Honolulu, Hawai‘i October 9-12

EPIC Papers are original and substantial works that expand our community’s knowledge base and offer innovative engagements with theory and methods. They are selected through a double-blind peer review process conducted by our independent program committee and are published in the journal EPIC Proceedings (ISSN 1559-8918). Authors will present their work in the following conference sessions.


Evidence in a Global Context

Curator: Josh Kaplan
Wednesday, 10 October, 10–11:00, Waikiki 2

Goals and Methods in International Business Ethnography
Yuuki Hara · Hitachi; Lynn Shade · Studio S
Doing Ethnography in AirSpace: The Promise and Danger of ‘Frictionless’ Global Research
Tom Hoy · Stripe Partners

Re-thinking Evidence, Subjectivity, and Data Veracity

Curator: Tiffany Romain, Turnitin
Wednesday, 10 October, 1:45–2:45, Kona

Can I Get a Witness? The Limits of Evidence in Healthcare Quality Evaluation Systems an American Hospitals
Lindsay Ferris & Nichole Carelock · Ad Hoc, LLC
Human-Centered Data Science: A New Paradigm for Industrial IoT
Matthew Yapchaian · Update
Towards an Ethnographic-Archaeological Approach to Big Data: Rethinking Data Veracity
Shaozeng Zhang · Oregon State University

Communicating: Evidence, Big Data, and Empathy

Curator: Hilary Dwyer, LogMeIn
Wednesday, 10 October, 1:45–2:45, Waikiki 3

Physicalizations of Big Data in Ethnographic Contexts
Jacob BuurChristina Fyhn & Sara Said Mosleh · University of Southern Denmark
Empathy Is Not Evidence: How We’re Clouding Our Decisions through Emotional Biases
Rachel Robertson & Penny Allen · Shopify

Beyond the Interview: New Methods for Collecting Data

Curator: Rebekah Park, ReD Associates
Wednesday, 10 October, 1:45–2:45, Waikiki 2

Map Making: Mobilizing Local Knowledge and Fostering Collaboration
Nora Morales · Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Cuajimalpa
Eye Tracking in Medical Ethnography: Evaluating Evidence for Perception, Action, and Collaboration across Healthcare Professions
Larry S. McGrath · Design Science Consulting
Evidence Outside the Frame: Interpreting Participants’ “Framing” of Information when Using Participatory Photography
Tabitha Steager · Pacific AIDS Network

Methods at the Intersection of Ethnography and Big Data

Curator: Josef Wieland, Gemic
Thursday, 11 October, 10:00–11:00, Waikiki 3

Human Sensemaking in the Smart City: A Research Approach Merging Big and Thick Data
Annelien Smets & Bram Lievens · IMEC-SMIT
The Perfect UberPOOL: A Case Study on Trade-offs (Case Study)
Jenny Lo & Stephen Morseman · Uber
Contextual Analytics: Improving Algorithms with Big and Thick Data
Jacob McAuliffe, Millie P. Arora & Mikkel Krenchel · ReD Associates
Poornima Ramaswamy · Cognizant Digital Business

The Organizational Context of Data

Curator: Dawn Nafus, Intel
Thursday, 11 October, 1:15–2:15, Waikiki 3

What and Who Drives Algorithm Development: Start-up Organizational Formation
Rodney Sappington · Acesio, Inc. & Laima Serksnyte
How Modes of Myth-Making Affect the Particulars of DS/ML Adoption in Industry
Emauel Moss · CUNY; Friederike Schuur · Fast Forward Labs
Acting on Analytics: Accuracy, Precision, Interpretation, and Performativity (Case Study)
Jeanette BlombergAly Megahed & Ray Strong · IBM

Ethnographic Theory and Practice

Curator: Josef Wieland, Gemic
Thursday, 11 October, 2:45–3:45, Waikiki 2

Regarding the Pain of Users: Towards a Genealogy of the “Pain Point”
David Platzer · Adobe Design
Screenplay, Novel, and Poem: The Value of Borrowing from Three Literary Genres to Frame our Thinking as We Gather, Analyze, and Elevate Evidence in Applied Ethnographic Work
Maria Cury & Michele Chang-McGrath · ReD Associates
Designed for Care: Systems of Care and Measurement in the Work of Mobility
Erik Stayton & Melissa Cefkin · Nissan Research Center

Brave New World: Evidence in the Age of AI and Machine Learning

Curator: Ian Lowrie, Lewis & Clark College
Thursday, 11 October, 2:45–3:45, Kona

Reading the Tea Leaves: Ethnographic Prediction as Evidence
Claire Maiers· WillowTree
Evidence and Authority in Algorithmic Risk-Detection Systems: A Case Study of DIHI Sepsis Watch
Madeleine Elish · Data & Society