How to Start a Field Note

I’m on twitter and I occasionally see topics I think would be an interesting topic for a Field Note.  I reach out to people and ask them to write, something they may not have thought of doing.

I realized in talking to a co-worker that for those I’m not reaching out to, a writing prompt may help.  If you’re not used to academic writing or this kind of writing in general, it can get you started.  My co-worker had some suggestions so I’ve started a list:

“What’s something you notice that your existing tools can’t do?”

“Things you know that your tools don’t seem to get yet”

“Creative combinations that led to better results” 

“Open problems in practitioner-land”

“How we solved/mitigated problem X in our environment”

These aren’t marketing papers.  These aren’t white papers.  These are case studies of events or solutions you found interesting. These are Field Notes.

DTRAP wants to bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners but to do that, we need to hear from practitioners.  Tell us what you want to see in research.  Tell us what you’ve seen that works or doesn’t work.  Submit your Field Note to https://dtrap.acm.org/  If you’re not sure how to start, contact us at dtrap-editors@acm.org  We want to hear from you.