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Lolita, Perched on the Bed

One of the challenges of running a large scale field study is staying on top of all the incoming digital data that can easily include interview transcripts, ambient audio, video and between 15 to 20 thousand photos that are typically generated per city.

Because the field team can arrive from and eventually disperses to the four corners of the earth the aim is to have everything processed and backed up prior to leaving the location. It's a process that often requires a dedicated data manager and laptops solely for batch processing - a task that, power-cuts allowing, often runs through the night. With a field team of up to 25 people and with much gear flying around its hard to track what equipment should used by whom, hence giving names to otherwise inanimate objects.

The photo above? One of the slides from last week's Behind the Scenes presentation - thats Lolita working away during our Dharavi field study. Laptops = Names beginning with L.

Writing from Mishuku | May 14, 2008 | Permalink