Category: Blogs by Mark

I saw this great idea at Grant McCrackens blog. It called a wordle, and are some of the words that are in this post on ethnography.com.

mark

www.ethnography.com

I am not a right leaning one either. I feel compelled to mention this due to a bizarre claim made by Hugh Gusterson in an article he wrote for Foreign Policy Magazine. Heres a partial quote related to anthropologists accepting funding from the Pentagon:

“Some will be concerned that the Pentagon will seek to bend their research agenda to its own needs, interfering with their academic freedom. Still others will be nervous that colleagues will shun them.…

Hello Folks-

I have been avoiding writing much about the Human Terrain System since I am not an “official voice” of the program. Also, as I have written before, I don’t consider myself a scholar in any way. I don’t write (or desire to) create the usual peer reviewed materials. I am part of the long proud tradition of tradesmen… craftspeople. I am an anthropological handyman if you will. People have a problem or issue and I am happy and lucky enough to use my training to help them with a resolution.…

I have often said that I am not in the business of anthropology. By this I mean that while I am trained in the methods and theories of anthropology, I use that training in a different business. I am in the business of insight generation, risk reduction, sometimes cross cultural understanding. But I am not very concerned with the “giving back” to the discipline of anthropology. I enjoy mentoring when someone asks (people should not impose it unrequested), and helping people make that leap from academic to applied work.…

The following announcement can be found on the HTS website at http://humanterrainsystem.army.mil/In%20Memoriam.htm.  This announcement is also found at the SWJ Blog were it includes multiple links that tell you more about Mr. Bhatia.

It is with deep sorrow that we must inform you of the tragic death of Michael Bhatia, our social scientist team member assigned to the Afghanistan Human Terrain Team #1, in support of Task Force Currahee based at FOB SALERNO, Khowst Province.…

This weekend is the annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, California.  This is far and away my favorite event of the  year, and I am going to miss it.  I have been to CES, NAB, E3, Detroit Auto Show and the original Cabela’s, but nothing beats Maker Faire for kick ass inspiration.  The exhibits range from the serious to the fantasy.  Where else can you find engineers from JPL in the same building as a guy in a folding chair explaining how all physics as we know it are a fraud? …

As a long-standing professional rule, I do not comment on or talk about my direct professional work here on Ethnography.com. Clients get a bit touchy about the sort of thing. Long-time readers will note that since joining the Human Terrain System project that I no longer write about it. I can (as can any one in the HTS) blog about my work as much as I care to if I wish.…

I added a section called about ethnography.com to the site. It also includes an example of how to cite posts from e.com in print papers.

Here is an example of how to cite an entry in an academic paper:

Waters, T. (2008, April 4). The Battle for Kosovo on the Internet. Ethnography.com.
Retrieved April 11, 2008, from Ethnography.com: http://www.ethnography.com/.

Just to satisfy all you people that have been rushing to quote us in Scientific American.…