NYC Smalltalk will hold its next meeting on Wednesday May 28th, 2003. Date: May 28th, 2003 Location: Suite LLC offices Address: 440 9th Avenue, 8th Floor Time: 6:30pm to 7:00pm -- Open house 7:00to 8:30 pm -- Ethnography and System Design See below for abstract and bios. Directions: Take E or C train to 34th (Penn Station) walk to corner of 34th and 8th. Walk up one block to 9th. RSVP is requested. Please send mail to: charles / ocit.com with subject line of: NYC Smalltalk May 28th, 2003 Our meetings are opened to the general public. Invite a friend ! To join our mailing list simply send mail to: nycsmalltalk-subscribe / yahoogroups.com. Joining our list will give members access to all of the presentations and articles maintained on our site. Any questions send mail to: charles / ocit.com Charles Chair NYC Smalltalk -------------------------------------------------------------------- Abtract: Ethnography is the output of anthropological study; literally it means "writing people" or "writing culture" and it is usually a detailed description of a particular people, organization or type of work. What, you might ask, does this have to do with computer system design? For the past 30 years, methods from traditional anthropology have been used to study people and their work and apply what is learned to designing computer systems. This presentation describes these methods and their application. We'll tell you how an Anthropologist got started in the Smalltalk lab at Xerox PARC and how an engineer got involved with anthropologists. We'll draw the connections to certain European software communities (e.g., Kristen Nygaard and Participatory Design), tell you about a few of our projects and what we are doing now. Our contention is that especially in an environment that emphasizes agile, iterative approaches to software, observing technology in use is an important capability that software system architects, designers, and developers can use to insure successful design, development and deployment. Bios: William L. Anderson Focus Bill is a co-founder of PRAXIS101. His consulting practice focuses on user-centered systems architecture, participatory design, software development practice innovation, and organizational learning. Background Prior to founding Praxis101 Bill was a Software Architect for Xerox Corporation, where he developed service discovery software as part of an agent-based, peer-to-peer, document services middleware infrastructure. He pioneered codevelopment and participatory customer collaborations in rapid prototyping and product development in projects that put end-users and engineers together, jointly developing and deploying new products. Prior to Xerox, Bill worked in the telecom, networking, and pharmaceutical industries. Bill holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently serving on the National Research Council's National Committee on Data for Science and Technology, and speaks internationally on issues of preservation and access to scientific and technical data. Susan L. Anderson Focus Susan is a co-founder of PRAXIS101and fassforward consulting group. She uses her expertise with cultural nuance, transformation and innovation to help companies break through their tough problems, plan for the future and productively engage employees and customers. Background Formerly, Susan was Senior Director for Gartner.Com (covering users, technologies and competitive intelligence) where she helped build the next generation Gartner.Com. Prior to that, at Xerox, she was instrumental in developing collaborative, socio-technical approaches to the design of new technology (from knowledge solutions to remote collaboration tools and systems to document management systems). Susan's work has also emphasized change initiatives in corporations, education, health care and international development. She has been an active contributor to professional conferences and organizations. Susan holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology; she has written on topics from technology's role in health decision making to technology-mediated collaboration. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: nycsmalltalk-unsubscribe / yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/