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Title:

Practical Digital Anthropology: Getting to Know Your Users

Your vote:
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Organizer:
Marc Vermut, Fine Point Solutions, Inc.
Description:
Most modern analytics attempt to boil complex behaviors down to statistics; but is that the whole story? Are your design decisions informed by actual behaviors, instead of near approximations? We present digital anthropology: practical, high-touch techniques that will give you an edge in understanding what really makes your users tick.
Questions
Answered:
  1. What is digital anthropology?
  2. What is an ethnography?
  3. Why is it important to get qualitative insights from customers and users?
  4. What are examples of these qualitative insights?
  5. How are ethnographies conducted and how can we adjust ethnographic approaches to the constraints of online communities and cultures?
  6. Ethnographies sound dry and academic, can I just have some simple guidelines?
  7. How can I translate the findings of my ethnographies into UI and design principles?
  8. Which companies are using Digital Anthropology and ethnographies to design for and better understand their communities? And how do they employ them?
  9. With universal logins and social graph portability, how do cross-community interactions impact a single online community?
  10. How do online social interactions -- Pokes, Likes, Diggs and Buries -- reflect observed offline social activities and how and why do the implementations differ per community?
Level:
Intermediate
Category:
Community / Online Community, Design Thinking, Online Relationships, User Experience
Type:
Panel
Event:
Interactive 2010
Marc Vermut
on 17/8/09
We are really excited to introduce you to a new approach to understanding your users and building better experiences for them. We have already confirmed two of the panelists and are looking for suggestions of real-world corporate practitioners:

Brynn Evans (http://www.brynnevans.com) a candidate in the Ph.D. program in Cognitive Science at UC San Diego, with a dual degree from Stanford (B.A. in Psychology and B.S. in Science and Technology in Society).

Eric Schlissel (http://ericschlissel.com/) a serial entrepreneur, including Social Platform (one of the first white label social network software companies), and strategy consultant for several LA-based startups, with a degree in Cultural Anthropology.
Kurt Daradics
on 23/8/09
Marc delivers the goods. We'll need to make arrangements to record this session no doubt.
Geoff Barnes
on 24/8/09
This looks awesome. I'll be there.
Kyra Reed
on 24/8/09
This is a really fascinating topic. I'm particularly interested in hearing about the companies that are using digital anthropology and what their successes and challenges have been. Great idea Marc!
Doug Schumacher
on 24/8/09
Buzz, word of mouth, water cooler chat, etc has been going on for years, but now that media has gone social, we can actually track what's happening. Plus, if you've ever had even a 5 minute conversation with Marc, you know this will be fascinating.
Jennifer Sparks
on 24/8/09
Great topic Marc and very important to understand. I too will be curious to hear more about the ways in which company's are using digital anthropology. At Basement, we are always looking at ways to slice and dice information about audiences in order to have actionable insights for creative development, user experience, etc. Looking forward to it!
Jackie Peters
on 25/8/09
i love this topic!!!
Dave Whelan
on 25/8/09
Digital anthropology starts to take us in the direction of real-time anthropology, which is an exciting promise. I am all for acting on data, but I love the idea of being able to make important decisions based on deep understanding. Bring it on, Vermut!
Delinquent User
on 26/8/09
I'll be there - good luck Marc!
Rynda Laurel
on 27/8/09
What an amazing concept. Can't wait.

THUMBS UP!
chris gammill
on 28/8/09
one of my favorite marketing topics - looking forward to an interesting discussion on how we can employ the best of ethnography in todays real-time, social web. cheers to Marc for pulling this together.
Sloane Berrent
on 2/9/09
One of my favorite topics too. Marc - I'm there!
violet mae
on 3/9/09
I wouldn't miss this panel for the world.

As someone who studied anthropology and ethnography in school and for fun, i understand the value in conducting ethnography before formulating a marketing strategy and tactics- funny enough, that's what most people are missing.

Save me a seat in the front!
tiffany jewelry
on 20/10/09
Good idea for a panel. Case studies ARE good. :)
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on 22/10/09
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Games Online
on 3/11/09
I would come down to SXSW for this one!
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