[Air-L] why iPad

danah boyd aoir.z3z at danah.org
Thu Jul 15 20:11:39 PDT 2010


Personally, I bought an iPad for field research and it's been great so far.  What I needed was a reliable web browser that I could show to people I interview.  And the AT&T plan - as evil as it is - was a lot cheaper than any of the laptop aircards and required much less commitment.  

In the process, I learned something important.  When I put a computer in front of someone, people face the screen. I can watch them OR I can watch the screen.  Watching both is awkward and creates odd social dynamics because I have to sit next to the person. With the iPad, I could put it down on a table between us and watch the person's face while watching where they browse, albeit upside-down, but that's easy when I'm not trying to read the exact content.  Shared browsing is very easy to accommodate and it's quite easy to go through sites with someone. 

I'm not using it for taking notes or other text-heavy processes.  I'm looking to browse. And not to mimic browsing that one does on a computer.  Just outright stare-at-screen browsing while in the midst of an interview. And I'm very happy with it.

danah


On Jul 15, 2010, at 6:07 PM, Barry Wellman wrote:

> After all the hype, I can't figger out why someone (even at Duke) would use an iPad rather than a netbook for their research. Sounds like kewl won over functionality. If I'm taking notes, I'd rather have a real keyboard. If I'm doing other stuff, I'd rather have the plethora of applications running on Win7/XP or MacOX than on the little apps running on iPods and iPhones with their baby OS. -- I've been using the iPhone 3GS for months now as a pocket phone etc and am continually frustrated on what it can't do.
> End iRant. End PodHype
> 
> Barry Wellman
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