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Fudcon – Zikula Hackfest

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So, here I am in a hackfest room for Zikula, actually using skills I have as a ui designer in css/html and contributing to the project.

Wait, what? I’ve just become a contributor. How did that happen?

Outsider looking in, now insider looking around.

Not being a Fedora user I came to Fudcon as a part of my research for the Fedora community (a much more in depth post on that will be coming tonight or tomorrow) in order to get to know people and understand more about the culture itself during one of the rare occasions people actually come together in person rather than their usual methods of collaborating online.

I had planned to use the barcamp day to introduce myself (which I did and will be apart of that larger post I talked about earlier), and then use the hackfest days to actually interview people. However, I realize yesterday that this time here in person amongst their peers is very very very valuable. So, rather than take up their valuable time away from this environment through in person formal interviews, its more about informal conversations. It’s just really getting to know people so that when I contact them later about participating in the research through more formal methods they know who I am, what the project is about, and will perhaps have more free time to contribute to the research rather than being rushed in this environment.

During one of these informal conversations I overheard there was a limited amount of people here who know CSS, so they weren’t sure how they were going to get the design work for this specific project done in the short amount of time they had here. Then I opened my big mouth and said, ‘Oh, I know CSS’, to which Simon responded, ‘I need you at my hackfest tomorrow’.

With that I had to learn more about what the hell I got myself into, so I attended the barcamp panel on it, got a better idea of what it was all about and realized not only could I help with my CSS knowledge, but because it was based on a nuke CMS framework I even had experience in that I could lend to the cause.

So there you go, even non Fedora users can become contributors.

Oh, and by the way, I’m working on that non part of that last statement as soon as I can. I just need someone to get the wireless working on my netbook (Dell Mini 9) in F12, as it doesn’t seem to recognize the card. I’ll even overwrite the current system if I can just get that working!

Preparing for FUDCon: Toronto

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As we start upon this holiday week (in the US) I am pulling together my resources in preparation for the Fedora developer conference the first weekend in December.

Part of this process includes making my introduction to the Fedora group, gaining access to several mailing lists, joining IRC channels, and of course updating this blog.

So far this has been an interesting learning process.

On the technical side, I am ashamed to admit I got on IRC for the first time this week, that and I still didn’t figure out the SSH bit for adding myself to the Fedora Planet blogroll and instead had someone do a hack to get me on. I feel like my geek cred went simultaneously up and down – I suppose staying even isn’t so bad. 😉

On the personal side I’ve had two great people step up to help me out both in terms of getting connected and getting a better grasp on the different things going on right now in the Fedora community. So thank you to both Mel and Mairin for that!

For those of you on Livejournal, I’ve syndicated Planet Fedora in order to make it easier for me to keep up with, perhaps you’ll find it helpful as well!

To get more familiar with Fedora as an OS, I am working on taking my Dell Mini 9 (my fieldwork laptop) and figuring out how to install the latest Fedora release on it (it came with Ubuntu). I have yet to even begin research on this! I figure it will be my pet project starting tomorrow. If you have tips or know of any resources that may be helpful, please pass them along!

Lastly, I’m going to put together a loose list of things to discuss while at the conference with everyone interested in this research. It being an explorative study, it is open to any and all ideas the community is interested in exploring about itself.

As a part of my research I’ll be conducting interviews at the conference. If you are interested in being interviewed and you think you’ll have time at the conference for it, please let me know! This way I can start a list prior to the conference and we can be sure to make time while we are there to talk. I’ll be happy to do this individually or in groups. Just let me know your preference.

If you won’t be at the conference, or would like the participate, but don’t think you’ll have time while you are there – don’t fret! I’ll be conducting interviews through the end of January either in person (for those local to Dallas), online (email/IM), or over the phone/skype. So if you’re interested in that let me know as well!

As always, if you have any questions as to what this is all about, who I am, or why I am doing this research feel free to email me at diana [@] cyber-anthro.com.

Hello Fedora!

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Hi!

First, I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Diana and I am an anthropologist currently in the midst of attaining my Masters degree in Applied Anthropology from the University of North Texas. As a part of my studies I will be working with Fedora, and hopefully many of you, to better understand the culture that surrounds open source software development.

