More to come!!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Orkut Vs Facebook
I feel sad for Orkut...There was a time when people used to only want to be online on orkut 24 by 7...Its sad to see something like dat completely replaced by Facebook and all because it looks a little better..Orkut looks way simpler...But then again...FB has a lot of apps...Orkut did not think beyond friends and interests... FB thought of how well they can keep people occupied...something Orkut did not think about...Google buying over Orkut was also not the best idea...hmm..I wonder if they can do something to make it better...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Examples of Ethnographic study and their impact in different work environments.
Examples of Ethnographic study and their impact in different work environments.
Health Care Industry: Control Room Study
This example is about the work conducted in the control room of an ambulance service of a large metropolitan region in the
1) It was noted that ambulance dispatch is a contingent affair with multiple considerations impinging upon dispatch selections. Commonly, Dispatchers can resolve these contingencies through interaction with the different resources available to them.
However, oftentimes contingencies will be managed not merely through the interaction of individual Dispatchers with system resources but through social interaction amongst Dispatchers and Supervisors. Indeed, on occasions, the significance of a contingency may be resolved through interaction between control room personnel and others outside - a member of the public still on the line or an ambulance crew. For example, it was noted that the timing of meal breaks for crews has to be considered in making dispatch decisions. The severity of an overdue meal break and hence its significance for the work of dispatch is often argued out between Dispatchers and the crew themselves. Observations like this make everyone sceptical about the feasibility of automatic decision making systems in the ambulance service systems which might, say, dispatch ambulances on the basis of algorithms operating to satisfy multiple constraints. Accordingly, the ethnographer’s development agenda is to investigate how systems can be designed for a socio-technical setting where co- operation is a normal feature of how work is done.
2) It was observed that the staff was used to dealing with many emergencies at a time. Some were dealt individually while others were dealt with the help of other staff members somewhere in the control room. Technologically, the systems were homogenous and not user dependent in any manner. Hence the end result of whatever process was being carried out was the same irrespective of who the user was. Workers complain of the high levels of noise as people shout at each other at peak times when they need solutions from other people seated in various places. If some of what is achieved through that noise (an awareness of what others are doing) is removed from the medium of speech and supported with enhancements , the 'air would be clear' for managing the most difficult contingencies. Rearranging the seating or adding of some kind of technology to clear this air was an area of improvement noted by the ethnographers.
3) While several features of the centre's GPS are frequently used, the 'flagship feature' often promoted by the manufacturers, a map like display of ambulance locations on a large computer screen is rarely consulted. The Automatic Vehicle Location System (AVL) is typically turned away from the sight of the Dispatchers even though it is on the work surface alongside them, and only easily inspectable by Dispatchers or Supervisors if they come close. To understand this, it is important to realise that obtaining geographical fixes on the ambulance fleet is only one part of judging which to dispatch and how to maintain adequate cover (there are many contingencies together at a time), and a swiftly visible presentation of the relevant aspects of ambulance location can be given by the GPS's computation highlighting proximal, available candidates. A literal visual representation of ambulance locations might require a worker to engage in further deliberation to extract these details from a cosmetically impressive display. Furthermore, the AVLS screen only shows one part of the region at any one time. Horizontal and vertical scrolling to find visualisations of ambulance locations on a map mostly full of 'empty' streets and countryside is needlessly time consuming when, in contrast, the Vehicle Availability Map (VAM) compactly shows ambulances with a geographical sensitivity that is appropriately approximate for dispatch decisions. Importantly, on the VAM, all the ambulances are represented there (along with relevant status information), they do not have to be found in a 2D map-space.
In short, for the purposes of dispatch and cover, seemingly crude lists may be the most appropriate form of representation, giving an easy impression of how many ambulances are available at every station. However, again, it is possible that more cover relevant information could be introduced to the Dispatchers' own resources for ambulance selection. In this regard, re designing of the Dispatch Selection screen to contain 'at a glance what if information' is necessary.
4) The opportunity to design for third parties, that is, to design interaction techniques, key sequences, screen changes and so forth so that they can be detected by others as appropriate occasions for, say, initiating interaction. In the ambulance control room, ethnographers gave the observation that considering re designing of the screens and interaction techniques used in dispatch would be good to make it more noticeable by third parties when selections are made and when (and which) changes in view take place. This way the process will be understood by any third party coming into the control room.
Kitchen Cabinet Case Study
A team of researchers along with a group of ethnographers from Diamond Cabinet, a division of Master Brand Cabinets Inc. studied the American kitchen area by living with different households for one full day to observe, photograph and videotape families as they interacted, cooked and cleaned in their kitchens. The ethnographic study spanned a geographically diverse area of the
Among those features, Diamond Cabinet researchers found, are the following:
• No wasted space. People conceptualize "wasted space" as a very bad thing, the Diamond research revealed. "They want to use every nook and cranny in their kitchens, regardless of how much storage space they actually have," Small explains, emphasizing the need for cabinets to carve out space where none existed before. For example, a new "Toe kick Cabinet" creates extra storage space beneath base cabinets, just above the floor. A tap of a toe opens a hidden storage compartment.
