Dana Rotman, Jennifer Preece, Yurong He, Allison Druin

The 7th iConference, February 9, 2012, Toronto

http://xkcd.com/256/

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http://xkcd.com/802/

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Rethinking ethnography on large Rethinking ethnography on large scale online environments: scale online environments:

Boegh @ Flickr

johncooke @ Flickr

> 600 papers from ACM Digital > 600 papers from ACM Digital Library. Library. Interviews with researchers.Interviews with researchers.

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Large scale online environments Large scale online environments offer us various types of data, offer us various types of data, providing us with an providing us with an unprecedented intimate portrayal unprecedented intimate portrayal of users and behaviorsof users and behaviors

Distinctive personal data

Structural data

Activity logs

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What can ethnography help us understand ? What can ethnography help us understand ?

Neeravbhatt @ Flickr

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The stages of ethnography The stages of ethnography

1920-1930Cultural anthropology

1980 - presentEthnography in HCI

1990 - presentVirtual ethnography

1960-1980Political, cultural interpretation

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Ethnography of large scale online environments – Ethnography of large scale online environments – the challengesthe challenges

 BenSoark @ Flicker

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Size and scopeSize and scope9

Unit of analysis and the long tailUnit of analysis and the long tail

2008 California Academy of Sciences @ EOL

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Interface structureInterface structure

    3liz4 @ Flickr

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Interface and content Interface and content instability instability

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Content changeContent change13

EthicsEthics

Carrie Sloan @ Flickr

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15 years ago15 years ago TodayToday

Size and ScopeSize and ScopeSmall settings, limited number of users (hundreds)

Vast distributed networks, unlimited number of users (hundreds of millions)

Unit of AnalysisUnit of Analysis

Selection of entry point relatively easy; User behavior relatively homogenous; heterogeneous behavior salient

Selection of entry point affected by the size of the field; The “long-tail” highlights extremely well connected users

Interface StructureInterface Structure Relatively simpleMulti layered structure of ties and content

Interface stability Interface stability Infrequent and slow changes Rapid changes to the tool, interface, and content

EthicsEthicsBudding understanding of online research implications.

Distributed user populations are subject to different ethics oversight policies

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Some thoughts about solutionsSome thoughts about solutions

@ Flickr

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Borrowing from multi-sited ethnographyBorrowing from multi-sited ethnography

revger @ Flickr

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Using structural analysis Using structural analysis 18

Combining ethnography with natural language processingCombining ethnography with natural language processing

s m johnson @ Flickr

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Anthropologists! Anthropologists! 20

Thank You!

drotman@umd.edupreece@umd.edu

yhe@umd.eduallisond@umiacs.umd.edu

Supported by NSF EAGER grant # 109993

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