There is also NAPA (National Association of Practicing Anthropologists), SfAA (Society for Applied Anthropology), and BAAPA (Bay Area Association of Practicing Anthropologists). These are all anthropologists true, but some members of those organizations work in the tech sector, especially BAAPA since that IS the culture 'round these parts. More and more companies are starting to see the use of anthropology/sociology in their research plans. IBM has several social scientists as well. I know Nokia has also hired them in the past; Apple has some, Cisco hires contractors. Generally, though, the title of "Sociologist" or "Anthropologist" is not conferred... you're a User Researcher or User Experience Researcher or something along that line. if i could get a job in high tech where i could have "Anthropologist" on my business card, i'd be a happy camper. (then again, if i could find a job *anywhere* where i could actually use my education that would be a plus as well...) -Christine Master's Candidate, San Jose State University (and job seeker...) --- lists@kotamraju.org wrote: From: Nalini Kotamraju <lists@kotamraju.org> To: Nicholas John <nikjohn@gmail.com>, "air-l@listserv.aoir.org" <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: Re: [Air-L] social science research for the hi-tech sector Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:16:14 +0200 While working on my PhD in Sociology (and a little beyond), I spent a more than significant chunk of time as a user researcher in the software design group at Sun Microsystems (now Oracle). You also might want to take a look at anthrodesign on Yahoo! Groups ( http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/anthrodesign/), which is the online home of the majority of social scientists (anthropologists, sociologists, others) who do social science work in corporate settings. Similarly, many of the folks on that list attend EPIC (Ethnography Praxis in Industry Conference, http://www.epic2009.com/). If you'd like more information, feel free to contact me offline. --- Dr. Nalini P. Kotamraju n.p.kotamraju@utwente.nl | +31 53 489 4970 University of Twente http://www.gw.utwente.nl/tpc/mw/Kotamraju/ http://kotamraju.org Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies Technical & Professional Communication Workgroup PO Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands

From: Nicholas John <nikjohn@gmail.com> Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:05:02 +0300 To: "air-l@listserv.aoir.org" <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> Subject: [Air-L] social science research for the hi-tech sector

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about social scientific research for the hi-tech sector? (That's "for", not "on".) Has anyone given thought to the question of how to make a convincing case to hi-tech companies for investing in sociological studies of their fields of operation? Or does anyone know how common the post of "in-house sociologist" is among hi-tech firms?

Thanks Nicholas

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