[Sigia-l] "theory" study group?

[Steve Portigal]

(this is being crossposted so you may receive it several times)

One thread in the regular conversations in which we struggle to 
define the user research field (is it ethnography? what makes it 
ethnography? What do we call it? Who does it? Etc.) is the issue of 
"theory." Many people involved in this work have an extensive 
theoretical background. Many others do not.

Personally, I've grappled with the discussion of theory. What's an 
example from our work? What is relevant theory? What are ways to get 
more of it?

On the hunch that I'm not alone in that confusion, or that interest 
exists in similar forms among others, I propose the creation of a 
"study group." I want it to be more than a reading list distributed 
to individuals - I'd like to see discussion, sharing, questioning, 
exploring, interpretation. I'd like it to be open to folks at all 
levels, to bring us all up together in our knowledge.

I don't know what form that study group should take - an email list, 
a wiki, regular Skype calls? To that end, and because we all love 
meta (!!!) I've created a planning group on Google for those that are 
interested in planning and/or participating to try to discuss a 
format that might make sense or have an impact.

Homepage:   http://groups.google.com/group/theory-plan (just go here 
and click "join this group")
Group email:   theory-plan at googlegroups.com
Description:   A planning group for those interested in learning more 
about the theoretical aspects of user research (or, call it 
ethnography, or contextual research, or design research, if you 
prefer). This group is not for the study of theory per se, but to 
plan the creation of a study group.

It may result that the email list itself is the place to have the 
discussion, but it may not, so I'm framing this as a PLANNING group 
for the time being.

I hope others are interested in figuring this out (at the very least, 
we'll want to articulate the goals more clearly than I have so far) - 
those who want to learn theory, those who want to help plan a study 
group, those who have theory to share, and others

Steve

Steve Portigal -- http://www.portigal.com
blog -- http://chittahchattah.blogspot.com