• Overflow storage. Almost everyone has a kitchen overflow storage solution in the garage, basement or closet. However, research indicates that the concept of having "extra" or overflow storage may be a positive thing for some. It provides an "out of sight, out of mind" option for items used infrequently, or which people aren't ready to part with yet. It also provides a space to stock up on items purchased in bulk, reinforcing feelings of taking care of their family and saving money. Cabinets with pantry-like storage features can solve this need, anywhere in the home.
• Drop zones. With so many people coming in and out of the kitchen, homeowners expressed a need to keep track of all of the "droppable" items that clutter up their countertops: keys, cell phones, coupons, notes from school, etc. Diamond recently introduced a unit called the "Mini Message Center," a three inch deep bonus storage unit that features a row of key hooks, a metal cubby divider, fixed shelves and a write-on message board, all concealed behind a cabinet door. And because it fits on an end run of cabinets, it takes up no additional wasted space.
•Changeable solutions for changing lives. Depending on people's life stages, they have different organizational and storage needs. For example, older people or those who have trouble bending and reaching can benefit from well designed lazy cabinets that make it easy to see and reach items that would otherwise become lost in a "black hole" corner cabinet.
•"Junk" drawers. Everyone seems to have junk drawers, and surprisingly, "they like them the way they are," according to Diamond. Many consumers have multiple junk drawers and even "specialty" junk drawers containing sub sets of "junk" items. For some people, access to built in drawer organizers gives them control over the contents; for others, simply having items "out of sight and out of mind" gives them a temporary feeling of organization.
•Kitchen cabinets as medicine cabinets. Researchers discovered they were, in effect, peeking into medicine cabinets after all, upon learning that some medicines are stored in the kitchen. Although the majority of medications are stored in the bath, many people are keeping at least a few items in the kitchen because it helps them remember to take them. Cabinets with flexible interior configurations can meet this need, Diamond researchers point out.
Diamond cabinets used these insights to create better designed cabinets for different segments to cater to their needs.
Ethnography at Intel
Ethnography at Intel initially focused on new markets. The company had provided products only for the workplace, but in 1995 managers wondered whether users at home would become a distinct market. Ethnographic research showed so much potential that Intel set up a business unit to concentrate on processors and platforms for home use.
Recently, Intel ethnographers have veered into strategic questions. Like many high tech companies, Intel makes long-term bets on how markets will play out. Will television and PC technology converge? Are baby boomers retaining their PC and TV habits as they age, or are they comfortable shifting to new media? Will smart phones take over most of the functions of personal computers?
Intel can analyze the latest buying patterns and customer surveys for useful data. But people often can’t articulate what they’re looking for in products or services. By understanding how people live, researchers discover otherwise elusive trends that inform the company’s future strategies. With smart phones, for example, we can contrast the technology perspectives of teenagers, who have used cell phones since they were in elementary school, with those of older generations, who came to them only after becoming proficient with PCs.
Ethnography has proved so valuable at Intel that the company now employs two dozen anthropologists and other trained ethnographers, probably the biggest such corporate staff in the world.
Virtual Ethnography
Many firms today are using Virtual Ethnography to study the way their customers behave in the virtual world and try and relate the behaviour to something they can benefit from. Many video game designers, social media designers and most of the people making a living out of web 2.0 believe it important to study the way a person behaves in a virtual world as it reflects a lot of their likes and dislikes which enable better designing of applications.
Tom Boellstroff’s book: “Coming of age in second life. An anthropologist explores the virtually human”, explains this in great detail. The book is an account of two years field work and an anthropological ethnography of avatar life in Second Life, a virtual platform, designed for social interaction and collaboration. Avatars are virtual personages created and Tom’s avatar was the anthropologist in 2nd Life, interviewing, observing and, first and foremost, participating in social life. This resulted in a good understanding of social life at Second Life. Tom explained that although it was difficult to tell whether the avatar you were talking to was a man or woman, different persons or human at all, social interaction between avatars in 2nd Life was ‘real’.
Dmitri Williams of the Annenberg school for Communication studied all server logs of 3-D game Ever Quest and concluded that gamers have behavioural patterns online. An example, players who live 10 kilometres of each other play five times more intensively than people who live at larger distances. And Sony, the owner of Ever Quest is very interested to work with ethnographers that could help them understand their gamers’ behaviour.
In order to facilitate learning of public and private partners in construction, a simulation game on 2nd Life centred on a megaproject, the tunnelling of train, road and tram infrastructure in Amsterdam’s corporate suburb Zuid-As. One group played the public office, three others played private construction firms trying out a competitive alliancing tender model. In this model, partners have to collaborate in order to get the best solution for a complex problem, without knowing yet who will get the assignment. Employees (better: avatars) were first trained how to behave themselves at the research island. The island was bought out as a separate game area, so as to have a selected group of people in the project. However, at one stage of the game the thought of opening up the island for a broad audience to let them make a pubic choice of what the best design would be was floated. This has not been applied yet. But, this was an excellent study method to understand the way public and private construction partners worked as also what exactly the optimal design would be based on the peoples’ choice, once it was opened to them.
