Outcomes and Products
Unlike traditional research projects with neat methodologies and the expected outcome of a classic academic paper, independent research invites more wandering and exploring before anything final takes shape. I see the lack of a predetermined outcome not as a weakness, but as what makes the work responsive. As such, the format and findings can match what the challenge or community actually needs.
Many of the questions will eventually have outcomes. Some will be structural, like developing new community practices at Mango Tree CIB through the question “What sustains voluntary open-source technology communities?” Others will be product-focused, like building a community playbook at Civic Tech DC by asking “What does it actually take to build a community, not just an audience?” The outcome is intended to naturally emerge through the process of learning in public.
As I describe in What is in a Name, my primary method is applied ethnography through hosting, attending events and conducting conversational interviews (or in more formal terms, semi-structured interviews) with people whose work and experiences intersect with my questions.
Understandably, the idea that community work can be a research output might seem strange. Jason Benn, founder of Neighborhood, describes the discomfort of this kind of open-ended process well:
It's now been three months since I started on this quest. My first mission, on the advice of experienced independent researchers like Ben R, Nadia E, and Andy M, was to simply "explore my curiosity", without setting goals, to allow myself to discover what I REALLY want and find interesting.
This was harder than I thought it would be. My self-worth is unfortunately linked to my productivity (I'm working on it), and so embracing a state in which forward progress is impossible to measure has been uncomfortable at times. But don't get me wrong - it's also been lots of fun....
What makes Benn’s project interesting is what he actually built from this wandering to start researching community living and whether you could intentionally design a neighborhood for “friendly ambitious nerds” in a major US city. That’s the model I’m trying to follow and after some time learning, the first output can be found here.
While the work is exploratory for now, a more formal output is not off the table. As Nadia Asparouhova found in her own independent research journey, what starts as blog posts and public notes eventually became a 143-page report and a book. The output found its shape through the work itself.
The first output can also be found here.