As an applied anthropologist I want to stress that I will be doing research FOR and with the Fedora community not ON the Fedora community. My goal is to find ways to make your lives as open source developers better! And, if by some chance it can’t get any better than it already is, find out why it is so great so other open source groups can follow your lead.

My research methods will include participant observation, which means I will be hanging out with you all as you do what you do both in an online and offline context, interviews, and surveys. I will be using this blog as my major means of communication with everyone and as a way to make my research both open and transparent.

When my research concludes I will be providing the community with a report as to the findings of my explorative study so that everyone has access to them and can hopefully find ways to use them to your benefit.

As a side note for all anthropologists aspiring to do research online, I am documenting my entire process and will be providing a side report as my contribution to open anthropology.

For those of you who will be in Toronto for the developer conference in December, I will be there as well and will be providing a topic for discussion so that we can all get to know each other a bit better.

I want to stress that participation in this study is strictly voluntary! If for some reason you do not want to participate, or would like to speak to me in confidence, I will be more than happy to oblige.

You can contact me here by leaving a comment, or by emailing me Diana [@] cyber-anthro.com.

I look forward to working with all of you and to any feedback you may have, even this early in the process!

Two Bits – A mini-review

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I just finished reading Two Bits by Christopher Kelty.

I haven’t really had time to sit and think too much about it yet, but one thing that does jump out at me immediately is that the author is an anthropologist first and a ‘geek’ second (if at all).

This makes me a bit reflexive in my own work in that I think of myself as equally a geek and anthropologist. To me, they go hand in hand.

While he seemed to look at his research and knowledge of open source software and the culture that surrounds it in such a way that it was, say, elevated due to its scientific nature (take chapter 8 for example), I want mine to be on the level and completely accessible to those for whom it is about. Scientific of course, but purposeful and usable as well.

I suppose this is also the difference between applied and theoretical anthropology in that it is my goal to perform my research FOR an open source community rather than ON open source culture.

I think I’ll definitely give this book a second read, it deserves at least that. I have to say though, it’s not quite what I expected it would be.

On interviewing minors online…

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My practicum research with Fedora officially started November 1st, however, I’ve used this entire week to try to talk my Institutional Review Board (the people who have to approve my research before I am allowed to do it) into allowing me to interview community participants who are under 18. In the eyes of the law anyone under 18 is considered a child, therefore I have to get their parental consent to participate.

Luckily, I met up with a very kind board advisor who worked out a plan with me that will allow me to get informed consent from parents via snail mail even though the interviews will take place online. He presented it to the  IRB chair for me and she agreed I could submit an amendment to my application and she would approve it under the plan we came up with. This is a HUGE step for any university as more and more research is likely to be conducted via virtual means than ever before.

For those who are interested in the plan we came up with, in case you would like to work something like this out with your IRB, here are the steps I must perform to gain parental consent.

  • I will present my client with a URL providing more information about the study telling parents we have selected their children to participate due to their involvement within the community.
  • My client will then send out this URL to the minors in the community who he believes make good interview candidates due to their high involvement requesting that their parents contact me if they are interested in participation.
  • The parents can then choose to ignore the request for participation or they can contact me via information provided to them on this URL letting me know they would like to give consent for their child to participate. This way I never have the contact information of the children and only those parents who agree to the participation of their children will be contacting me.
  • At that point I will request the snail mail address of the family and will be mailing physical copies of the IRB stamped consent forms to them for them to sign and send back to me. Only after I have received the signed form will I then be able to interview the minors.
  • On both my request for participation and my consent notice I am required to put the physical address of the anthropology office at the university in addition to the phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
  • Additionally, I have to make sure it is expressly clear that the parents are able to monitor the interview if they so choose.

This was a lot of hard work so I am happy to share it with anyone else who can take advantage of it!

Sadly, this also means I have yet to actually get on the Fedora blogroll as I still can’t figure out how to get my ssh key to work!

Virtual Ethnography and Open Source Software Reading List

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As a part of my preparation for my research on Fedora I’ve taken on getting acquainted with OSS as well as looking up other peoples views on virtual ethnography. For those that are interested, I am sharing my list here.

