Ethnography Deliverable #1

Ethnography Deliverable #1

Prior Perception

I literally have almost no idea what my interactions with this group will be like. Based on my prior experiences with roller derby, which are mainly based on an episode of the TV show Psych, I can only assume that one of the teams will turn out to be a gang of thieves that steal people’s credit cards and threaten people that get in their way. But seeing as criminals are a higher than average part of the population on crime solving TV shows, I am going to go in with the premise that that probably isn’t the case. From what I have been able to find out from online research on the Brazos Valley Derby Girls, is that it is a diverse group of people with a common interest of wanting to play roller derby. Unfortunately that isn’t very helpful as well as almost all organizations try to paint that picture of themselves.

Integrating with the group may prove to be difficult, as roller derby is a female sport and our group consists entirely of males we wouldn’t be able to participate at least in any competitive capacity. This is a major potential disadvantage due to that fact that competing together is an easy way to bond, form relationships, and become part of a group. The most likely way to integrate seems to be to first spend time watching them practice and then being inquisitive about what is going on. This should work since people naturally love to share their interests with other people especially when other people take an interest in them.

Regarding the in class assignment my plan is just to be upfront with anyone who asks me what my group and I are doing here. This should happen organically as males in girls’ roller derby should be natural outliers sure to draw attention. I’m simply going to explain that we were tasked with hanging out and observing people that were unlike our normal peer group and my group and I were very interested in the roller derby culture and environment. In theory this should be a good way to let them know about our study without them feeling like we are violating their privacy and hopefully they feel flattered.

Initial Results

Due to scheduling conflicts I was not able to meet and observe the group. The group had to cancel their Sunday match for some reason and on Tuesday I was at the IAP banquet dinner and that wasn’t really optional.  I was however able to talk to the president of the Brazos Valley Derby Girls for about 15 minutes on Tuesday afternoon.

She seemed very open to the idea of us observing them and provided me with their schedule and all their meeting information. I completely explained what we were planning on doing and our goal to eventually build software for them to use. She didn’t seem to be too interested in the software perspective but neither are many of my other non CS friends so I didn’t take that as a red flag not to continue.