November 2017

November Mapping

Junior Researcher Projects are evolving with the support of the ETHOS researcher network and great community spirit. Some Junior Researchers will be sprinting to finish their ETHOS projects in January and others will continue into the next semester.

Mirela Sandu is one of the ETHOS Junior Researchers and also the driving force behind our very popular 6 week Python Study Group. We had 90 signed up participants and many are still meeting up on Thursday nights to learn how to code with Python. The event is feasible because of the incredible programmer volunteers such as Junior Researchers Benjamin Olsen, Jesper Henrichsen and Lab-rat Mace Ojala. We are also very grateful for receiving funding from the Student Council to contribute in making a fruitful learning environment where students can be exploratory without being formally assessed.

The research project [experiment] Mapping A Colony is launching the prototype of a mapping experiment by author Lene Asp and ETHOS Lab-rat Mace Ojala in collaboration with Uncertain Archives at Copenhagen University, The Royal Danish Library and a number of independent contributors. The project is funded by Europeana and the launch of the prototype website is taking place this Sunday, November 12. See the website mappingacolony.org for more info or the facebook event for details. In connection with the launch, we have a blog post by Lab Manager Marie Blønd that has reflected on ETHOS' involvement in the process of the mapping experiment.

Researcher Nick Seaver will be visiting the Technologies in Practice (TiP) Research Group on Monday and giving a talk on 'Care and Scale: Decorrelating the Desires of Data Science' open to everyone, followed by a workshop where seats are limited and registration is required. Read the abstract and event details here.

Another research project in the ETHOS network has received funding from the Velux Foundation. The research project 'Diginauts' will investigate how migrants use mobile phones and other digital equipment to navigate geographically, socially and politically when they travel through Europe. Aalborg University, University of Copenhagen and the IT University will be collaborating in the project with Associate Professor Vasilis Galis from TiP as part of the group. We congratulate the team and look forward to following and participating in the project.

Culture Night was a huge success with twice as many visitors as previous year. ETHOS Lab had 3 installations with over 350 visitors experimenting at the Googlification Bubble, the Alexa Gamestation and the Cassini Mission Control Center. Lab-assistant Cæcilie Laursen lead the team of ETHOS student volunteers helping visitors out as we simultaneously experimented with research data collection.

As we enter the period of project sprints, we want to remind students (and researchers) that they are very welcome to join the 'Shut up & write sessions' every Thursday from 9.30-11.30. The group currently consists of MSc students from DIM and SDT writing their thesis projects independently. Register here and get the invitations - it is open to everyone and you do not have to attend every week. We also have one for researchers every Wednesday afternoon - contact us for details.

The ShareLatex workshop was popular amongst SDT, GBI and DIM students and from their request, we are arranging a follow-up course. If you are interested in getting more information on the next session then please register on http://bit.ly/ethos-latex and we will keep you posted.

On the blog, we are featuring the Junior Research project by Anette Petersen who did her research on the Google Home assistant. We are very proud to announce that Anette is now doing her Msc thesis project as part of the recently funded research project EcoKnow. If you are interested in picking up on this research from Anette's excellent reflections then we have lots of ideas as to how to do this - drop by and ask us how to be part of research in ETHOS!

Stay tuned on our Facebook page, Twitter and ReadIT for information about upcoming activities and contact us if you have any great ideas for lab involvement.

All the best,

ETHOS Lab

Blog: Mapping Experiments

The research project Mapping A Colony is launching the prototype of a mapping experiment by author Lene Asp and ETHOS Lab-rat Mace Ojala. The launch of the prototype website is taking place this Sunday, November 12. See the website mappingacolony.org for more info or the facebook event for details.

In connection with the launch, we have a blog post by Lab Manager Marie Blønd reflexive account on ETHOS' involvement in the process of the mapping experiment. Read more.

Teaching: ZOTERO

Sharing our academic practices is valuable in a university setting. Student or researcher, using a bibliographic tool to keep track of all your research and empirical sources is essential. We have run workshop on the the opensource tool Zotero before and if you missed it or want a brush-up, then here is an opportunity.

