Here is the session abstract from Crysta Metcalf
“In this session we introduce and model the concept of the “scholar-practitioner,” practicing anthropologists who explicitly draw on theory in their work and contribute to theory development. Although such an integration of theory and practice has long existed, it has been gaining greater recognition in recent years, especially as more and more anthropologists are applying our discipline in organizational settings. The members of this panel draw on their experiences in both academic and organizational settings, presenting case studies and examples in order to explore the challenges and opportunities inherent in working toward the advancement of anthropological theory in applied practice.”

I’m excited about this session because I am co-presenting with my advisor and many of the other women on the panel are the ones that I’ve followed their work for the last four years. It’s quite an honor

I’ll upload a copy of the paper post-conference but I can let you in on a little secret…
it will be recorded for the SfAA Podcasts. I guess I’ve done a good job in finding my way into cool panels because this is the second year that my session was selected for the podcasts. I do oversee the selection of sessions but the sessions are picked from suggestions submitted by lots of people.

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.

I created the list as part of an assignment for my pre-practicum course. The professor wanted us to find professional organizations that would serve as our CoP post graduation. For the sake of the assignment, professional organizations were pseudo-synonymous with CoP and vice versa. Professional organizations (the AAA and SfAA would be examples) are those that charge for membership and in return you receive benefits such as publications, and also networking opportunities.

I’m wondering how relevant these professional organizations really are in the age of the internet. There are many, many social networks that can be used to network both socially and professionally. Such networks are very accessible (if you have the internet), are free to join, take as much (or little) effort as you want to maintain, and there are no face-to-face conferences for you to be tempted to attend. Virtual social networks can also be a great way for shy or timid people to begin networking or for people to get to know people in other cities, etc.

Now, these social networks do not offer tangible membership benefits immediately, nor do they guarantee such results BUT if you maintain, nurture, and give to your network you can receive many benefits!

Will social networks replace what professional organizations have to offer? Well, the beautiful thing about social networks is that they are what you want them to be. If you are looking for professional development, connections, inspirations, relationships, job opportunities, etc. then find people to add that can offer those to you – and make sure you give back to them!

I do belong to professional organizations, but I’m not sure if I’ll renew my membership to most. I get more out of my social networks than those professional organizations

This course has focused on professional development; resume, 30 second elevator speech of personal interests/experience, a research paper about your field of interest, grant writing, IRB, types of anthropological research, and communities of practice (CoP).

For the sake of the course, ‘communities of practice’ were essentially professional organizations e.g., SfAA or AAA. I felt this definition was rather limiting and somewhat ill-informed in the age of the internet (doesn’t account for social networks, etc.) but that was the definition we were told to work from. So, for the course, I compiled a list of CoP’s that I felt would be relevant to me (design anthropologist in the tech field). I thought I’d share the list with you since I spent so much time on it I’ve broken it into sections and put a “*” to denote organizations I belong to.

The idea of CoP is that you’ll have places to network, to stay informed about current trends, etc. and you’ll receive the benefits that said membership offers, such as newsletters, etc. However, a CoP is what you make of it and the reasons, benefits, etc. probably will vary by person to person.

Professional Organizations of Interest to Applied & Practicing Anthropologists

*American Anthropological Association (AAA)

*Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA)

*National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA)

*National Association of Student Anthropologists (NASA)

Consortium of Practicing & Applied Anthropology Programs (COPAA)

Local Practitioner Organizations (LPO)

Professional Organizations of Interest to Applied & Practicing Design Anthropologists

*Usability Professionals’ Association (UPA)

*AnthroDesign Listserv

Interaction Design Association (IxDA)

*Human Factors & Ergonomics Society (HFES)

Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA)

Design Research Society

User Experience Network (UXnet)

Updated December 9, 2007: This was a comment posted by a reader (to another related post) “As for your list, note that UXnet is not a professional organization like the others – you cannot join it as a member (only as a volunteer). UXnet is more about helping you make sense of all of the user experience CoP out there.” Thanks Keith, I appreciate your correction!

Professional Organizations of Interest to Applied & Practicing Design Anthropologists in Tech

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

ACM SIGCHI
you have to be a member of ACM

I mentioned the Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions, this was a break out done on Friday afternoon. Attendees started to propose topics for the sessions and others voted on the ones they were most interested. On Friday after lunch the topics were finalized and we met in groups for about 2 hours (or something like that). I went into a group with Amy Goldmacher, Chris Miller, Mark Dawson, and many other folks. Our topic was ‘what students need in order to be able to actually practice once they graduate.’ The majority of the group were anthropologists and thus we focused on what anthropology students need to learn in terms of experience, skills, knowledge, etc. in order to be employable after they graduate. The session was very informative and Amy is working on setting up a listserv for us to continue the conversation. We’ll also be using Student Anthropology to continue the discussion.

The BoF part of the conference was probably my favorite portion. Our particular group was super productive and we had a good mix of practitioners, academics, students, and other disciplines to complement the view points. I’d never done a BoF before, it’s something that you’d never see at the AAA or SfAA, except for the informal ad hoc meetings in the hallway. Ugh, I just used ‘ad hoc’ in a sentence =P

Here is a link to photos from EPIC2007 on Flickr. LINK

Here’s a picture of me that is in the photo set, I’m the one standing up on the left. LINK

Here is a link to the EPIC2007 website; abstracts, notes, papers, etc. should be uploaded (or will be coming soon if they’re not there now). LINK

I registered for the conference and went out to Colorado thinking that it would be a “business anthropology” conference; many of the organizers have a background in the discipline, many business anthropologists that I know were going to be there, and “ethnography” is typically thought of as being anthropology’s baby within the academy. It’s true that many conference goers were anthropologists and that many sessions were “anthropological,” but post-conference, I don’t really feel like it was a “business anthropology” conference. If anything, I’d call it and applied ethnography conference. There was a heavy tech presence in the conference, but there were also medical professionals, designers of all sorts, and other people from other fields.

I’d actually recommend anyone planning on working in the private sector within the realm of applied social science research to go to the conference next year – and not only because it will be in Copenhagen, Denmark Many, many of the presenters focused on the ways in which they use “rapid” versions of traditional ethnographic methods, and they did so in a very understandable way. After all, these are researchers that work in the business world, they are much more simple and to the point than our academic counterparts. I came home feeling like I understood how practitioners use ethnography in the fast-paced world of business and that really isn’t something you are likely to learn in school.

I really had a good time at the conference (aside from the altitude sickness!), it was a completely different vibe than either the SfAA or the AAA. Each morning the day started off with breakfast, then a keynote speaker. After a half hour break a panel of speakers started- everyone continued to be in one large room, there was no deciding what to attend (which is a hassle at the anthropology conferences because there are 15 sessions going on at the same time). Each day there was a catered lunch (they fed us well and in the afternoon there were a few breaks also. There was a lot of free time (but not too much) where people could socialize, or network, with each other (another nice aspect of the event). One afternoon there were two tracks and the second afternoon there was just the one panel. Saturday was full of free workshops, I heard they went well, but I actually left early to come home because of the altitude sickness.

Friday night there was a dinner for everyone. Everyone hung out (read open bar) for quite a few hours, ate, talked, and had an overall excellent time. This is really what set EPIC apart from other conferences in my mind, everyone was together, in one group, most of the time and there was plenty of fun time.

My favorite part of EPIC were the Birds of a Feather sessions, but more to come about that in a future post.