Tag: Applied Research

Tech Anthropologist Working and Product Manager: Interview with Matt Artz (Part 1 of 3)

As part of my Season 2, I interviewed Matt Artz, a design anthropologist who has been recently working as a product manager in the tech space. In Part 1, he discussed his experiences making innovative software products as an anthropologist and product manager.

Matt Artz is a business and design anthropologist, consultant, author, speaker, and creator. He writes, speaks, and consults in user experience, product management, and business strategy. He creates products, podcasts, music, and visual art.

For more context on my interview series in general, click here.

Resources we mentioned or other additional resources:

  • My website – https://www.mattartz.me/
  • LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-artz-anthropology/
  • Anthropology in Business podcast – https://www.mattartz.me/podcasts/anthropology-in-business-with-matt-artz/
  • Anthro to UX podcast – http://anthropologytoux.com/
  • Venn Diagram – https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking
  • Book – https://www.ideo.com/post/design-kit

Tech Anthropologist Working and Product Manager: Interview with Matt Artz (Part 2 of 3)

This is the second part of three in our conversation. In it, he described his work developing data science-based recommendation systems using the concepts of design anthropology, participatory research, and design thinking, and then how he uses his skills as an anthropologist to visualize and communicate results and then plan what to do going forward with stakeholders.

Matt Artz is a business and design anthropologist, consultant, author, speaker, and creator. He writes, speaks, and consults in user experience, product management, and business strategy. He creates products, podcasts, music, and visual art.

Please also see Part 1 of the interview.

For more context on my interview series in general, click here.

Resources we mentioned or other additional resources:

  • My website – https://www.mattartz.me/
  • LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-artz-anthropology/
  • Anthropology in Business podcast – https://www.mattartz.me/podcasts/anthropology-in-business-with-matt-artz/
  • Anthro to UX podcast – http://anthropologytoux.com/
  • Venn Diagram – https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking
  • Book – https://www.ideo.com/post/design-kit

Tech Anthropologist Working and Product Manager: Interview with Matt Artz (Part 3 of 3)

This is the third and final part of three in our conversation. In Part 3, he discussed why he decided to study anthropology for his business work and how that helped give him the skills for the work he does today.

Matt Artz is a business and design anthropologist, consultant, author, speaker, and creator. He writes, speaks, and consults in user experience, product management, and business strategy. He creates products, podcasts, music, and visual art.

Previous Parts:

  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2

For more context on my interview series in general, click here.

Resources we mentioned or other additional resources:

  • My website – https://www.mattartz.me/
  • LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-artz-anthropology/
  • Anthropology in Business podcast – https://www.mattartz.me/podcasts/anthropology-in-business-with-matt-artz/
  • Anthro to UX podcast – http://anthropologytoux.com/
  • Venn Diagram – https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking
  • Book – https://www.ideo.com/post/design-kit

The Promises and Failures of Current Artificial Intelligence Technology: An Interview with Gemma Clavell at Eticas (Part 1 of 3)

I spoke with Gemma Galdon-Clavell, founder of Eticas Foundation and Eticas Consulting about the social implications of artificial intelligence technologies. In this first part, we discussed the policy strategies for ensuring that our data and artificial intelligence systems built on our data are good quality, safe, and accountable.

Here are Part 2 and Part 3 of the interview.

Dr. Gemma Galdon-Clavell is a leading voice on technology ethics and algorithmic accountability. She is the founder and CEO of Eticas, where her multidisciplinary background in the social, ethical, and legal impact of data-intensive technology allows her and her team to design and implement practical solutions to data protection, ethics, explainability, and bias challenges in AI. She has conceived and architected the Algorithmic Audit Framework which now serves as the foundation for Eticas’s flagship product, the Algorithmic Audit.

To learn more about Gemma’s and Eticas’s work:

For more context on my interview series in general, click here.

The Promises and Failures of Current Artificial Intelligence Technology: An Interview with Gemma Clavell at Eticas (Part 2 of 3)

Here is the second part of three in my conversation with Gemma Clavell. We compared various corporate models – good and bad – for artificial intelligence and how to foster responsible corporate practices in this field.