Large companies such as the ABN Amro Bank have built digital offices to attract young customers and to try out virtual services. So, the field of virtual ethnography is but obviously of tremendous importance in the days to come.
Ethnography in the Cross Cultural work place context.
People from so many cultural background study and work in close cooperation at universities and public and private organisations. The so called essentialistic perspective has become very popular in contemporary management literature and consultancy and is highlighted by European authors, such as Hofstede (1990) and Trompenaars (1993). The work of Hofstede and Trompenaars, who have developed ‘cultural maps of the world’ in which each country can be situated based on their score on different indexes, fitted perfectly in the assumption that culture is a (more or less) stable entity that can be ‘engineered’, and managed. However, recent evaluations of these essentialistic cultural programs are not positive in regard to organizational costs and sustainability.
A large project management firm had asked help to manage their large diversity of workforce. The company had employees of more than 35 different national cultures working in complex projects. Instead of training the management on all these cultures , the collaboration practices at the work floor were studied from a socio material perspective which includes spatial settings, materiality and social behaviour. It was found that engineers and project employees of both the company and the client gathered around so called “roller boards”. These are tables that can roll and have large paper drawings of installations on them. Around the roller board, 6 different professionals stand, hang and are bending over the drawings. In debating which objects had to be left out, changed or added, each of the 6 professionals got time to explain their view, experience, perspective. If agreed upon, different colours were used to materialize the debate and colour the drawings on spots were the debate was on. The manager was surprised as he wanted to replace the roller board by a computer system, which would have ruined this efficient cross cultural collaborative practice. In this way ethnography can be used to study cross cultural collaborations in organisations all over the world and eliminate a number of problems thus increasing productivity manifold.
Downloading Firefox 3 and the digital divide
The new version of the Firefox web browser was released on June 17th 2008 with much fanfare in circles that get excited about web browsers. The Mozilla folk were attempting to crack a Guinness Book record for the most downloads in one day, and they appear to have been successful with reportedly more than 8 million copies of the program downloaded in the first 24 hours.
Mozilla, on their website provided an interactive map of global downloads. Although it is not Mozilla’s intention to relate their launch with any kind of anthropology or ethnography, it provides a graphic example of the discrepancies between access to IT globally. Most striking are the grey areas with low downloads which cover most of Africa. Note that the figures are raw numbers of downloads rather than per capita figures, so this skews the impression somewhat. For example, China seems to be right up there with best of them but the figure of 160 odd thousand downloads about the same as Australia, with only about 2% of the population.
The most intriguing detail was the large number of downloads in Iran, the USA’s enemy number 1; more than downloads in Australia, China, Russia, Canada, Italy or Brazil. It is upto us to wonder what is going on there. What is the source of this enormous Iranian interest in the premier open source web browser? Is there widespread hatred of Internet Explorer and Microsoft? This is definitely an area where ethnographers can play a major role.
A few Ethnographic techniques used in Corporate Ethnography
Pure Observation
In this technique, the researcher is taken out of the equation and acts as an objective observer. A researcher might use this method by observing how customers interact with an ATM, videotaping customers’ interaction with a point-of-purchase display or watching a client navigate a website and recording their key clicks and mouse clicks.
Contextual Interviewing
This method uses a master-and-apprentice approach rather than an interviewer-and-subject model. The researcher plays the role of an apprentice who is curious and wants to learn. This technique is used for uncovering unstated details of a work process, new uses and features for a process, and actual versus intended use of a product or service. It is often valuable in user interface design and usability studies.
Guerrilla Ethnography
For unfiltered, reality-based encounters, researchers can observe and talk with people in their natural environments without disclosing their intent. It is often used only in pilot research to help in the preparation of interview guides and survey question preparation.
The Environment Agency – Erosion Map Case
This is a good example of ethnography can be translated into design.
Flow, an agency was commissioned to conduct contextual research and subsequently design an interactive map that will provide users with coastal erosion information – a national project that will affect 2.1 million houses on the coast. Simon Johnson, User Experience Consultant at Flow explains the process followed. The key objectives were to establish what an erosion map should look like, how it should work and what sort of information should accompany the map. Claire Mitchell, Flow’s Principal Consultant on the project and Simon started the project with a research phase that included ethnographic field observations in two coastal settings: Norfolk and Hastings. Simon spent two weeks documenting the lives of coastal communities, interviewing local people and immersing himself in their lives. Additionally, Simon interviewed eight professionals at Flow’s experience labs in London.
The research that Claire and Simon conducted described how emotive the coastline is, an institution in British history that invokes strong feelings and forms a strong part of a shared heritage. The implications were the need for the Environment Agency to communicate that it cares and to reassure people that action was being taken to protect the coast. It was also clear that people trust locals and distrust central government, erosion maps caused alarm and that a certain amount of local knowledge derived from ignorance and/or myth. An example of a myth was the commonly repeated argument that the government was making money dredging ‘their’ sand.
