Livescribe just announced the next iteration of their beautiful Pulse Pen, a new 4gig model in titanium and black. The Livescribe pen is a digital pen that writes on digital paper, records your writing, records audio, and does many other cool stuff. Essentially you dont’ ever have to scan in what you write anymore! With their special paper and pen, you can have everything digitally recorded foreeeeever! Here’s a good review from Berry Review comparing scanned notebook with livescribe paper and a demo from the Livescribe website.
I bought this pen for several reasons.
- I like to write on paper still. And I’ve stopped because I was always losing my paper. So now Livescribe solves that problem!
- I want to record audio while I write - this is awesome for doing fieldwork! As I am interviewing people I can write down my notes while recording their voice! OMG
- I want to doodle again. I love doodling, drawing graphs, mapping ideas out - livescribe allows me to upload all my doodles easily!
After I bought it I found even some more cool features that I didn’t know of!
- you can play the piano! this was soooo cool! you can add beats and change the instrument. Here’s a video of me making my piano and composing a masterpiece - THIS IS too fun
- you can have it translate basic words in several languages - Mandarin, Swedish, ARabic, and Spanish - probably more but I didn’t look into. Here’s a video of me translating “beer” into all the available languages on the demo card.
- they sell small notebooks that you can carry around with you the size of a book for only $13 for a pack of two. So that means you’re not stuck with the big 8x11 notebook that they include in the box when you buy the pen.
After I started using the Livescribe, I was faced with some new questions from an ethnographer’s perspective.
- While the pen is useful for the ethnographer, what does it communicate to the interviewee when the recording device also doubles as a pen?
- how does this change the way ethnographer takes notes in the field?
- With note-taking for ethnographer moving beyond the traditional pen/pencil paper to a digital process, the benefits for the ethnographer are obvious but does this effect the interview process?
- What are the downsides of being unobstrusive with your recording devices?
- Is it ethical to use a tool that doesn’t look like a traditional audio recorder to audio record an interview or interaction?
The site of an audio recorder can sometimes prevent people from being as free to share information and personal thoughts. So I thought this is cool - the livescribe pen can help ME ease MY anxiety about recording! But then I thought about this from the participant’s perspective - what do they think when I tell them in the beginning of the interview that I would like their permission to tape this interview and that I will be taping it with this “pen” that I am also using to write with?
In many of the places that I am working, communication technology such as cellphones are relatively new and people don’t have spending money for creative gadgets. I think this pen might throw people off a bit - I can imagine people being curious about this
pen/recorder” and then I wonder if their processing of the “pen” as an audio recorder would get in the way of my relationship with them and the interview goals at hand.
I wonder if they would think well if this thing *looks* like a pen but is an audio recorder but also is a pen because she’s writing with it - what else could she have on her that is not really what it appears to be? Or what if this also doubled as a video camera (which would be totally awesome for me - but maybe not so good for participants. Would people start wondering if other conspicuous looking devices are also capable of recording interaction?
There’s something very clear when you take out a separate tool that functions as an audio recorder or camera to document an interaction. It sends a clear message about the intention of the interaction: this process, your actions, the surrounding - is being recorded. I am setting this audio recorder on the table or putting the camera on the tripod - this is a visual reminder of the fieldwork interaction. The tools can makes the “ethnographic moment” explicit. Whereas if are using tools that look like pens to do all those things - perhaps that takes some of the power away from the participants. In the Human Subjects Review Process, the assumption in the application is that when you say you’re going to ask a subject for permission to tape an interview, the researcher is going to audio record with a traditional digital audio recorder.
I was even thinking that if I had the chance to take this pen into my fieldsite, when I ask for permission to tape an interview, I could take out my audio recorder and place it on the table. But then I would actually tape with it with my pen. But then would that be deceptive?
Now I hope that my relationship with my participants are always based first and foremost on trust. So I don’t think they would be suspicious of my intentions or of my “tools” But I am just imagining for general research purposes and situations where maybe it’s not deep ethnography - maybe it’s just one time or short project where you don’t get the chance to establish a close relationship.
Well either way, the Livescribe pen I believe is an ethnographer’s dream come true. But we’ll see - I always make superlative statements cuz I tend to be dramatic like that :)
Here’s where this post becomes very personal and sad and also why I don’t have any stories of me taking my pen into my field sites. Please do not proceed if you do not want to hear heart-wrenching news….
I bought my dream pen in March of 2009.
and here comes the horrific news…
I LOST MY LIVESCRIBE PEN 33 DAYS AFTER I PURCHASED IT.
