EPIC Podcasts available

From the American Anthropological Association's blog:

The Brand Show recently posted three podcasts featuring anthropologists involved in the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. Give them a listen:

• The Past, Present and Future of Ethnography in Business (feat. Martha Cotton)
• The Rise of Ethnographic Insight in Enterprise (feat. Ken Anderson)
• A New Perspective on Consumer Research May Give a Leg Up to Brands (feat. Gillian Tett)

What to ask your ethnographer

I wanted to share an article Ethan Whitehill recently posted on the Ethnography Forum via LinkedIn, answering some questions many in the business world have been asking:

1) How do you know if ethnography is the right approach for your research?
2) How do you know whether you have the right ethnographer?

I thought you might find the featured article in this months Alert! Magazine interesting and wanted to pass it along. In “Ethnography: How to know if it’s right for your study...” Two West Inc.’s Chief Anthropologist Gavin Johnston and Melinda Rea-Holloway address the issues many market researchers face when deciding whether ethnography is the best approach to solve a business problem.
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In the same article by Johnston et al, I found this succinct list of 9 questions/answers to ask an Ethnographer if you're looking to bring one onto a project. Indeed, ethnography is very much about one's training/practice/judgment and having the package to make good research decisions based on such.

Nine Questions (and Answers) to Ask an Ethnographer

The following are a number of questions every ethnographer should be able to answer.

1. Is my project a good fit for ethnography?
Your ethnographic provider should be able to determine whether ethnography is a good fit based on your business objectives, timeline and budget.

2. What methods are utilized during ethnographic fieldwork?
Ethnographers utilize a combination of multiple methodologies, but should always mention participant observation and inductive interviews.

3. How long do ethnographic projects take to complete?
It depends on the scope of your project, but a really fast ethnography will take a few months. If a provider tells you otherwise, they aren’t doing ethnography.

4. Do ethnographers have a discussion guide like focus group moderators?
Yes, however each ethnographer has a different style of inquiry, and will not repeat verbatim what is in the field guide.

5. What is the ethnographic analysis process?
Ethnographers should be able to explain their analytical process and this description should include a reference to social and cultural theory.

6. What is the difference between videography and ethnography?
Videography is story-telling through video. Videography may capture the moment, but lacks the rigor of structured research.

7. What qualifications should ethnographic fieldworkers have?
They should have an advanced degree in a social science discipline, such as anthropology or sociology. They should also have a wide range of field experiences.

8. How do ethnographers learn ethnography?
They learn the basics of ethnography in graduate school and through hands-on experiences in the field. To become a practitioner requires understanding of social science theory, research methods and research design.

9. How can I be sure I can use the results from ethnographic research?
A good ethnographer will work with you to plan a research project that is designed around your business objective. Therefore, sampling, data collection and data analysis will all be guided by the end goal. A good ethnographer understands the difference between interesting and actionable findings.

Gavin Johnston is the chief anthropologist of Two West Discovery & Design
Melinda Rea-Holloway is the CEO and founder of Ethnographic Research, Inc.

The console/online game divide and changing business models

From Gamasutra, a focus on the console/online game divide in Korea with commentary from Stephen Lee of Nexon (MapleStory) with reference to interviews done during Korea's G-Star games show.

Related to that is an announcement from EA that it plans to make a major departure from its traditional business model (box sales) and distribute an installment of its hit Battlefield series as a free download on the Internet.

Rather than being sold at retail, the game is meant to generate revenue through advertising and small in-game transactions that allow players to spend a few dollars on new outfits, weapons and other virtual gear.

At a conference in Munich, the company intends to announce that the new game, Battlefield Heroes, will be released for PC this summer. More broadly, E.A. hopes the game can help point the way for Western game publishers looking to diversify beyond appealing to hard-core players with games that can cost $60 or more.

E.A.’s most recent experiment with free online games began two years ago in South Korea, the world’s most fervent gaming culture. In 2006, the company introduced a free version of its FIFA soccer game there, and Gerhard Florin, E.A.’s executive vice president for publishing in the Americas and Europe, said it has signed up more than five million Korean users and generates more than $1 million in monthly in-game sales.

NYT story here>>

Because gaming is indeed a global industry, it is really interesting to see how business models are changing to actually reflect the dynamics of local user cultures. This is illustrated by plans to obtain revenues by bringing micropayments (e.g. buying shoes for one's avatar) to Western players along with other such strategies (that cope with piracy issues) that have been used in Korea for quite some time. Instead of fighting the tide by clamping down on piracy in the name of antiquated business models, there is room to be creative and find new and innovative ways to remain competitive in the industry.

Harvard Business Review: The Next Big Thing

Some reading from the Harvard Business Review about "The Rise of Corporate Anthropology," by Tom Davenport.

Davenport holds the President’s Chair in Information Technology and Management at Babson College, where he also leads the Process Management and Working Knowledge Research Centers. His books and articles on business process reengineering, knowledge management, attention management, knowledge worker productivity, and analytical competition helped to establish each of those business ideas. Having him tout this type of socio-cultural anthropology and highlight observation as the "Next Big Thing" in business, to me, reaches out to an audience that is just beginning to recognize (again) that ethnographers have much to offer design and technology because artefacts are products of culture. Culture, being the key word here.

"I have been predicting for years that anthropologists would soon be in demand in the workplace, and now this is finally coming to pass. Anthropologists are social scientists who study human behavior through systematic observation. There are a variety of types of anthropologists --physical, archeological, and medical. I am primarily focused here on social and cultural anthropologists, some fraction of which are interested in social relationships in the contemporary workplace. I also believe that sociologists (my own background), social psychologists, and even some behaviorally-oriented economists will be of increasing use in corporate life, but I am particularly bullish on anthropology because of its emphasis on observation.

What’s so good about systematic observation? It’s the key to knowing what’s working and what isn’t, how people are using technology and other tools in the course of the workday, how workers extract meaning (or don’t) from their work, and so forth. We all make sweeping generalizations about these and many other topics, but we don’t really know. Corporate anthropology provides the possibility of actually knowing what’s happening and why in organizations."

more in the article>>

Shout outs to Martin B. for the heads up on this article!