Leila,

I consider much of the research I do to be ethnographic* in nature. But like you, Leila, my background is in one of these new-fangled hybrid disciplines**, and quote-un-quote real social scientists might bristle when I claim that term.

Abbey, Daisy, and Sherah are going to embark on a trip to Mexico next week for a Bona Fide field study. Don't get more ethnographic than that ;)

Also, at least one of Wang's examples of "thick data" research looks an awful lot like a standard user study: "One employee, Jenna Lyons was given the opportunity to implement iterative, experimental, and real-time testing of products with consumers. Her approach resonated with consumers, transforming Jcrew into a cult brand and tripling its revenues." So the author of this article seems to be adopting a big tent definition of ethnography, that includes a lot of different qualitative research methods. Apparently you don't need to be stranded for months on the Trobriand Islands in order to be considered an ethnographer. Whew!

Anyway, I'm sure I'm boring most of the people on this list by now, so I'll stop. If anyone's curious about how to do ethnographic research in an industry setting, I recommend Practical Ethnography. If anyone wants to read a really, really interesting book by one of America's best ethnographers, I recommend You Owe Yourself a Drunk: An Ethnography of Urban Nomads. 

- J

*disclosure: I'm not really interested in disputing/defining the boundaries of ethnography. I'll gladly leave that up to people who haven't (yet) escaped from academia
**I got my degree in a department called "Human Centered Design & Engineering"... I'll leave it to the reader to decide whether that is an actual academic discipline, or simply word salad. 



On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 11:37 AM, Leila Zia <leila@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Hi Asaf and Raul,

The shorter version:
My background tells me that ethnographers bring a new perspective and depth to many quantitative research endeavours. I am fully on board that for some projects you cannot rely on quantitative analysis alone.

The longer version:
As a researcher in the Foundation, I can share with you some of my thoughts on the subject of what is called "thick data" in the article.

* In the context of the article, thick data refers to ethnographic studies, not necessarily other qualitative approaches for understanding deeper. It's important to distinguish the two since although the Research team does qualitative and quantitative research, none of that research that I'm aware of at the moment involves ethnographic research.

* Most of the people in the Research team that I have talked to value ethnographic research.

* Combining ethnographic and big data approaches is not a solved problem, many acknowledge that it's an important one, but it's not solved. Quite a few top tier academic institutions have acknowledged and are working on it. The so called Social Computing programs are the children of this acknowledgement. :-)
I got my PhD in a department called management science and engineering. The department was created by combining three programs: Operations Research (think applied math and more recently big data work), Organizational Behavior (ethnographic studies and more), System Economics (or Economics of Systems I believe). I experienced first-hand the challenges and opportunities of increasing research interactions among these traditionally separate programs/departments. We are making progress on this front, we are not there yet, neither in academia nor in research institutions and industry.

* As Aaron and Jonathan have mentioned, the Research team values qualitative and quantitative research. The most recent example of it may be the research we have started to understand Wikipedia readers in fall 2015. That research has not involved ethnographic research, however, it definitely has involved and will continue to involve a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches.

I hope this helps.

And thanks again for starting this conversation. :-)

Best,
Leila

Leila Zia
Research Scientist
Wikimedia Foundation

On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 12:34 AM, Asaf Bartov <abartov@wikimedia.org> wrote:
Estonian Wikipedian Raul Veede, User:Oop, asked to relay this link to "the metrics people", so I am sending it here and to the Community Engagement team at the Wikimedia Foundation.


Cheers,

   A.
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    Wikimedia Foundation

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