Only 5 months later am I able to admit this without pain. I’ve only told 4 people in the world before this post - a close friend, two of my phd advisors, and a stranger I saw in the airport with the pen. Weeks after I lost it I had high hopes of finding it again - so I wasn’t ready to admit that it really gone.
I lost it on a my flight from DC to JFK on Delta. I have NEVER had a pleasant experience flying on Delta Airlines. So losing my precious Livescribe pen on one of their flights is one more reason to avoid flying Delta. I called and called their lost and found. I even went back to the Delta lost and found office at their JFK terminal in person - but it was never to be found.
I have to blame someone, and certainly I cannot blame the loss of the Livescribe on myself. So I would like to officialy transfer the blame from myself to Delta Airlines.
Delta, you suck. You lost my pen. One of your morally deficient customers took my pen and they never returned it to the Delta Lost and Found. Your airline and your customers suck.Your Lost and Found customer service agents were always rude and they didn’t take me seriously when I told them that I had lost a very special pen. They laughed at me. you suck.
Ok now that I’ve finished transferring the blame to Delta, I would love to expound on why I was so in love my Livescribe. My feelings are still raw, full of passion and pain - but I am in a state where I’ve moved beyond anger and am able to talk about my pen without tears.
Ode to Livescribe
Livescribe, you were always good to me when we were together. you never left my purse. you never walked out on me for another notebook. Although then you only worked on a PC - I comprised and took you to my netbook. I see now that you operate on OSX. Well if we were together still I would introduce you to my Mac Air. I love you still. you are committed to excellence. I filled up your 2 gig capacity so quickly, but now I see you’ve grown up to a 4 gig adult. I wanted to take you everywhere with me to all my research sites around the world we could’ve seen the mountains in Mexico, the <polluted> Rivers in china, the stars in the Appalachia - but…alas, we were separated…but only in this lifetime.
SO i’ve thought long and hard about this - about why I lost it.
- is it because I treated it (in my tired state) as just any other pen? I don’t keep track of my regular pens and I never have invested in those $100 pens or received any expensive White gold-plated pens.
- Is it because my brain hadn’t switched to thinking - this pen is FREAKING expensive and special - don’t let it leave your hands?
- it is because I am not mature enough for creative gadgets that look conspicuous yet have multiple functions?
While those are all possible answers, I have another theory. I think I lost it because I didn’t have it strapped around my neck. I should’ve used the neck strap that came with the Livescribe pen.
Now Livescribe designers - this is where you have to listen to me - I didn’t use the strap because it was reallllly ugly! I don’t think I am the only customer retarded enough to lose their pen (ok it’s quite possible I am the only one so far) - so I think you should make it easier for people to fashionably hang their pen around their neck. I suggest moving away from the rounded string to a flatter shoe-lace like strong. Also the thinner the better - and something that is adjustable would be great. like a slide knot. i can definitely tell you that the black string will not look good with your new beautiful titanium pen.
Also Livescribe you HAVE to design a better looking case! the black case that was included in the box was disappointing - I couldn’t even get my pen out of the case half the time! it was to tight and it was just plane ugly. You’ve designed such a beautiful pen so there’s not excuse for failure with the pen’s case. The case itself (if used) can become a reminder to someone who’s lost-prone like me to take special care of the pen - so the case has to be beautiful ok? I didn’t use the case after the first day when I realized that it would take me at least 5 sec to struggle to get the pen out of the case.
while I am at it - is there any way to make a tiny indent for the fingers? my fingers would ache after writing because the pen is so thick.
(btw now I know that if you buy something with your American Express card they have a protection plan that will give you your money back if you lose or have something stolen within 90 days. I know this 6 months too late.)
The first moment of Livescribe love - Setting up the pen (all the photos of my pen)
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UPDATE NOVEMBER 2009
My friend saw this post and mailed me his Livescribe pen! So I’m heading to Mexico for fieldwork in December. I will share my experiences when I come back!
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UPDATE JANUARY 2010
So I took my livescribe pen into the field with me for my research on migrant communities and technology use - more deets about it here.
I have some quick thoughts (unedited) on my experience with my 2nd Livescribe pen in the field.
So usually my audio recording policy is that I don’t record my interviews. It’s just my personal style. I’m usually in situations where the community is already very vulnerable to begin with and surveilled by the state, so i’m usually uncomfortable with using tools to capture what they share with me. I feel like the burden is upon me to really be SUPER present and to listen - jot notes down and to be diligent on reflecting right away on my observations.
This time, I wanted to take the Livescribe pen with me into Mexico so that I could try it out as a recording device for when I interviewed older Oaxacans. I research in an indigenous Mixtecan community in Oaxaca. Spanish is not the first language for older people so they speak it with a heavy Mixtecan accent. And since I’ve only recently learned Spanish, it’s hard for me to understand the spectrum of spoken Spanish in southern Mexico.
