the unobservant anthropologist » Blogging

Blogging for four years!

Jen Cardew Kersey — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:46:13 +0000

I’ve been out traveling for the last 10 days attending SxSWi in Austin, then visiting family in Melbourne, FL and now in Merida, Mexico for the SfAA Annual Meeting and the SfAApodcasts. Some how in the craziness I missed my blog birthday! I started blogging over at AnthroBlogs 4 years ago. I moved over to this site over a year ago (but brought the old posts with me). Admittedly, I haven’t been very active in the last year but I’m hoping to get back with it soon. Here’s the very first post I wrote way back before I started graduate school and anthropology podcasts existed…. I’m not graduated with my Master’s and working out in the real world and recording the SfAApodcasts for the fourth time. Oh how time flies.

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I’m back! Well, I never really left…

Jen Cardew Kersey — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:16:09 +0000

I graduated last month from the University of North Texas online masters program in applied anthropology. Finally. My practicum consumed most of my life for the last year as I was also working full-time in a market research agency. No excuse really, but I’m back now and that’s what counts.

Since May 15, 2008 (the last year post) sort of in this order:

Changed my blog name from Synthesis of Thought (but I’m not sure what I’ve changed it to yet)
Got an internship at Intrepid Consultants, Inc – a Seattle based market research firm specializing in technology
Moved to Seattle and started my internship/practicum in “Translating Virtual Ethnography from Academia into Practice”
Got married – eloped in San Francisco on the second day of the AAA last November
Gone back-and-forth on if I want to go by “Jen Kersey” or “Jen Cardew Kersey” or “Jen Cardew” professionally, but Kersey legally… it’s tough
Continued to work on the SfAA Podcasts (the quality is SO much better this year, check them out www.sfaapodcasts.net)
Wrote a 99 page write-up about my practicum
Went to Hawaii
Graduated!
Went to EPIC2009 in Chicago

I’m still working on fixing links on this site and getting it organized. Once that’s set, I’m going to start a series about my practicum. The work itself is confidential but the issues I encountered in translating an academic methodology into practice are ones that I can talk about.

More soon.

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: Blogging

Happy Birthday Synthesis of Thought! A look back at the last two years

Jen Cardew Kersey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:15:11 +0000

This blog is two years old today! A year ago today I wrote a blog post reflecting over this blogs first year, so I thought it would be fun to do another “52 weeks, 84 posts later” post.

I’ve been some what inactive with posting the last two months, but I actually miss blogging so I’ll be making an effort to do so after the SfAA Annual Meeting next week. That’s something that has changed for me in the last year- I really enjoy blogging and feel like I have stuff to write about.

When I started this blog I really wasn’t sure what to write about. I was living in Southern Georgia working as a textbook manager at a college bookstore during my year off in between undergrad and grad. I was about to attend the Annual Meeting of the SfAA in Vancouver, Canada and with the strong encouragement from my boyfriend I started this blog in the hopes of the SfAA giving me something to write about. When I left for Canada I hadn’t really thought about grad school and I came home with the idea of applying to the University of North Texas.

Now, I’m in the middle of my fourth semester at UNT and applying for summer internships. UNT requires students to do a practicum in lieu of thesis, so I’ll be looking to do my practicum during the rest of 2008 and graduate in 2009. It’s fun for me to look back through old blog posts to see the evolution of my focus, building of confidence in my posts, and to remember the places I’ve been and things I’ve done. When this blog started I didn’t even know I’d be in grad school. I had NO idea that I’d start the SfAA Podcasts. I’m not even sure I knew where I’d be living.

What my Twitter network means to me

Jen Cardew Kersey — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:37:49 +0000

There has been much buzz around Twitter, what Twitter means, what Twitter is, etc. in the last day. (Twitter is a microblogging social network site.) Yesterday @jowyang did a great blog post about this and it sparked a firestorm of of chatter on Twitter, blogs, etc. One thing that came from it (and I believe that’s what Jeremiah intended with his post) was a surge in people adding new Twitter friends. Someone in my friend list coined the term “friend ninja” to mean following someone because another friend said hello to them and another friend later shortened it to “FNJ.”

I thought I’d give my two cents about Twitter today. It’s something I’ve been meaning to write, but I’m feeling inspired after what another friend called “Twitter Tuesday.” I’ve illustrated as many points as I could in this post with links back to either specific tweets (posts on Twitter) or Twitterers. Now, I’ve written before about Twitter(here, here, here and here) but I haven’t shared too many thoughts about it.

For months I’ve realized that Twitter is of incredible value to me:

Since I work and go to school online I’m home by myself all day, everyday, and there are days that I don’t leave the house. Twitter keeps me company.
Also a result of working from home, I sometimes become uninspired or I feel like I’m becoming stagnant. Twitter inspires me.
Sometimes I run into problems or need to discuss an idea. Twitter becomes a dialog.
I can talk about anthropology with people (something I don’t get to do all that often
When a new invitation-only beta launches and I need an invite, Twitter becomes my entry in.
Twitter has really become a source of news. I don’t pay quite as much attention to my RSS now, I read Twitter.
I learn about new events and meetups, both local and nationally.
I’ve made face-to-face friends on Twitter and I’ve become friends with people that I hope to meet someday.
I’ve gotten to know face-to-face friends better through Twitter.
Twitter has also become a way for me to update my family about my life because they now check Twitter everyday
It’s also a pragmatic tool; your favorite tweets can be reference in iTweet from the iPhone. When I’m standing in front of the beer case at the grocery or at a new bar, I look at my “Good beer:” tweets that I’ve favorited
When I travel my friends also offer me recommendations of where to eat or what to do if I’m in a city where they are familiar with.

