Preliminary participant research

Before a home visit, researchers examine existing knowledge and publicly available material about the prospective participant. Open-source intelligence, often abbreviated OSINT, describes research using accessible sources. Within ACHOiR, this can include a public portfolio, published writing, an organization biography, an interview, public posts, shared community activity. Researchers distinguish their own prior acquaintance from information recovered through a source.

They prepare a provisional account of interests, practices, references, relationships, unanswered questions. A participant may appear in both a technical community and an art practice. Researchers map the documented connection, record the dates, distinguish an explicit affiliation from an inferred association. Information about a similarly named person requires identification before use. Access to private messages, bookmarks, accounts belongs to a separately discussed contribution.

The interviewer uses the account to prepare questions and notice possible differences during the visit. A publicly visible camera practice may become a discussion of disuse, family inheritance, another activity absent from the public record. Researchers preserve the preliminary reading so they can later examine their own expectations through comparison across contexts. A public presentation receives context as an authored selection for an audience.

Preliminary research supplies one possible starting point. Organizers can also begin with a visit and add digital material later, or compare visits conducted with different amounts of preparation. Digital contributions, relationship mapping, profile enrichment explain the subsequent work.