The design approach focused on a simple website that addresses the needs of both professionals and locals. Claire and Simon decided that the design should answer core questions and myths, stick to plain English, use local materials and represent risks without alarming local people.
Result:
The Book store Ethnography
The goal of the study was to understand how bookstores use space to create and maintain brand identity and shape customer experiences. More broadly, the study was to understand practices, patterns and meanings associated with different types of bookstores.
Chain bookstores are seen as stores for everybody, whereas independent bookstores are often conceptualized as catering to repeat customers, “regulars” and certain clientele. These impressions are partly determined by the layout and signage in the store. There is a sense that one can find things on one’s own in chain bookstores, with well labelled sections, large overhead signs, and short shelves so one can see the span of the store. The feeling that one can find one’s own way in the store also allows shoppers to avoid interaction with employees. This gives them a greater sense of anonymity, and a greater level of comfort. In addition to the anonymity found in some bookstores, other qualities of a bookstore can be comforting.
One is a store’s layout. Layout matters most when a store is busy. Aisles that are broken up help so that one can get lost in the books and not see the crowd. Hidden alcoves with overstuffed chairs, lend themselves to a less hurried atmosphere.
Interactions with employees also affect comfort level. This often depends on the customer, as some seek this interaction in order to feel welcome while others prefer to shop with as little interaction as possible.
When shoppers set out to purchase a book, they conceptualize their experience as either a journey or goal oriented shopping. In the journey, shoppers conjure images of adventure and treasure hunting, where the search is the thrill. One participant described this as being “like flea market shopping”, you aren’t looking for anything but you like the experience and it’s hard to walk out without something cool.
Those who are interested in the journey are more likely to find this experience in independent and used bookstores. Here, stores are set up in a way to accommodate this explorative aspect of shopping, with hidden nooks and cranies, no giant overhead signs directing one to certain sections, and inability to see the entire store at a glance. In this case a haphazard, difficult retail space works. In contrast, shoppers who are in the market to find a specific book may be more likely to shop at a chain bookstore with new books. They won’t waste time looking at used bookstores. At new bookstores, they can get in and out with the correct book without fuss.
One participant mused, “We are all brought up with reverence for books”. It was clear through our participants’ stories that books are much more than a commodity. They are seen as a vehicle for knowledge and discovery, as something to be cherished. Books are as investment in the future, more meaningful and significant than the monetary values placed on them.
So, customers cringe when books are treated as commodities by stores, and when customers perceive that the stores are more focussed on volume of sales than respect for books. Many customers feel that independent bookstore owners have a reverence for books and treat them in a way that chain bookstore owners and employees do not.
The study explains as to why there are different kinds of bookstores and how different customer needs can be satisfied by understanding the customer using ethnography.
References:
Websites:
http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/03/ethnographic-research-a-key-to-strategy/ar/1
http://www.ethnographic-research.com/bookstore/
http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/PA765/ethno.htm
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1119117
http://www.ethnographic-research.com/research/researcha.html
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=305151
http://www.customer-experience-labs.com/category/ethnography/
http://www.ams-inc.com/npd/ethnography.asp
http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Ethnography
http://www.nps.gov/ethnography/training/TAPS/attachment.htm
Books:
Social Science Methodology -
Ethnography - An Introduction
Ethnography, the word means Writing Culture. It is therefore rooted in the notion of description of a particular society, culture, group or social context. The most common conception of the descriptive character of ethnographic accounts is that they map the morphology of some area of the social world. Thus, an ethnography is a specific kind of written observational science which provides an account of a particular culture, society, or community. A typical ethnography attempts to be holistic and typically follows an outline to include a brief history of the culture in question, an analysis of the physical geography or terrain inhabited by the people under study, including climate, and often including what biological anthropologists call habitat. The fieldwork usually involves spending a year or more in another society, living with the local people and learning about their ways of life.
For example, if within a group of people, winking is a communicative gesture, it is first sought to determine what kinds of things a wink might mean. The next step is to determine in what contexts winks are used, and whether, as one moved about a region, winks remained meaningful in the same way. In this way, cultural boundaries of communication can be explored, as opposed to using linguistic boundaries or notions about residence.
There are three central ideas in Ethnography– Induction, Context and Unfamiliarity. Ethnographers think of everything in the context of the subject under consideration. Ethnographers tend to be context driven, not only their research but also their research questions and methodological practice.
Invention of the Ethnographic Method
Bronislaw Malinowski, a Polish expatriate at the London School of Economics, was researching in A ustralia in 1914, when war broke out. As a Pole, he was technically an enemy citizen, but rather than being incarcerated, he was allowed to spend the war years in the
Design Ethnography
Design ethnography is thought of as being a way of understanding the particulars of daily life in such a way so as to increase the success probability of a new product or service or, more appropriately, to reduce the probability of failure specifically due to a lack of understanding of the basic behaviours and framework of consumers. Businesses, too, have found ethnographers helpful for understanding how people use products and services, as indicated in the increasing use of ethnographic methods to understand consumers and consumption, or for new product development. Ethnographers' systematic and holistic approach to real life experience is valued by product developers, who use the method to understand unstated desires or cultural practices that surround products. Where focus groups fail to inform marketers about what people really do, ethnography links what people say to what they actually do, avoiding the pitfalls that come from relying only on self focus group data. Design ethnography deviates from formal and idealistic rules or ethics that have come to be widely accepted in qualitative and quantitative approaches to research.
