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1. How are we supposed to deal with the Institutional Review Board, Human Subjects Requests, and issues of ethics?
   
   There are a number of issues related to human subjects that come to light when investigating those who are without a home. For example, a lack of home implies a lack of physical address (it may be difficult to contact people); also, human subject clearance requests are difficult to gain when dealing with vulnerable groups such as those who are homeless.
   
   However, one major goal of tackling a subject like this is to raise awareness of the challenges faced in designing actual products, services and systems to support those in need. Ethical clearance is generally required from a review board precisely because of the vulnerable nature of the group being studied, and is therefore a real design constraint; it may, in fact, be impossible to approach the problem directly or in a "head on" manner (ie, by focusing on an individual sleeping on the street). A critical part of the design process requires reframing the initial problem through synthesis and interpretation, and student teams are encourage to identify tangentially related opportunities for research and informative data gathering. Consider the huge number of people, systems, policies, artifacts and tools that are related to the central discipline of homelessness: these elements may be readily accessible, and can obviously benefit from user-centered design efforts.
   
   Additionally, it is highly recommended that student teams actually read, review, and understand the ethical issues at stake in human subjects clearance, and consider how they can approach this problem with empathy and integrity. While speaking with the homeless may appear to be difficult, the humanitarian payoff may, in fact, be well worth the efforts.
2. What about Safety? Does this mean we shouldn't go do ethnography in context?
   
   Safety is a critical issue when dealing with any form of culturally-immersive research, and student teams are urged to do nothing that could put themselves in physical harm. Before conducting any ethnographic studies, discuss your research plan with your faculty advisor, and make sure they understand and encourage your research direction. Conduct ethnography in groups, during daylight, and be sure to maintain a form of communication with your faculty advisor. Do consider, however, that simply "being homeless" does not necessarily make one "dangerous"; remember to approach individuals with empathy, compassion and intellectual integrity.
3. But homeless people don't use computers, do they?
   
   They may, or they may not, and that's certainly one route to take while working on this project. However, there is a huge world of associated individuals and organizations that use technology to support various efforts directed at the homeless, and a great place to start research would be with these people, places and services.
4. This seems really hard. Why can't we just design a cool PDA or something?
   
   The problem is really hard: social and cultural problems of this scope are incredibly hard to "solve". However, problems of this scope and size may, in fact, be the most interesting and important problems to address, as we aim to increase the human condition through our creative abilities.
   
   It is highly recommended that design teams investigate and view Richard Buchanan's article Wicked Problems in Design Thinking in The Idea of Design for a view on the nature of attacking complicated, systemic problems like homelessness.
5. What can I read about the ethics and methods of conducting ethnography with the homeless?
   
   The following journal articles investigate qualitative research with the homeless:
   1. Cloke, Paul et al. Ethics, Reflexivity and Research: Encounters with Homeless People, in the journal Ethics, Place & Environment. Volume 3, Issue 2 June 2000 , pages 133 - 154.
   2. Ensign, Josephine. Ethical issues in qualitative health research with homeless youths, in the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Volume 43 Issue 1 Page 43 - July 2003.
   3. Gounis, Kostas. Urban Marginality and Ethnographic Practice: on the Ethics of Fieldwork, in City & Society. 1996, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 108-118.
   4. Paradis, Emily K. Feminist and Community Psychology Ethics in Research with Homeless Women, in the American Journal of Community Psychology. Volume 28, Number 6 / December, 2000.
   
   Additionally, Irina Shklovski from Carnegie Mellon University shared some insights from some of her literature reviews:
   1. In 2000, the Journal of European Anthropology did a special issue on contemporary street ethnography. I would recommend taking a look at the editors' introduction (they do a pretty good job of putting street ethnography into a larger context of urban anthropology) and then tracking down "Street ethnography. Some notes on studying and being studied" by Tobias Hecht.
   2. UrbAn (and urban anthropology non-profit) has a homeless study where they collected a bunch of stories from the homeless. It might prove an interesting resource.
   3. James Spradley was one of the pioneers of urban nomad anthropology. He wrote a book called "You owe yourself a drunk: an ethnography of urban nomads" in 1970 and it's still one of the most often cited works on the subject. He has a number of other writings out and is also the author of "the ethnographic interview" - an excellent primer on conducting ethnographic interviews, where he uses his own work with tramps as examples.
   4. There are a number of fairly well known homeless blogs. The wandering scribe had an article written about her in the BBC last year. She had written a book about the experience as well, but the blog contains some very interesting points and is still active. The homeless guy is written by Kevin Barbieux who says he has been homeless off and on since 1982. He has been blogging since 2002.
   5. UC Berkeley's Urban Policy department had a Homeless Policy Conference in 2001. Heidi Sommer has a great lit review of Homelessness in Urban America that was prepared for this conference.
   6. Big Issue
   7. The Blackwell Synergy Journal of Social Issues has published an entire issue on Homelessness.

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