Institute For The Future

Global Ethnographic Network (GEN): Framework

 

"Now that the Technology Horizon's global ethnographic network project is underway, I wanted to share with you the framework we are using to ground our observations as we interact with different households and explore technology adoption in Brazil, Russia, India, and China. We welcome your comments and additions. AN EXPLORATION OF THE NEW "TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION" FRONTIER

Technology companies have targeted almost exclusively the most affluent and educated segments of the market. To sustain market momentum, companies have focused efforts on defining finer and finer user segments with distinct sets of needs and preferences with the hope of finding the next killer product or application. Now that the technology infrastructure is poised to change dramatically as it moves off the desktop and increasingly become mobile and embedded in objects and the environment, a new frontier for technology adoption is emerging. This new frontier includes a range of under-explored markets, settings, and communities around the world. From the mega cities in Asia and Latin America to the rural communities in India and China, these markets can no longer be overlooked.

FOCUS ON DAILY LIFE

One way to explore this new technology adoption frontier is to focus on daily life. Whether it is in the urban centers in Brazil or the countryside in Russia, daily life has distinct rhythms that are shaped by the built environment and the local context of culture, practice, and habit.

 

 

By understanding how people live, work, and play, companies can gain insight into the ways new technologies can and will ultimately fit and find meaning in people's lives.

 

Daily life has many different facets or realms of activity that occupy and consume people's attention, time, and money. These realms of activity--whether it is health, shopping, spirituality, entertainment, or education--all generate work and compete with one another placing demands on and often requiring tradeoffs from individuals and families.

 

Taken together, they often drive the need for new solutions--whether it is products and services from the marketplace or new practices from the ad hoc use of technology--to manage daily life.

 

Indeed, what people value, and what is useful and meaningful can be determined by better understanding those realms of activity that are undergoing change. One way to focus our attention as we explore this new technology adoption frontier is to look at shifts in daily life. These are broad directions of change. They're important because they often generate new categories of need and desire. They're also areas where people are experimenting with new practices and are more open to new ways of doing things.

FORECAST: SHIFTS IN DAILY LIFE

IFTF research points to several important shifts in daily life. Some of these shifts will play out similarly across markets and countries. Other shifts will play out differently and on distinct timelines. And, in some cases other and entirely different shifts will emerge.

From Individuals to Collectives

Daily life is increasingly experienced as part of collectives. It is no longer useful to view people and households as single and disconnected units of consumption. Rather they are part of interconnected and interdependent networks of individuals and households that share the risk and distribute the work of decision-making, problem solving, and knowledge building. Indeed, greater connectivity is allowing people to harness the power of collective action and collaborative networks for advocacy, community-asset building, and the public good.

From Mobility to Fluidity

Mobility is no longer simply experienced as the movement through different contexts and settings in the physical landscape. Mobility now increasingly includes the experience of moving through digital, identity, connectivity, and social landscapes as well. For example, when people move through the digital landscape, whether it is a Yahoo Group, an online tribe, or a professional organization's Web site, the person also moves through different communities, affinities, content areas, and sets of knowledge, each with its own protocols for exchange and interaction. Mobility then is increasingly multidimensional and layered, and movement in one landscape often triggers movement in another. Indeed people are much more fluid, that is, they are able to shift in multiple layers as they move about the physical or digital landscape.

From Episodic to Persistent

Parts of daily life are moving away from being episodic events to more persistent and continuous experiences. For example, some of us already have a continuous presence online with personal and professional websites. Communicating with our social networks does not require the deliberate opening of communication channels; they are constantly present in and aware of our lives. Even civic participation is no longer just the episodic act of voting but a richer, more sustained experience of civic engagement facilitated online. With abundant connectivity communications (for better or worse) are possible anytime, anyplace. But this shift does not stop with communications. The world of gaming, entertainment, work, religion, and so on are all increasingly always on and always present in our lives creating a more persistent experience.

From Planned to Emergent

The rhythm of daily life is moving away from being a planned and scheduled experience. Instead, daily life is increasingly ad hoc, opportunistic, just in time, and emergent. Life is complex and full of demands on our time and attention. Planning is just one strategy for exerting control-a strategy that requires the allocation of time, the management of boundaries and the clear definition of roles. Instead of planning, an alternative strategy is to respond to the demands of life in an ad hoc way. Social interactions are opportunistic. Places are malleable. Roles are flexible. And, activities get unbundled and completed just in time.

From Mass to Personalized

People are living in a highly personalized world. Whether its information, communications, entertainment, or products or services, they are increasingly personalized and tailored to individual needs before they are accessed, purchased, or consumed. Personalization is in large part an industry response to market fragmentation requiring detailed information on individual preferences and needs to tailor products to consumers. Companies are also aggregating like-minded consumers in real-time and place to distill shared preferences and make tailored recommendations. However, personalization or customization is not entirely driven by companies. We also see personalization by consumers themselves and their ad hoc uses of products beyond their designed or intended use to meet their individual needs, preferences or forms of expression.

KEY QUESTIONS:

There are bound to be other important shifts. Within each country and region we're conducting research we are likely to hear stories that point to distinct experiences and needs. Consider these shifts a working list that we'll add to and revise overtime as we uncover specific experiences and stories from each country. Below are some questions to consider in the meantime.

 

How do people experience these shifts? What are local narratives around these shifts? What hopes and fears do they point to?

 

What are practices people are engaged in to adapt to and integrate these shifts into their daily lives? What role does technology play?

 

What are some of the artifacts of everyday life that illustrate issues and tensions that arise out of these shifts?