How does an Ethnographer work?
The ethnographer has to first select a culture and review the literature pertaining to the culture and identify a few variables of interest. The next thing he has to do is try and gain an entrance into the culture. Then comes the cultural immersion which involves understanding the culture thoroughly. Data analysis and theory development come as the last stage of the study.
Seven principles to be considered for observing, recording and sampling data
1. The groups should combine symbolic meanings with patterns of interaction.
2. Observe the world from the point of view of the subject, while maintaining the distinction between everyday and scientific perceptions of reality.
3. Link the group’s symbols and their meanings with the social relationships.
4. Record all behaviour.
5. Methodology should highlight phases of process, change and stability.
6. The act should be a type of symbolic interaction.
7. Use concepts that would avoid casual explanations.
Different Kinds of Ethnographers:
“The kindly ethnographer” – Most ethnographers present themselves as being more sympathetic than they actually are, which aids in the research process, but is also deceptive. The identity that we present to subjects is different from who we are in other circumstances.
“The friendly ethnographer” – Ethnographers operate under the assumption that they should not dislike anyone. In actuality, when hated individuals are found within research, ethnographers often crop them out of the findings.
“The honest ethnographer” – If research participants know the research goals, their responses are likely to be skewed. Therefore, ethnographers often conceal what they know in order to increase the likelihood of acceptance.
“The Precise Ethnographer” – Ethnographers often create the illusion that field notes are data and reflect what “really” happened. They engage in the opposite of plagiarism, giving credit to those undeserving by not using precise words but rather loose interpretations and paraphrasing. Researchers take near fictions and turn them into claims of fact. The closest ethnographers can ever really get to reality is an approximate truth.
“The Observant Ethnographer” – Readers of ethnography are often led to assume the report of a scene is complete – that little of importance was missed. In reality, an ethnographer will always miss some aspect because they are not omniscient. Everything is open to multiple interpretations and misunderstandings. The ability of the ethnographer to take notes and observe varies, and therefore, what is depicted in ethnography is not the whole picture.
“The Unobtrusive Ethnographer” – As a “participant” in the scene, the researcher will always have an effect on the communication that occurs within the research site. The degree to which one is an “active member” affects the extent to which sympathetic understanding is possible.
“The Candid Ethnographer” – Where the researcher situates themselves within the ethnography is ethically problematic. There is an illusion that everything reported has actually happened because the researcher has been directly exposed to it.
“The Chaste Ethnographer” – When ethnographers participate within the field, they invariably develop relationships with research subjects/participants. These relationships are sometimes not accounted for within the reporting of the ethnography despite the fact that they seemingly would influence the research findings.
“The Fair Ethnographer” – Fine claims that objectivity is an illusion and that everything in ethnography is known from a perspective. Therefore, it is unethical for a researcher to report fairness in their findings.
“The Literary Ethnographer” – Representation is a balancing act of determining what to “show” through poetic/prosaic language and style versus what to “tell” via straightforward, ‘factual’ reporting. The idiosyncratic skill of the ethnographer influences the face value of the research.
Difference between Quantitative methods and Ethnography
Firstly, quantitative methodologies have a set mindset about the structure of the society, thereby over determining results and eliminating the possibility of data emerging from unexpected arenas.
Ethnography, in contrast is often an exercise of serendipity, in which openness to chance finds or unpredictable social and political developments generate new research orientations.
Secondly, quantitative techniques attempt to derive an understanding of what happens in normal social conditions from the decidedly abnormal contexts of the experiment or formal interview.
Third, their reliance on people’s own account of what they do is considered very naive. Ethnographers focus on conducting their research in a normal fashion. As long term participants rather than mere observers, their effect on social life is minimised and they are able to gauge the relationship between what people say about what they do and what they actually do.
Fourth, Quantitative methods were seen to reify social phenomena by treating them as distinct and isolable from the social context in which they emerge, develop and change.
Fifth, they were seen as overly behaviouristic in their assumption that people’s actions are mechanically determined, thereby neglecting to take account human agency.
Ethnographers may also validate findings through conventional archival research, consultation with experts, use of surveys, and other techniques not unique to ethnography. At the same time, ethnographic interviews are far more in depth than survey research.
Ethnographers respond to charges of subjectivity by emphasizing that their approach is all about preconceived frameworks and derives meaning from the community informants themselves, whereas survey instruments often reflect the conceptual categories preconceived by the researcher prior to actual encounter with respondents.
Ethnographers use methods such as Chain Sampling where an informant who has a good idea about what is happening is first selected and he further helps to select the next level informants.
Ethnography is more of a descriptive rather than analytic endeavour.
Some ethnographers advocate the use of structured observation schedules by which one may code observed behaviours or cultural artefacts for purposes of later statistical analysis.
