This field investigation seminar examines how ethnographic methods may be used (a) to analyze information-based work practices and, in turn, (b) to inform the design of informational systems to be sensitive to those who use them. Typically, information-based practices are highly distributed (shared by many parts of a single organization), infrastructural and radidly changing--features that have required those in information sciences who draw on ethnography to being modifying its classical principles and tools. For this reason, the focus is on using ethnographic methods within specific information-based domains (e.g. governmental and industrial sites, business and scientific organizations) and for specific purposes that are relevant to the science of information systems (e.g. workplace assessment of new technologies, requirements engineering, and participatory design). Grounded in this way, the course aims to help students develop the judgment necessary to design, test, and evaluate effective information systems of the future. 3 credits