TY - JOUR

T1 - Data bites man

T2 - The production of malaria by technology

AU - Sanches, Pedro

AU - Brown, Barry

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. 2018R1D1A1B07048271). This research was also supported by Kyungpook National University Development Project Research Fund, 2019. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

PY - 2018/11

Y1 - 2018/11

N2 - Malaria surveillance is a practice concerned with collection and analysis of data. This paper presents an ethnographical account of an international team of researchers producing data about malaria in the Zanzibar archipelago. We show that malaria is increasingly an electronic entity, inextricably interwoven with the practices of data workers using ICT tools. The use of mobile ICT tools enables new data production practices that include situated coordination mechanisms such that 1) more people can be surveyed, including individuals not suffering from malaria but possibly carrying the parasite, 2) greater geographical areas can be covered, and 3) more data can be validated and included in malaria statistics. As electronic data, malaria builds and mobilizes diverse human, organizational, and infrastructural worlds around it, who must now be dedicated to its production, management, and care. We discuss implications for design of digital data collection tools that support the work of teams surveying malaria, as well as implications for disease surveillance methods and practices.

AB - Malaria surveillance is a practice concerned with collection and analysis of data. This paper presents an ethnographical account of an international team of researchers producing data about malaria in the Zanzibar archipelago. We show that malaria is increasingly an electronic entity, inextricably interwoven with the practices of data workers using ICT tools. The use of mobile ICT tools enables new data production practices that include situated coordination mechanisms such that 1) more people can be surveyed, including individuals not suffering from malaria but possibly carrying the parasite, 2) greater geographical areas can be covered, and 3) more data can be validated and included in malaria statistics. As electronic data, malaria builds and mobilizes diverse human, organizational, and infrastructural worlds around it, who must now be dedicated to its production, management, and care. We discuss implications for design of digital data collection tools that support the work of teams surveying malaria, as well as implications for disease surveillance methods and practices.

KW - And Phrases: data

KW - Coordination work

KW - Malaria

KW - Practices

KW - Surveillance

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066417412&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3274422

DO - 10.1145/3274422

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85066417412

VL - 2

JO - Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

JF - Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

SN - 2573-0142

IS - CSCW

M1 - 153

ER -