Communities of interpretation2014

Communities of interpretation A paper from the Cloud of Knowing project

John GriffithsJuly 5th 2010

Planning Above and Beyond

Co-with everything

Co-creation

Research Communities

Bulletin boards Blogs


about the Cloud of Knowing Project

Face to face meetingsevery couple of months

Sharing papers

Open source project

http://www.webjam.com/cloud_of_knowing

Remit to consider how online content can beincorporated robustly into market research


Web contentThe questions we need answers to

SAMPLING

RESEARCH WITHOUT QUESTIONS

PERMISSION

% OF BUSINESS DECISION SUPPORT

REAL TIME

ANONYMITY

REPRESENTATIVENESS


Topics discussed inside Cloud of Knowing

The incorporation of web content as part of research

Issues of representativeness Outlier problem – nobody is normal What IS normal on the web? – no

consensus on what is average – qualitative significance

Issues of permission


What can outliers tell us about products?

Pocket camcordersAnd video pros

Shampooand bald users

Flatpack furnitureand the blind

Outliers used to be rejected in research – now they are being incorporatedFor internet research they are critical because most internet data is producedby outliers – everyone on the internet is weird!


Rachel Lawes – sample the culture

Don’t sample the population

Sample the culture

Think how to sample yoghurtness – not a balanced sample of

yoghurt eaters

Dr Rachel Lawes


There’s a storm brewing in the research industry

Direct access to customers – so marketersand third parties takingon research roles

What is the role of researchers as intermediaries? Recruitment? Interviewing skills? Analysis and interpretation

Soon A&I will be the only skillsleft to researchers


The difference between what the client thought as she leftthe last group and what she thought at the end of the

debrief presentation

A&I: What is it worth?

If the client sees all the data – the only added value left is the analysis and interpretation


It’s time to bring A&I into the open and put it on the outside where clients can see it!

Analysis and interpretation have often the hidden part of the research process


Its Analysis AND interpretation

What kinds of music do you play here?

Oh We got both kinds.We got Country AND Western


Technically, two processes

Analysis Interpretation

Through revisiting and applying different filtersAnalysis works to exhaust the meaning until everything has been analysed

Through working outwards from micro to macroperspectives – interpretation is about finding the storyso as to show the big picture – when you fit the pieces together you begin to see more than the sum of the parts


Build a community of interpretation


Crowd sourcing analysis and interpretation

Because of the power laws amplifying a small network

Significance comes from validation at the interpretation stage – building a single version

Far too much research work is solitary – A&I becomes much faster and more powerful when you create a network even a small oneto do the work


Benefits

1. Speed – simultaneous analysis 2. Culture sampling – broader range of

inputs3. Embraces contrasting perspectives4. Can handle outliers – extreme data

sources5. Provides a way to integrate online data6. Respondents (and marketers) can be

used as co-interpreters


Analysis exercise: Barracuda swarm!We’re going to swarm a transcription from

many angles in 5 minutes then pull it all together! 10 barracuda teams

B1 significant Quotations - underlines B2 Comparison T with D – likes and

unlikes B3 themes: Roller coaster - sorting B4 Weight watchers – customer

experience - map B5 focus on T’s feelings about herself B6 God – what help is T asking for? B7 Social: shared with other

respondents B8 silences – human aid and

acquaintances who aren’t overweight B9 Culture – obesity discourse B10 Cf T’s photos and hand written

captions with the transcription

Obesity transcription – bulletin board postings on the diet roller coaster by T and D

10 pairs of researchers analysingsimultaneously did this exercise


The signal is amplified and balanced


How a typical project would work

Instead of linear projects run by teams of 1-2 researchers

Have 1 day of data gathering then 1 day of analysis and interpretation with 5 analysts

Increase speed of project turnaround and increase depth of analysis

Draw together complementary perspectives in analysis

Apply different filters at the interpretation stage


Doing an online swarm: an internet search using a network of analysts and standard online sources


Practical exercise: take an ordinary product like a hair dryer

Create up to a dozen teams each with a different online source

Give each team a well known (non specialist information source – Like Amazon for example)

Ask them to take 15 minutes to collect everything that information source tells them about that product

Then collect information from each team allowing the feedback from each to build a total networked picture of the cultural meaning of that product

Fast – efficient - insightful


Typical sources for online swarm exercise

Google alert Wikipedia Amazon Flickr/Youtube Yahoo Squidoo Facebook – official and fan teams Twitter Blogpulse Delicious/Stumble Upon Pinterest


The power of the many..

Is just as relevant to our working processes as it is to external markets

What could you do next to leverage it?

And don’t forget the power ofanalysis and interpretationWithout A&I it’s just your topline opinion

Communities of interpretation2014

Education

analysis exercise

internet research

communities of interpretation

day of analysis

interpretation stage

research work

depth of analysis

community of interpretation