We will be introducing a ZOTERO session in the master thesis preparation course in collaboration with course manager and Associate Professor Steffen Dalsgaard. Everyone is welcome to join.

When: Wednesday 20 November 10-11:00
Where: 2A12/14
All are welcome

Services: VIRT-EU Datasprint

This week ETHOS Lab is facilitating a datasprint with the VIRT-EU research team. The concept of a datasprint will be tested in a research setting involving ethnographers and twitter datasets. Involving several methods and various forms of data from the field-sites of international IoT conferences, we are expecting the day to generate fruitful conversations and analytical discussions.

Research: Situated Analytics

ETHOS Lab will be discussing the conceptual development of Situated Analytics as an extention of our seminar 'Thick, thin, lively or steady, rich or poor? Digital platforms, networked imagery and the ethnographic description' with Professor Noortje Marres. Everyone is welcome to participate in the session at the TiP Salon on Wednesday, November 15 from 12-13:00. Read more about the seminar and Situated Analytics on our website.

Blog: Google as a conversational partner...

Junior Researcher Anette Petersen's ETHOS Lab project discussing conversational alignment in human-computer interaction by studying how two-way interactions between people and the Google Home are taking shape in practice. Her study leads to asking 'how far we are willing to go in terms of giving companies like Google access to our private information, in order to personalize the experience we have with our voice-controlled devices?' Read the blog here

Cæcilie Laursen - What is a data sprint?

ETHOS Lab Experiments

On Culture Night at ITU, ETHOS Lab presented several installations that visitors came to explore. The total number of visitors was 1800 people and minimum 350 people explored The Googlification Bubble, Alexa Gamestation and the Cassini Mission Control Center.

Part of the involvement in Culture Night entailed collecting empirical data for research. Experimenting with methods, we involved the visitors in the exploration, investigation and reflection on the use and consequences of digital assistants. What happens when you embed these devices in your home and how does it shape the social interaction and framing?

Further development of this research will depend on researcher and student involvement and if you are interested in exploring this as a project, then please contact us.

Other News

• PhD opportunity: The Department of Computer Science and Media Technology at Malmö University is hiring a PhD student (fully funded, 4-5 years depending on teaching [maximum 20%]) in computer science with an orientation towards ”computational media och datafication of health”. They are looking for a candidate that is able to undertake research in an interdisciplinary research environment. Preferably s/he should also have experience of methodologies such as digital ethnography, ethnography, and/or computational methods to study digital media. See the announcement here

• Job Recruitment: Our collaborators 'Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Effektivering' is interested in recruiting DIM or ETHOS Alumni for an academic employee for digital business- and political development in a full-time position. Read more here.

• Coding Pirated Captain: We are looking for a master or PhD student interested in becoming the ITU 'captain' of Coding Pirates. It is a volunteer-run organization that organizes weekly coding workshops for boys and girls aged 7-17 (mostly used software: Scratch, Unity + various robots/micro-controllers designed for kids). Coding Pirates can be a test-bed for new ideas in research. Contact Valeria Borsotti on vbor@itu.dk for more info or to become a candidate for this role.

• Call for papers: 'Participant Observation and Collaboration in STS Ethnography: Generating Methodographic Sensibilities for Science and Technology Studies'. It will take place in Berlin from April 12-14 2018 in collaboration with the STS Lab at Humboldt University in Berlin. Deadline December 1, 2017. All workshop applicants are expected to also submit a revised paper for the organisers’ event at the upcoming EASST conference in Lancaster, UK (25-28th July 2018). The revised papers are intended for a future special issue, guest-edited by the workshop organisers.

• Academic sparring: If you are interested in joining the TiP-Salon for academic readings and diuscussions, the meet-up is every Wednesday in 3A08 @ 12-13:00. Please contact Ester Fritsch on estf@itu.dk to get on the mailing-list for details.

• Library resources for researchers: the IT-Library in collaboration with the Library Committee at ITU has initiated in October a pilot project to gauge the interest in the e-resources available in REX. If you are interested in using the service, you will have to file a request through the provided online form [http://ku-dk.libsurveys.com/ITB-Pilot-Project].

• Videos from former PublicETHOS events

• Opening hours are Tuesday and Thursday at 12.30-16.