Dr. Gemma Galdon-Clavell is a leading voice on technology ethics and algorithmic accountability. She is the founder and CEO of Eticas, where her multidisciplinary background in the social, ethical, and legal impact of data-intensive technology allows her and her team to design and implement practical solutions to data protection, ethics, explainability, and bias challenges in AI. She has conceived and architected the Algorithmic Audit Framework which now serves as the foundation for Eticas’s flagship product, the Algorithmic Audit.

Here is Part 1 and Part 3 of our interview.

To learn more about Gemma’s and Eticas’s work:

For more context on my interview series in general, click here.

The Promises and Failures of Current Artificial Intelligence Technology: An Interview with Gemma Clavell at Eticas (Part 3 of 3)

This is the third and final part of three in our conversation. In Part 3, she described the skills and types of people necessary to build and assess artificial intelligence teams.

Dr. Gemma Galdon-Clavell is a leading voice on technology ethics and algorithmic accountability. She is the founder and CEO of Eticas, where her multidisciplinary background in the social, ethical, and legal impact of data-intensive technology allows her and her team to design and implement practical solutions to data protection, ethics, explainability, and bias challenges in AI. She has conceived and architected the Algorithmic Audit Framework which now serves as the foundation for Eticas’s flagship product, the Algorithmic Audit.

Here is Part 1 and Part 2 of our interview.

To learn more about Gemma’s and Eticas’s work:

For more context on my interview series in general, click here.

Maker Anthropologist in the Tech Field: Interview with Astrid Countee (Interview #1 in the Interview Series)

For my first interview in the Interview Series, I interviewed Astrid Countee. She is a business anthropologist and technologist with a background in anthropology, software engineering, and data science. She currently works as a user researcher at the peer-to-peer distributed company Holo, as a research associate at The Plenary, as an arts and education nonprofit, and as a co-founder of Missing Link Studios which distributes the This Anthro Life podcast. 

If the audio does not play on your computer, you can download it here:

Astrid Interview AudioDownload

Over our conversation, we discussed the following:

  1. Astrid’s work as a technologist and anthropology
  2. Strategies for how to develop programming and data skills as an anthropologist
  3. Astrid’s experiences developing and using statistical and data science tools in her work
  4. The importance of maker anthropology

Our conversation touched on a variety of exciting topics, which I hope to follow-up on in more detail in the coming months. I hope you enjoy.

To learn more about Astrid and her work, see her LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/astridcountee

Here are the various items that she mentioned during the conversation:

Thanks, Astrid, for being willing to share your insights.

Next Interview in the Interview Series: https://ethno-data.com/schaun-interview-1/

Data Scientist, Anthropologist, and Entrepreneur: Interview with Schaun Wheeler (Interview #2 in the Interview Series)

For my second interview in the Interview Series, I interviewed Schaun Wheeler. Schaun is co-founder of Aampe, a startup that embeds an active learning system into mobile apps to turn push notifications into part of the app’s user interface. Before he co-founded Aampe, Schaun was the data science lead for the award-winning Consumer Graph intelligence product at Valassis, a U.S. ad-tech firm. And before that he founded and directed the data science team at Success Academy Charter Schools in New York City. Then before that, Schaun was one of the first people to champion the use of statistical inference to understand massive unstructured data at the United States Department of the Army. Schaun has a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Connecticut.

If the audio does not play on your computer, you can download it here:

Schaun-Interview-AudioDownload

Over our conversation, we discussed the following:

  • Schaun’s experiences as both a data scientist and anthropologist
  • His utilization of anthropology within data science to decipher the right problem before launching into data science solutions
  • Recommendations for how anthropologists can develop data science and programming skills
  • His experiences starting a new data science consumer and market-research based company

To learn more about Schaun Wheeler and Aampe, check these out:

LinkedIn (the best way to contact him): https://www.linkedin.com/in/schaunwheeler/

