I came across the fascinating story of a small bird called a Veery found in the US. Researchers wanted to find out about the birds migration patterns and with trackers found that the birds did an amazing 4,000 mile trip each year to Brazil.
Not only that, but they found cases were on returning to Delaware (where research was being done), the birds would return to the same tree from which they first set off.
Even more amazingly, they found that the time spent in Delaware wasn’t fixed, it varied year on year. Strangely they found a correlation with the length of the stay and the intensity of tropical storms on their migration path!
Somehow the birds were able to predict the weather patterns and either set off on their migration earlier/later as a result.
The researchers found when mapped with meteorological models over 20 years, the birds were as good or better at predicting these storms and adjusting their travel plans. What an observation!
This shows the immense value in watching a system, how it operates, the patterns, the exceptions etc. If we watch carefully enough the invisible may even start to become visible.
However, this takes patience and it can feel that patience is often in short supply.
BUT
The show went on to look at how ‘watching’ is being used elsewhere including facial recognition for pigs and livestock, through to state surveillance and data collection/privacy concerns on phone apps.
It was interesting to look at how ethics plays a part into ‘why’ we’re making observations and what as individuals we are willing to present over what we say we’d be willing to share (privacy paradox).
Being clear about why we’re observing a team, about why we’re collecting data/MI enables us to make the ethical decisions up front and allows the participants a say - do they have a choice, do they understand the purpose?
Just because we can observe user/system/team/population behaviour from every possible angle, doesn’t always mean we should.
Food for thought.
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