I will be doing a workshop at the EPIC2005 conference next month in Seattle.

The Sociality of Fieldwork (or Personal Experiences with Interpersonal Connections)
Workshop Facilitator: Steve Portigal, Portigal Consulting

In the activity of fieldwork, the ethnographer creates and facilitates a series of powerful interpersonal connections including (but not limited to):

* ethnographer and respondent
* ethnographer and fellow ethnographer/researcher/designer
* ethnographer and ‘client’
* ‘client’ and respondent

We leverage these connections to accomplish our most basic purposes: creating empathy and gathering data through establishing rapport. But perhaps there is more going on here. The goal of this workshop is to explore and consider these closely-felt connections and collectively begin to build a deeper understanding of the roots, power, impact and further potential for these interpersonal connections.

Through the workshop we will share our respective experiences, looking both for common themes that emerge, but also unique perspectives that the workshop participants may have, drawing those out and ideally building specific techniques that we can employ in the future, looking towards fieldwork that is more stimulating, impactful, and satisfying for each of the different stakeholders.