Virtual Ethnography – Methods

  • Hine, Christine M. 2000. Virtual Ethnography
  • Hine, Christine M. 2005. Virtual Methods
  • Markham, Annette (ed) and Nancy Baym (ed). 2008. Internet Inquiry: Conversations about Method
  • Jones, Steve. 1998. Doing Internet Research: Critical Issues and Methods for Examining the Net
  • Rheingold, Howard. 1994. Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerized World
    www.rheingold.com/book

The Beginning of Open Source Software and the OSS Revolution

  • Raymond, Eric S (1997) 1999, 2001. The Cathedral and the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary. ed. Tim O’Reilly. O’Reilly & Associates (www.catb.org/cathedral-bazaar)
  • The Halloween Documents. 1998

The Cultural Significance of Open Source Software

    • Kelty, Christopher 2008. Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software. ed. Michael M. J. Fischer and Joseph Dumit. Duke University Press (www.twobits.net)
    • Kelty, Christopher. 2004. “Culture’s Open Sources: Software, Copyright, and Cultural Critique”. Anthropological Quarterly 77(3):499-506
    • Golub, Alex 2004. “Copyright and Taboo.” Anthropological Quarterly 77(3).
    • Stewart, Daniel 2005 “Social Status in an Open-Source Community” American Sociological Review 70(5):823-842

 

 

  • Hemetsberger, Andrea and Christian Reinhardt 2006 “Learning and Knowledge-building in Open-source Communities: A Social-experiential Approach” Management Learning 37(2):187-214
  • Cromie, John and Michael Ewing 2008 “Squatting at the digital campfire, Researching the open source software community”, International Journal of Market Research 50(5):631-653
  • Bitzer, Jurgen, Schrettl, Wolfram, and Philipp J. H. Schroder. 2007. “Intrinsic motivation in open source software development.” Journal of Comparative Economics 35(1): 160-169

 

 

  • Brafman, Ori and Rod. A. Beckstrom. 2006. The Starfish and the Spider: The unstoppable power of leaderless organizations. New York: Penguin Group

Let me know what you think and feel free to add more in the comments!

Am I techy enough?

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My first test against my tech cred in my Fedora research has been generating an ssh key and setting up my blog on Fedora Planet the Fedora blog aggregator. I looked this up on several resources, understood what it was, but not really how to make it work.

I uploaded several different keys I generated via several different sources and still no go. I finally figured out that it had nothing to do with where my blog was hosted, but rather, from where I was connecting i.e. my mac. So, I created a key on my mac and uploaded. Now, I had read on a mailing list found via google that it can take sometimes as long as an hour to propagate your key over to the authentication server. I am not sure how old this post was (simply forgot to check the date), but I thought it a good idea to wait anyway.

Sadly, that key didn’t work either. Then I found the cryptography fedora wiki entry. All other resources I had read had said to skip creating a password. This one stated that you needed to. So, again I generated a key and uploaded it.

So far still no go. I have someone who’s volunteered to help me. I just need to make a date with her online to get it done! As soon as I have this figured out I’ll post it for posterity in case someone else ends up being as newbish as me. 🙂

Fedora Research Ahoy!

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I’m sitting here at my computer trying to figure out how to join the Fedora blogroll and notice that the hat I was given on Wednesday night by a friend is in fact, a fedora.

Today my research for my practicum has officially started. As soon as I get on the blog roll I’ll be posting some more in depth information as to what this study is about, what I hope to accomplish, and my side study meant to help other anthropologists as they attempt to do online community research.

I am very very excited about this project and can’t wait to share all of the details!

Also as a part of this I’ll be participating in NaBloPoMo. Here’s to post one of 30 for this month!


Visit NaBloPoMo

Research and Development 2.0 – Hire Anthropologists

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This comes from directly from Harvard Business:

Anthropologists and ethnographers. By having anthropologists study and interact with end-customers in their natural settings, Western firms can learn to tailor their business models and offerings to match users’ socio-economic and cultural context. For example, Intel’s People and Practices Research (PaPR) employs sociologists and ethnographers who spend months in emerging markets embedded in grassroots communities to identify the latent needs of local consumers. Dr Genevieve Bell, one of PaPR’s anthropologists, traveled extensively across China and India observing people in their homes to find out how they use and what they want from technology. Her ethnographic insights shaped Intel’s groundbreaking pricing models and partnership strategies for Chinese consumer market.

On that note, I’m proud to announce that I will be partnering with the Fedora Project for my practicum (an applied Masters thesis), where I will be performing exploratory research on their online open source development community. More details to come soon!

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