Saturday 10 November 2012

Anthropology of IT


My highlight at this Gartner conference, if I have to pick one, was a talk by anthropologist Genevieve Bell.  She joined Intel fourteen years ago to fill an information void of colossal proportions. Two simple questions were asked of her at interview and have dominated her career ever since:

1) What do women want?
2) What does the rest of the world do with IT?

('Rest of world' means 'not North America' so we assume that Intel felt pretty expert on how American men behave in their natural habitat. )

Her talk was full of delightfully funny and thought provoking observations about what we know, and what we think we know about the way people use gadgets, consume and share information in their lives.  Why do we use the word 'love' about our iPads? Why do small children expect all shiny reflections (including oven doors)  to respond to touch?  Why is it so rare to see a women holding the remote control?  How do we manage different personas in different spheres and what do we feel about the obliteration of boundaries between them?

There it is again...The most important lesson of all in this fast moving game.  Watch.  Observe.  Use objective evidence.  React.  You do not know the answers.  Unlearn as fast as you learn.    

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