and anthropologists should be using Flick'r - maybe I'll start a tag that says EPIC2005!), no IRC or back channel!

epic2005

11:09:53 PM    comment []  trackback []

We had a great session today at the Social Solutions Global Consortium Summit in Seattle, USA. Pat Sachs led us through an engaging conversation on how we participate in this new world, how do we work together and take this forward.

We then moved into a discussion of how we should position this group - while I won't get into details on our discussions, the key concepts we were playing with were around presenting ourselves as the bridge, or the rub connecting customer insight with company innovation. 'Glocal' truly describes us too.

And, as expected :) - I'm excited too about the possibility of adopting social tools like blogs and wikis and VOIP into our work practices and collaborative projects.

Felipe - Spain. Action research, participatory work, PhD on Action Research - getting children back into the mainstream - Clinical Psychologist and Therapist, Human Resources, Started his own company. Also teaches at the university. PAR - participatory action research.

Hugo - born in Italy, moved to South America. Venezuela and then to Argentina. Degree in Social History from Buenos Aires, Masters in Economic History. Research in Human History - Nashville. 12 years ago, moved to Barcelona, Spain - scholarship to do PhD on Social Anthropology. Studied a city Santa Rosa - immigrants found cities - the idea of a city - how did they name streets, etc Exploring how people put into practice ideas.notions. concepts to create organizations. Wife also an anthropologist - CLAY consulting focussing on adoption. Corporate culture - culture debate. We are not social engineers ...in Spain, anthropologists have this motto. Second PhD in Management studies - Focussing on another set of immigrants - expat managers - uses and practices of 'culture' in companies

2:16:39 PM    comment []  trackback []

I had a lovely time in Prague. It is a city with so much history. We stayed at Wenceslas Square in New Town - lots of history of protests and demonstrations there - and now very very touristy.

Old Town is a fascinating place - full of small alleys, restaurants that serve divine dessert, beer that is cheaper than water or soda, crystal shops (the crystal for the most part was quite disappointing - perhaps I had been led to expect better) and touts selling discounted tickets for classical music recitals and concerts in the evening. And there is Kafka and art nouveau.

There is a tram - you can get around pretty easily. And the patterns the streets and roads make fascinated me ... they are mostly cobbled. The city has Gothic architecture for the most part, with lots of churches, romantic bridges and waterways.

The Prague castle was interesting .. not pretty really but the Cathedral there was breathtaking.

Every night there are several concerts - Mozart, Bach, Verdi and Vivaldi ringing out from churches and museums. We sat on the steps at a museum and listened to Vivaldi's Four Season's being rendered by local artists - the lady violinist was just stunning in her energy.

And there are lots of beggars surprisingly, who lie prone on the floor on their knees and elbows, with a bowl or cup held between their hands. Here's a sculpture I found, which actually depicts this.

I'd like to go back to Prague some day. It is one of those romantic cities. I just hope it doesn't get any more touristy and commercialised than it is today.

1:07:46 PM    comment []  trackback []