Analyses
The phase of analyses is not intended to simply come after problem and inquiry, but to proceed as soon as possible. It is also not intended to converge on any single set of problems, but to generate documents and new directions based primarily on the interests of the participants. If new participants join, they are expected to take the material in new analytic directions. Most analyses in this project take the form of short experiments--- especially around the notion of "commentary" as a genre (cf. Johannes Fabian on Virtual Archives) that can attch itself in both conventional and novel ways to the existing archive of transcripts and materials.
Examples of commentary include:
short definitions and etymological analysis;
more extensive “philological” and rhetorical analyses of the texts;
analyses of the relationship between particular concepts (such as, for instance, the very common use of “trust, security, scalability and reliability” by computer scientists).
One cannot expect people to simply produce analyses, however. So when this research project is underway, analyses often take the temporally bounded form of “assignments” (we call them “missions” in a celebration of anthropological heritage) where some aspect of an interview, or some concept that emerged from discussion is thematized and presented by someone, and each member of the group is charged with writing a brief response—usually less than 2000 words.
Finally, in an effort to make the transcripts more readable on their own, one key form of analysis is the creation of "annotated" and abridged transcripts, adding commentary and background where necessary. Especially iin an archival context, each object—text, commentary, image, video—needs its own context of some sort in order to lead people from one object to another.
A final goal of all analyses, of course, is the production of publishable papers or other kinds of objects that can be reviewed, approved and used to further our vision for total domination of the planet.
Examples of commentary include:
short definitions and etymological analysis;
more extensive “philological” and rhetorical analyses of the texts;
analyses of the relationship between particular concepts (such as, for instance, the very common use of “trust, security, scalability and reliability” by computer scientists).
One cannot expect people to simply produce analyses, however. So when this research project is underway, analyses often take the temporally bounded form of “assignments” (we call them “missions” in a celebration of anthropological heritage) where some aspect of an interview, or some concept that emerged from discussion is thematized and presented by someone, and each member of the group is charged with writing a brief response—usually less than 2000 words.
Finally, in an effort to make the transcripts more readable on their own, one key form of analysis is the creation of "annotated" and abridged transcripts, adding commentary and background where necessary. Especially iin an archival context, each object—text, commentary, image, video—needs its own context of some sort in order to lead people from one object to another.
A final goal of all analyses, of course, is the production of publishable papers or other kinds of objects that can be reviewed, approved and used to further our vision for total domination of the planet.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.