[Sigia-l] Microsoft, the Colonialist?

[Listera]

To better understand the software needs of entrepreneurs, Microsoft has been
undertaking detailed field studies of small firms all over the U.S. Its
executives refer to this sort of qualitative research as "anthropology," a
term that has become a popular buzzword at the company in recent years.

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In addition to the code jockeys and marketing mavens who dominate the upper
reaches of the corporate hierarchy, Microsoft employs numerous social
scientists, including two credentialed anthropologists, to work on projects
such as the development of Office SBA. Their fieldwork is far removed from
the popular perception of the anthropologist as lantern-jawed adventurer in
baggy shorts and pith helmet, canoeing up the Amazon in search of the
proverbial lost tribe. But there is a certain correspondence between
Microsoft's research agenda and the work of those old-time anthropologists,
many of whom were funded by colonial governments that needed to understand
their native subjects in order to rule them more effectively. The modern
version of this knowledge-power dynamic is Microsoft, a multinational
technology colossus that hires anthropologists who study the natives in
order to sell them more software.



Is this a good thing?

Ziya
Nullius in Verba