In the thick of field work

I can't believe almost a month has passed since my last post. The title of the paper I gave just over a month ago - "Entering the field: researching everyday office computing" was most apt. I really was on the cusp of launching into the field work. Soon after giving the paper, I travelled down to Melbourne to visit the organisation where I'm conducting research on a new mobile phone solution. I had a whirlwind trip going there and back in a day. It was quite unsettling arriving in Melbourne in the morning and coming back that afternoon, although I did manage to orient myself successfully enough to buy a pair of boots after my meeting with the staff of the organisation. Melbourne really does have the best shoe stores.

Since returning from Melbourne I worked on the design of the office technology diary and got good feedback from a range of people. I tested it on Sarah for a week and am only disappointed that I can't include her diary in the overall research.

Over last weekend I revisited the interview questions I drafted for my ethics application way back in August last year. I did some reworking of the structure and wording of the questions and started interviewing the staff from my Sydney based organisation this week. I've conducted three interviews so far and I feel that they are going very well. Of course the process raises all sorts of new questions and there's alot to do negotiating the field work process, alot more than I anticipated. I'm very excited to finally be in the field.