Symbols are of great importance in ethnography. The ethnographer strives to understand the cultural connotations associated with symbols.
Ethnographers also use the theory of Situational Reduction. This involves reducing the situation under observation from the macro level into the micro level. This helps in better understanding.
Ethnography considers the view points of both the members of the non – members of the situation under consideration. This refers to having an emic (member perspective) as also the etic perspective (non member).
One another method used is conceptual mapping, using the terms of members of the culture themselves to relate symbols across varied forms of behaviour and in varied contexts.
Another method is to focus on learning processes, in order to understand how a culture transmits what it perceives to be important across generations.
A third method is to focus on sanctioning processes, in order to understand which cultural elements are formally prescribed or proscribed and which are informally prescribed or proscribed, and of these which are enforced through sanction and which are unenforced.
Interpretations of the deep implications that the culture has in the way a community sees the world is also very important for the ethnographers.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Mr. Nice Guy
This came to my head while I was coming back home today. There is always so much talk about how people feel and how someone hurt someone's feelings and all that kinda stuff. We are so considerate about how we have to care about how our parents will feel if we do something or how the teacher will feel if we misbehave and what not. Now, how many of these people do u actually touch everyday? Yes, I mean physically touch. I doubt u touch ur teacher or for that matter, even your parents other than the occasional goodbye kiss or something like that. So now then, there is very less human contact in the world. And that is another issue we can discuss some other time. Yes, I do think the 'no touch' factor might be a really big reason as to why we are the way we are.
Anyhow, so what is it that we touch very often?
It is probably the book you open every time or the keyboard you tap all the time on ur laptop or maybe its that fridge handle you open every time to get your bottle of water.
Bottom line, you touch inanimate objects way more than you touch living things..is that right? Yes, that is right...
So, since you touch these things so often..have u ever wondered if at some level you are hurting them?...Of course, they are supposed to be non living things and all. They are not supposed to have life and they are supposed to be just things..man made or natural...no life...
Its hard I know to imagine, cos many of you I know are not even sensitive to touch from a living thing, let alone a non living thing.
My observation is, there is a kind of emotion which is generated in everything you touch. There is a difference when you touch your iPod gently and when you touch it roughly. Listen to what it has to say to you. It does not want to be scratched or be thrown around. It wants to be kept clean and kept like a queen.
Notice the fridge handle you use everyday. It responds to you every time. Why not be nice to it.
Everything has a life, everything in the world. It might be inanimate, but it does have that spark in it. You just need to believe that it is there. And to believe, you have to start by treating it nicely and with respect. Just like you would treat someone you love or care about. The things around you let you touch them and feel them so much. No human being ever lets you do that. Its almost like you are exploiting them each time you touch them. So, I think the least you can do is be nice to them.
I know the whole blog might sound crazy, but its just a matter of time before something like this becomes of great importance in every industry.
Soon, we will be making products with material by listening to them. By understanding them. This as a science will be very very useful. Cos the more you are united, you and the substance, higher the probability of things going in the right direction. It is a win win situation.
Maybe this is why pottery is such a beautiful art. Potters let the clay lead itself into creation of something beautiful and nice.
I plan to research on how listening to things is important and how you can make a huge difference by understanding things around you.
So, next time you kick a stone, just think, it might have a heart and a brain which you are probably causing a lot of pain to....
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Chalta Hai
My Business Design course so far has taught me a lot about thinking differently and looking beyond the obvious. Thinking beyond the obvious is very easy for me...mostly cos I believe that I am from another world...a world of my own..where everything works according to my wish.
How I wish I could rearrange where I am actually living and make it where I want to live. Anyhow, a blog on my world later. This one is supposed to be about Jugaad.
Jugaad literally means "Make Do". In India, people make do with anything and everything. The level of adjustment in people is extremely high. So high that people just don't care about how much they have to adjust and accept it as a part of life and the jugaad hence becomes life.
The jugaad I explained above is actually not what I think it is. I think that the whole hype about Jugaad is a lil too much. I feel it is an adjustment people are forced to make. It is almost like making fun of people in their face...and the extra hype is like pointing at u when ur towel suddenly falls off and you are out there naked.
We say very proudly that Jugaad shows how innovative India is and the potential that the country has. Jugaad is pretty much a live example of the saying, "Necessity is the mother of Invention".
I travel in the local train. I have to sit in the dirty seat and at time hang onto the bar for dear life. I stand with the lady in front of me not even 10 cms away...I am hoping that she isnt a lesbian cos if she was..she could easily make out with me and blame it all on the train and the crowd...
I am not fond of doing it...travelling by the local train. It is something I have to do whether I like it or not. It is a kinda Jugaad if u ask me. For me the entire experience is making a Jugaad in my life.
Someone's slipper breaking..and then fixing it with a safety pin is again a need to fix it. If the person could throw the slipper and get another one right away, I am sure they would do it rather than fixing it.
I remember asking my room mates what a Jugaad was..Cos I dint even know the meaning a few months back. But now..I think I understand it..
We had an assignment in college where we were asked to observe our surroundings and look for Jugaads...and try and convert them into business options.
