Ethnography in the wild: doing design ethnography with organisations

at  ECSCW 2015 (Sept. in Oslo, Norway). Deadline: 3rd July 2015.

See http://ethnointhewild.wordpress.com

With the rise of ‘in the wild’ research, collaboration between academic researchers and industry or third sector organisations has developed as a core practice within CSCW.

While there is a substantial literature about the relationship between fieldwork and system design, the practical work involved in bringing ethnography to bear on third party organisations is an undeveloped area of inquiry.

This one-day workshop centres on sharing case studies of collaborations with organisations in the wild, in order to better understand what is involved in leveraging ethnography into third party organisations, along with the complex organisational matters that impact and shape this.

SUBMISSIONS

This one-day workshop is intended to bring together contributions that examine the intersection of fieldwork (specifically ethnography) and design in the context of third party collaborations. We invite submissions of contributions that include, but are not limited to:

• Case studies that illustrate / exhibits active management of the relationships between the perspectives of ethnographers, designers, and any ‘clients’;

• Practical insights into the work practices to make the relationships between ethnographers, designers, and clients work;

• Reflections on the production and use of specific ‘boundary objects’ (such as thick descriptions, implications for design, etc.) with particular emphasis on how they bridge ethnography, design, and interactions with any ‘clients’;

• Position papers that examine broader communicative issues in such collaborations.

*** Send submissions to str ‘at’ cs.nott.ac.uk or jef ‘at’ cs.nott.ac.uk

Submissions should be no longer than 4 pages in ECSCW format. We will adopt a ‘light weight’ review process — submissions will be reviewed by at least two of the organisers.

(Full proposal: http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/~str/doc/reeves-2015-ecscw-workshop.pdf)

IMPORTANT DATES

• 3 July 2015 – submission deadline.

• 31 July 2015 – notifications sent.

• 19 August 2015 – ECSCW early registration deadline.

• 19-23 September 2015 – ECSCW conference in Oslo, Norway (Workshop on Saturday 19th of September).

ORGANISERS

Stuart Reeves, Joel Fischer, Corina Sas, Andy Crabtree, Mark Rouncefield