Medium: https://medium.com/@schaun.wheeler

Twitter: https://twitter.com/schaunw

Aampe website: https://www.aampe.com/

Aampe blog: https://www.aampe.com/blog

A User Story, The Data Science Children’s Book: https://www.aampe.com/blog/a-user-story

More Detailed Walkthrough: Clip #1: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL03WDMCL2PHjRd8Y8USzvVkcIyQM57FMU and Clip #2: https://youtu.be/kwk_Ot8orPY

Previous Interview in the Interview Series: https://ethno-data.com/astrid-interview-1/

Anti-Corruption Anthropologist in Kazakhstan: Interview with Olga Shiyan (Interview #7 in the Interview Series)

I interviewed Olga Shiyan as part of my Interview Series. In it, she discusses her anti-corruption work in Kazakhstan with Transparency International. In particular, she highlights various projects that have integrated anthropology with data science and statistics. 

Olga Shiyan is the Executive Director of the Transparency International’s chapter in Kazakhstan. She specializes in advocacy, legislation and draft laws, and democratic training programs. For this, she has developed research methods that combine anthropology and data science and statistics. In 2019, the Kazakhstan Geographic Society awarder for a medal for anti-corruption work.

To learn more about Olga, feel free to check out the following:

1. Monitoring the state of corruption in Kazakhstan for 2020, presentation

2. Presentation of the research in the media, speaking on a TV show, talk TV show

3. Monitoring the state of corruption in Kazakhstan for 2019

4. The index of civic participation and influence on lawmaking in Kazakhstan

5. 13 stories about lawmaking in Kazakhstan                                             

6. Development of local self-government in Kazakhstan: analysis of fourth-level budgets

7. Ethno-confessional monitoring. Kazakhstan. 2018.

8. Customs corruption in Kazakhstan: mirror analysis of trade

9. Opportunities for Civil Control in Kazakhstan: Experience of Ethnological Research

10. The thorny path of labor migrants to Russia: the experience of participant observation

11. Anthropological approach to the study of the influence of gift exchange on informal socio-economic relations

12. Anthropological approach in the interdisciplinary study of the phenomenon of corruption

13. Summer anti-corruption school of Transparency Kazakhstan

14. Transparency Kazakhstan School of Investigative Journalism

Digital Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence: Interview with Scarleth Herrera (Interview #8 in the Interview Series)

For Part 8 in my Interview Series, I interviewed Scarleth Herrera, a digital anthropologist and founder of Orez Anthropological Research. In it, we discuss her experiences as starting her own digital anthropology research company, transitioning into artificial intelligence-related work, and experiences conducting anthropological research outside of academia.

Scarleth lives in South Florida. Her Orez Anthropological Research is a non-profit dedicated to the exploration and advancing the research of digital anthropology. She is also a Research Scholar at the Ronin Institute in New Jersey. Her current research focus is on the implications artificial intelligence may have on society in general but particularly low-income communities, but she is also passionate about issues facing immigrant communities in the United States.  

Resources about Scarleth and Her Work:

Email: scarleth@orezanthroresearch.org
Twitter: @orezantresearch
Website:  www.orezanthroresearch.org
Ronin Institute: ronininstitute.org

Resources about Digital Anthropology and Other Resources Referenced in Our Conversation:

London School of Economics Ethnography Collective Reading List: https://zoeglatt.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/LSE-Digital-Ethnography-Collective-Reading-List-Oct-2021.pdf
Digital Ethnography Initiative: https://digitalethnography.at/blog/
The Digital Ethnographers Directory: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x8UOb1AxZS5FYRkXn2QLPrje-6vA4U4WC6SsmJXNHys/edit#gid=0
“The Short Anthropological Guide to the Study of Ethical AI” by Alexandrine Royer: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.03362
“The Great Hack” (Netflix Documentary Mentioned)

Recommended Books in Digital Anthropology:

“Digital anthropology” by Daniel Miller et al. (recommend both the first and second editions)
“Doing Anthropological Research” by Natalie Konopinski
“Studying Those Who Study Us” by Diana E. Forsythe
“Digital Ethnography” by Sarah Pink