Yes, I dont say it is not innovative...but the pride with which people talk about Jugaad seems a little weird to me...I mean given an option..why wud anyone adjust...
So basically it tells us how much our country has to advance in terms of everything, cos Jugaad is there in everything here....
Its kinda time we stop being proud of what we lack in and try to better it.
There was this faculty in my class who studied abroad stating very proudly that in his university people had taken Jugaad as a case study and were trying to study it with great attention and were trying to understand it.
Its kinda shameful that what we are trying to hide so much is coming out in the open....and people are now trying to study about it....
Its time life got better in this country and if nothing...people become sensitive and respect each other...the least they can do...
A huge change in the way people think is necessary to get rid of this whole mentality of Chalta Hai and Jugaad...
If anything has to go anywhere, people have to stop being okay with Chalta hai and not be Chalta Hais too...
Jugaad is a Chalta Hai...and it is time we realise it....
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
1st Visit to Dolphin Inks
Details of 1st Visit to Manufacturing Unit of Dolphin Inks Pvt. Ltd in Badlapur.
The Machinery Used:
1) Grinder
2) Mixer
3) Viscosity Measuring using Viscometer
4) Measuring the pH value using neutral solution and actual solution.
5) Draw down process using 2 sheets.
6) Packaging in containers.
7) Sealing using Sealing Machine.
The Process Flow:
Process 1 –
- Grinding in the grinding machine (Indo – German Technology) and then keep for 6 hours in the grinder itself.
- There are small white balls in the grinder to help the grinding process.
- The grinder has to be washed after every colour. Even if the next colour to be ground is the same color, still the grinder is washed.
- The coolant used for the process is water. The water comes in through a tap and goes through a pipe in the grinder body, comes out after cooling and is then reused.
- After the process, the grinder has to cool down.
- Then add the required additives.
Process 2 –
- The Mixer has a huge rod with a circular blade.
- The components are mixed in the mixer.
- Then they are kept for 6 hours to settle down.
Process 3 –
- Transfer the paint from the Grinder to the Drum like container.
- During this process, the paint is filtered using a net kind of sheet to remove impurities.
Process 4 –
- Measure the Viscosity of the paint by using a non digital viscometer
- Fill the viscometer and then allow the paint to completely flow out and record the time taken.
- White Paint (34 sec) > Red Paint ( 24 Sec) > Blue Paint (23 Sec)
- Viscosity becomes higher as the paint settles.
Process 5 –
- Measure the pH value of the paint by measuring it against the pH of a liquid whose value is already known.
- pH Value of Solutions are 4 and 7. These Solutions are used for calibration.
- White Paint – 8.5
- Blue and Red Paint <>
- So, add amine solution approximately 200 ml to balance the pH value.
Process 6 –
- If the pH value is acceptable, then Draw down process is done on 2 sheets of paper.
- One Glossy paper and one Absorbent paper.
- 2 Paints are taken. One paint which is okay for sure and the other one which is newly manufactured.
- Using spatula, put both paints on the sheet and then draw them down using a rod like instrument.
- The paint is left to dry off and then compared with the finish of the already approved paint.
- The difference is visible right away.
- The defects which can be found in this stage are :
Ø Blotching – Not filling or too dense.
Ø Powdering off or Peeling off of the paint.
Ø White spots or Spotting
Process 7 –
- Packaging in 25.8 Kg containers.
- The weight of the Container is 800gms. So that is taken into consideration while packing and weighing on the scale.
Process 8 –
Sealing with the Sealing machine.
Process 9 –
- Data Entry as to which paint is which in the books. Sticker on the can.
- The sticker contains details such as Batch # , Manufacturing Date and Color Details.
- There is a kind of bin card maintained behind which the pH value and Viscosity value and the Draw down sheets are all attached to maintain a record.
- The Card contains columns such as Raw Material, Quantity and Additional Quantity added .
- It also contains the Client’s name and the Overall order quantity.
- The specific color name which is manufactured is also mentioned.
In Water based Inks the different colors available were:
White
Hans Blue
Green
Red
Black – used for printing
In each of these colors, there is a grade such as
Premium
Deluxe
Super
Rough understanding of the raw material used:
Resin – Viscous like gum for bonding…so that the color does not come off.
Amine Solution – To adjust the pH value
Pigments – To add color
Water – As a major constituent and a coolant.
Anti foam agent – To reduce the foaming
XLA
W&D
Who and how much do they manufacture?
The firm manufactures basic colors and sells them to other companies who enhance these shades.
Approximately 10 tons in a month per ink.
Manpower Statistics
11 to 12 people working.
Ownership of the firm – 3 people together.
Mr. Kumar – main owner
Manager in Badlapur plant – Mr. Nayak
Technical Consultant – Mr. Talwar
Mukkadam (Head) – Mr. Babu
Work culture of workers
Very good process knowledge, but their knowledge is experiential not bookish and hence it is limited. If anything goes drastically wrong, they will need help.
They have a good relationship amongst themselves.
Overall, good work culture.
And very helpful.
Obsolete Machinery:
There were 2 machines which were obsolete.