I have a poor memory (hence my organizational skills!) but I’ve always had a knack for remembering tidbits about people (hence I’m an anthropologist). While I sometimes find it hard to keep track of my ever-growing number of friends, I do remember bits and pieces about almost everyone of my Fritters (Twitter friends). (added Dec 13 – some of my friends call their Twitter friends ‘tweeps‘ – I love it!) I like to hear their stories; the events, their thoughts, the day-to-day, etc. It’s all interesting to me (even the boring parts). On Twitter I’m exposed to people I would never otherwise know; parents (can you believe I do not have face-to-face friends with kids?), older people, younger people, real estate people, PR people, publishers, social media specialists, teachers and students, international friends (my feed is never quiet, someone is always up somewhere), and the like. It’s amazing!

This diversity is both intentional and unintentional. Since Twitter has added the tracking feature I track things I’m interested in as well as things I’m becoming interested in (like HCI). But, for the most part, my friend list has developed organically and unintentionally.

In 2007 we had two (with) Twitter births, a Twitter wedding, a Twitter suicide threat, people making true friendships (by the traditional definition), people being diagnosed with cancer, people changing jobs, hacks to work around Twitter faults, trends & memes, third party apps, and so much more. I’m looking forward to seeing if Twitter will continue to thrive in 2008 or if it will be out (sorry- I’m watching Project Runway as I write this!).

Find me on Twitter: @jencardew
I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, comments about Twitter and leave your Twitter name in your comments (which I have to moderate because my blog is loved by spambots).

Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference (EPIC) blog by Tony Salvador

Jen Cardew Kersey — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:15:12 +0000

One of the keynote speakers at the EPIC conference in October was Tony Salvador. Apparently, many people had questions for Tony after his talk (which was great!) so he has started a blog called ‘Ask Tony!‘ over at the EPIC website. It seems that readers will have an opportunity to post questions for Tony which he will answer in a blog post.

EPIC publishes the conference proceedings on their website. The 2007 proceedings have not been finalized on the site yet, but I received a paper copy yesterday so I’m sure they are making progress online as well.

So happy it’s NaBloPoMo!

Jen Cardew Kersey — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:41:01 +0000

During the month of November the challenge is to post one post every day, should you chose to accept it. I have accepted it, but I’m sort of playing by my own rules. I haven’t posted one post each day (nor did I last year) but I have posted 14 posts so far this month. By the end of November I will have 30 posts for the month and while I hope to do one a day for the next 16 days I might not.

I’m happy to be participating, even if it’s by my own rules, because the challenge and goal is not lost on me. I never make time to post here, I’m always “too busy.” I have a backlog of post ideas and NaBloPoMo is forcing me to make time for them. I’m actually half way through my list, the second half will likely carry me through the month

Met someone in my del.icio.us network in face-to-face life!

Jen Cardew Kersey — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:10:43 +0000

I’m a big fan of del.icio.us and while I don’t use it as actively as I used to, it’s still one of my favorite sites. Well, a couple of years ago I wrote a post about “Mavens Hanging out on Del.icio.us“, when I went to del.icio.us the post myself, I found that someone had beaten me to it (by the way, I remember that because it was one of the most flattering things to me- someone else read it and bookmarked it!). I added the person to my network, Danafu, he reciprocated that, and throughout the years we’ve received many links from each other.

While I was at EPIC, someone came up to me and introduced himself as “Danafu.” Sure enough, it was Danafu from my del.icio.us network! We had never met face-to-face before, and I didn’t even know he would be at the conference. We had lunch together, and much like I’d expect given our shared interest in links, we had a very good conversation and had many similar interests. Hi Dana!!

It really was a neat coincidence!

I noticed that someone else in my del.icio.us network added “met her at EPIC” in the notes field of one of their bookmarks (a company’s website “about us” page). I didn’t meet him at EPIC, but it’s neat that he was there too!

Do you tweet?

Jen Cardew Kersey — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 23:30:56 +0000

I”m fairly certain that Twitter has gained in popularity since the last time I posed this question, and I know I have started using it a lot more. So, do you guys tweet? If so, come find me!

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)

Jen Cardew Kersey — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:59:39 +0000

It’s that time of year again! To participate in NaBloPoMo all you have to do is post one blog post every day in the month of November. This year, a Ning network has been created for participants to gather in. There are currently over 4700 members in the group and there are some active discussions in the forums. Some groups have formed within the community and I joined the “Circle of Jens” group

I participated in NaBloPoMo last year and found the fact that it occurs in November to be both a blessing and a curse. November is a very busy month for me (and most people really) because of my birthday, Thanksgiving, school winding down, and the AAA conference. November is a month when I have a lot to talk about, but little time to do it. This is why I’ve accepted the challenge this year- I’m determined to make time! I also have a rather long list of blog posts to write, it’s become very easy for me to put an idea on the list and never make time to write it.

Much more to come…. every day this month

Student Anthropologists blog

Jen Cardew Kersey — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:24:54 +0000

Many moons ago, myself and a couple of students at Wayne State University (Amy Goldmacher & Chris Miller) discussed creating a blog for student anthropologists.

We all met up at the EPIC conference last month and were re-energized about this idea. The focus has changed a bit, I think we’re going to try to create a dialog about what students should know about industry that they won’t learn in school, about collaborating with other disciplines, and also a mentoring type site.

More to come in the next few weeks, we have a teleconference planned. For now, be sure to check out the blog at http://studentanthro.org/ Chris Miller has begun to post already.