Second Digital Ethnography Week

Centro Studi Etnografia Digitale, Fondazione <ahref, Societing and PhD program in Sociology at the University of Milano, are proud to announce the organization of the 2nd “Digital Ethnography Week”!

The DEW will take place during five days, between the 17 and the 21 of September 2012: an intensive week focused on the study of digital methods and digital ethnographic approaches. 

The field of digital ethnography (also known as netnography, virtual ethnography, or cyberetnography) has been growing in recent years, and the focus has changed from looking at online phenomena as belonging to a world apart, to studying how online cultures, practices and life forms integrate, combine and shape off-line social life.

During the DEW we want to expand the concept of digital ethnography even further, practically, theoretically and methodologically. We will build on the combined competences of the Centro Studi di Etnografia Digitale, the Fondazione <ahref, and Societing.

The week will feature world famous scholars along with experts from the Scientific Committee and the institutions organizing the week.

The program will last for five days.
The mornings will be dedicated to lectures. In the afternoons participants will be given tuition in the pursuit of their own research projects, along with methodological labs

The program will start with an open day directed to companies which will be followed by four days open to Ph.D students and researchers (credits can be arranged via the PhD program in Sociology at the University of Milano).

(sponsored by
Cassa Rurale di Trento)

DEW Program (keynote speakers: Richard Rogers, Morgan Gabereau and Noortje Marres):

9,30 - 11,00
- A. Giordano: Introduction
- A. Arvidsson: Ethics and Reputation in the Digital Economy
- R. Rogers: Digital Data and Social Research

11,00 - 11,30 coffee break

- L. Grimaldi
- R. Cirullo
- M. Gabereau: Reputation and Sentiment on Financial Markets
- Open Discussion

13,00 -14,00 lunch break

14,00 - 16,30
Presentation of digital ethnography projects

17,00 – 18,00
- Richard Rogers: Digital Methods

Day 2, September 18th.
Introduction to Digital Ethnography and Digital Methods

9,30 - 13,00
- A. Caliandro & D . Beraldo: Introducing the research process
- Seminar: Defining research topics

13,00 -14,00 lunch break
14,00 - 16,30
Supervised Research in Groups

16,30 - 18,30
Roundtable: ‘How Digital Methods Change Social Research’
- M. Gabereau
- A. Arvidsson
- L. De Biase

Day 3, September 19th.
Studying online reputation
9,30 - 13,00
- A. Gandini: A Critique of Klout. Studying reputation economies
- B. Niessen: Besides Klout there’s not only Kred. Qualitative ways to explore the reputation economy
- S. De Paoli: Reputation Design and Manipulation
- I. Pais: Reputation and Social Networks

13,00 -14,00 lunch break
14,00 - 16,30

Supervised Research in Groups
16,30 - 18,30

16,30 - 18,30
N. Marres: Issue lifelines and actor profiles: On doing digital sociology with Twitter

Day 4, September 20th.
Understanding Digital Collectives

9,30 - 13,00
- M. Teli: Understanding Digital Collectives
- A. Caliandro: New Ethics of Web Tribes
- A. Bruni & G. Fele: Publishing Digital Ethnographies and digital method researches
- T. Bonini: Publics are not the ones we were used to know: from time to reputation

13,00 -14,00 lunch break
15,30 – 17,00
Social activity for students

Day 5, September 21st. 9,30 – 13,00
Discussion of the students’ research results and public presentation of research results.

The participation fees are

• PhD Students: € 200,00 (+ VAT)
  
• Academic and Professional Researchers: € 1.000,00 (+ VAT)

THE FEE WILL NOT COVER ACCOMMODATION AND MEAL EXPENSES.
Depending on the number of participants, a small number of scholarships will be available to cover participation fees

ORGANIZATION: Alessandra Frongia (alessandra@ahref.eu)

Important Dates:

• Application Submission Deadline: expired on July 22, 2012:
• July 31st: Notification of Acceptance and Scholarship Notification
• August 15th: Registration Deadline

To submit your application, please send your project (max 1000 words) and your cv to dew2012@ahref.eu

DEW is co-organized by the Centro Studi di Etnografia Digitale, Fondazione <ahref, Societing and the PhD program in Sociology at the Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences, University of Milano.

The Centro Studi Etnografia Digitale is a group of young researchers that are engaged in developing theoretical and methodological approaches to qualitative and quantiative online research. The group has accumulated a range of publications in Italian and has worked for corporate clients like Google, Nestle, Chicco, and Barilla. Our academic sponsors are the Graduate School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Milano, and the RBB project at the Copenhagen Business School.

Fondazione <ahref is a research Foundation based in Trento (Italy), founded in September 2010. <ahref research activities are focused on the broad subject of “the quality of information” emerging from today's social networks and digital media. Its research activities include internet studies, digital methods, online reputation, user experience, digital games, participatory design, and the governance of digital collectives. Prior to join the Foundation, <ahref researchers were already active in the field and have been using digital methods since 2004, publishing articles and presenting papers at international venues.

Societing is a collective of researchers and professionals that are interested in new forms of economic and political innovation. The blog societing.org (in Italian) gathers contributions from thinkers and practitioners who are interested in fields like social innovation, social entrepreneurship, social movements, new media, alternative currencies, social finance and so on. The societing collective also organizes a Summer school in the last week of August, on new media and social change in the Mediterranean.

PhD program in Sociology at the University of Milano is part of the Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences. The aim of the program is to provide structured training in theoretically-guided empirical research across a wide range of sociological fields and to introduce students to current international debates in both qualitative and quantitative social research.

We are pleased to announce the keynote speakers at the "Digital Ethnography Week" in Trento, Italy (17 - 21 September): Richard Rogers and Morgan Gabereau.

Richard Rogers is University Professor and holds the Chair in New Media & Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He is also Director of the Govcom.org Foundation (Amsterdam) and the Digital Methods Initiative. Previously, Rogers worked as Senior Advisor to Infodrome, the Dutch Governmental Information Society initiative.

Morgan Gabereau is the founder of the Ubiquity Fund, a sustainable growth fund and technology platform that seeks to build better communities through social innovation, human capital, developmental finance and greener living.

Noortje Marres joined the Department of Sociology at the Goldsmiths University of London in March 2011. Before that she was a Research Fellow in Science & Technology Studies at the University of Oxford. Noortje was part of the team that developed the Issuecrawler, an online platform for the location, analysis and visualisation of issue-networks. She currently convenes the MA/MSc Digital Sociology and is Co-Director of the inter-disciplinary research centre CSISP (Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process).

Schedule: for companies; for phd students

Digital Ethnography Week has established two editorial partnerships with two leading Italian academic journals, "Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa"  and "Tecnoscienza".

To submit your application, please send your project (max 1000 words) and your cv to dew2012@ahref.eu

DEW's Partner Journals