They are not used because they are time consuming, manpower consuming and also there were a lot of safety issues.
Most Ambitious Tours in Rock History - Breaking the Set Mental Models
Touring and performing live shows is an inherent part of the music industry and one of the ways most bands make money and promote their music. Here are two bands who have attempted to change the norm. In the music industry, being unique and creative is the only way of getting ahead and these bands are live examples of this.
Heavy Metal legend - Iron Maiden.
Normally bands tour one or more countries in a span of few months, conventionally, by traveling from one place to the other by road or rail or air.
What sets Iron Maiden apart from the rest is their recent tour called “Somewhere back in time world tour” between February and March 2008, mainly to promote their new compilation “Somewhere Back in Time – The Best of 1980 – 89”.
The Maiden tour plan was something that had never been attempted before. Circumnavigating the globe, the band flew in a specially customized Boeing 757 airliner with their crew and 12 tons of music and stage equipment on board, playing 23 sold out stadium and arena shows in 13 countries in just 45 days, traveling 70,000km and performing to almost half a million fans.
The tour opened on February 1st in
The Boeing 757 was dubbed "Ed Force One”. It is named after Iron Maiden’s infamous mummy mascot “Eddie” and is piloted by Iron Maiden lead singer “Bruce Dickinson”.
On this leg of the tour, the “Iron Maiden: Flight 666" movie was filmed. The film is produced and directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn. The movie was released in 40 countries simultaneously. It was distributed by EMI and Universal.
No band has ever done this. Going on a back breaking world tour, filming it simultaneously, marketing it on a huge scale and then distributing it worldwide. The revenue obtained from such a venture is not available online. But it is without doubt extremely huge, and the publicity is also tremendous.
They also came up with a number of products like video games and merchandise ranging from clothes to shoes and accessories like posters and toys for the tour.
The film, Flight 666 shows that Iron Maiden is one of the front runners in audiovisual entertainment - providing a memorable, big screen experience for their loyal fan base and new Maiden converts worldwide.
Progressive psychedelic rock legend - Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd by the 1970s had achieved phenomenal success. They felt that they
had done everything they had set out to do as a band.
Not pleased with the kind of audience coming to their concerts who were more focused on the hype around rather than the music, Pink Floyd decided to mount their most elaborate stage show in conjunction with the tour of their album “The Wall”. The concept emerged when Roger Waters, the band’s front man started getting extremely frustrated with the audience and it reached a point where Waters spat in the face of a fan who was attempting to climb on stage during one of the shows.
And thus the idea of a wall between them and the crowd. This had never been done before mostly because, even today, it is against the traditional concept that a band needs to be one with the audience and not against them i.e. going against Customer is God concept.
Pink Floyd built a 20 feet high wall between the audience and the band in a theatrical way where towards the end only the band members were seen through small apertures in the wall and eventually even that too got filled blocking the whole band from the audience, clearly stating the sense of alienation that the band was experiencing.
The performance gave the audience value for money with the theatrics and music and gave the band members the privacy they wanted.
The crowd had no option but to stare at the wall and listen to the music which was the primary purpose of the concert.
Animations splashed across the wall depicting emotions and meanings of the songs being played. They were unlike the standard Disney animations and were drawn to stir deep emotions.
The Marching Hammers and the Flower animations are some of the most popular and imaginative ones and animations then weren't as easy as they are today.
The show ended with the destruction of the wall.
Technically challenging 29 live performances were carried out.
The Wall show was later conceptualized into a movie by director Alan Parker having a main character,"Pink" with the songs in the album depicting the emotions of the character making the movie a phenomenal piece of art.
Nobody has attempted to replicate The Wall and to date it is one of the most unique theatrical live performances ever.
Sources:
“Iron Maiden: Flight 666” Movie.
“Making of the Wall” Documentary.
Wikipedia
Monday, September 14, 2009
The Insurance Sector - How can they change???
1) Lock in Period
There is always a lock in period for any policy which is taken. So if u happen to die or injure yourself at that time, there is no claim.
Solution: This lock in period could be removed and instead people could be given the option of getting only what they give for a certain period of time, say 6 months. That way atleast the money they have invested will not be lost for the time.
2) Pet Life Insurance
The Pet life insurance is not a very popular concept in
Solution: More coupled options such as ‘Owner and pet’ life insurance policies.
3) ULIP(Unit linked Investment Plans)
In ULIPS, the risk of the principal getting eroded is high as there is investment in Mutual Funds and the like.
Solution: This can be avoided by investing only in FDs or RDs.
4) Automobile Life Insurance
The depreciation value considered is very high. The full value of the asset is not considered and the Claim is low.
Solution: The depreciation value has to be revised.
5) People with bad medical record
Normally people with bad health or bad medical record are not given life insurance easily. Eg. Diabetes and Heart Attacks
Solution: They should be given a longer period of investment and a larger amount, but they should be allowed to have life insurance policies.
6) Life insurance can be an asset only after death, till then it is only an expense.
Since a person is investing so much money in a life insurance policy, they should be given medical benefits also with the life insurance policies.
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