Digital Ethnography - welcome home

I'd never heard of it either. I knew of each piece individually but had never realised the two existed together.

(There is a lot I don't know.)

Adrian put me on to these guys last week and today, in the middle of Neal's class, I got a bite. Ben and I were sitting next to each other, talking about really similar concepts (he hates 'clicktivism' and is looking to re-engage the youth into voting while I hate serial downloaders and am looking to re-engage the youth towards theatre) and also talking about the fact that the more we read, the more our minds are changing.

(I realise this is diverging but please stay with me here.)

Listening to Ben speak, I was struck by how similar we both are. Not as people, even though we do seem to have a lot of those shared basics, but as researchers. Our minds follow similar wavelengths. We respond in similar manners. We both are tracing along the same path, even though our starting points are different.

Anyway, I was sharing a great reference with Ben (Jason Farman's "Mobile Interface Theory: Embodied Space and Locative Media" - Chapter 5 is of particular interest to myself, but Chapter 6 is good and Chapter 3 is a great point for both Ben and I) and he was talking me through an essay he wrote a couple of years back when my email pinged and it was from the Digital Ethnographers, asking if Ben and I both would be keen for a meet.

I was chuffed. I'm kind of hanging out for some supervision. While I'm narrowing my question down daily, I'm a little worried I might be distancing myself from a research centre/faction.

Another aside: speaking in Neal's class today about potential slices of our questions to research, I spoke about my concept of delivering a presentation to half the class in person and half the class via streaming video. Neal shot out a few other ideas (pre-recording the whole thing, delivering the entirety without being physically present) and spoke of a fellow he knew that did a whole host of video stuff from all over I thought might be exciting to explore.

Regardless, I looked at the DERC (Digital Ethnography Research Centre) and I felt right at home. Larissa (one of the Dr's we'll be meeting) is all up in my space and all across Asia (somewhere I'm very keen to explore). There is a guy she's working with (Redfern) who happens to be doing some amazing stuff; a lady below him on the people list who is keyed in to some pretty tricky things and a Japanese girl using physical performance to engage social change.

In case you couldn't tell, I'M REALLY F@#$ING EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!!

I also think I might have found a new home...