I used the pen with several of the older villagers when chatting with them about their migration experiences and their use of mobile phones. I hung out with people inside their homes with children around.
The audio was not clear when there were many children around. When some of the fathers started speaking about their border crossing stories they would get emotional. When the younger children sensed this, some of them would come over and try to sit on their father’s lap, play with their toys, and scream and laugh like children do. The quality of audio recording totally decreased when their were multiple sounds in a room.
I didn’t state in my IRB that I was using a pen as an audio recording device. The IRB board assumes that audio recording devices look like an obvious recording device. Is there some deception in using a device that looks like a pen?
Electricity isn’t always easy to access in the village - especially electric outlets. It was hard to charge my pen up.
I used it to jot notes down during interviews (even when I wasn’t recording).
I was jotting notes down with the pen while Geraldo (fictional name) was chatting with me. I had interviewed Geraldo and recorded our interview w/ the pen. I had asked for his permission and he gave me his consent. The next day I ran into him and he started telling me a story. I always ask permission to take notes down - I always say something like “oh this story is so good that I have to write some notes down or else I will forget. Is that ok with you?” He told me that he was totally fine with me jotting notes down. Midway through his story, he stopped talking for a second and asked me if I was recording our talk. I told him no, I was just writing down notes. He said ok. We have a close relationship so I don’t think he thought I was lying. He saw me using the pen as a recording device the previous day, so it made sense for him to wonder if that was what I was using it for the next day when I writing down notes with the pen. But I didn’t like that he had to ask me if I was recording it - to even have the thought enter into his mind that I would record anything without his permission was problematic. I stopped using the pen after this.
I didn’t like using the pen around children - whenever I do hang out with little kids, they would take my pen and draw on my notebooks. But the Livescribe pen is very different and I didn’t like that I feeling protective of the pen - but I felt it because it was carrying hours of audio and data. I started carrying around other regular pens on me for the children to draw with.
The pen hurts my finger. It’s not comfortable to use. I wish there was rubber pad for the fingers. I can’t write down notes as quickly. I started taking out my regular ink pens after a while to write in my livescribe notebook.
it is super difficult to always keep the pen with the Livescribe journal. The pen kept getting lost in my bag. It’s not easy to find right away. So even when it was charged up, I couldn’t find it quick enough when I needed to take notes.
I don’t think this is an ethnographer’s dream tool for me. I don’t like that people have to wonder whether or not I’m recording. I don’t like being obtrusive in terms of my presence, my tools, or my questions - but at the same time I want to make my presence be known - I don’t want to hide under a table to hear convos just as much as I don’t want to hide my audio recording device. Even though I tend to work with low-income or vulnerable communities, I don’t think I would use this even if I worked in more elite tech-intense communities. It bothers me that the audio recording capabilities are so inconspicuous. And really the audio recording capabilities just aren’t that great.
But let’s see what else I could use it for - maybe just to jot notes down.
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UPDATE MARCH 2010
ok I lost my 2nd livescribe pen. It’s over. It’s totally over - no more livescribe- I can’t keep track of the damn pen!
I’ve moved 4 times in the last 3 months, made 5 cross-country flights. I have no idea where it could be. East coast? West Coast? In boxes? Which city? It’s over.
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UPDATE APRIL 2010
OMG I FOUND IT! Buried deep in my car seat in CAlifornia!
Ok I won’t lose it again - so here’s my solution! My loving grandmother helped me make a Livescribe diaper with elastic fabric for the journal to hold my pens (more views). I wish that I had thought of this earlier! Now I can keep even regular pens in the holder. This is based off of DK’s moleskin pen older. Thanks DK and thanks to your mum!
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UPDATE June 2010
I’ve been working at nokia the past few months. One of my projects involved doing interviews with local hackers. I carried my new livescribe notebook with the case holder with me to each interview. Each time I had to write, I would pull out a regular pen, not the livescribe pen. I didn’t want to use the pen as a audio recording device. I wanted to import my field notes - but the livescribe pen just hurts way too much. I’m giving up on it. Oh and the one time I wanted to use it, it wasn’t charged. too much work….I’m over it.
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UPDATE August 2010
I have an ipad now - I haven’t use it for ethnographic purposes yet. But I’m finally drawing again and sketching out ideas. I love the apps that allow for me to do this. So far I’m using these apps the most - notetaker HD, air brush, sketchbook pro, and popplet. One of the reasons why I got the livescribe was so that I could doodle and sketch out ideas. I just couldn’t work the livescribe into my information workflow. But with the ipad I have. Here’s a post on how I use it as part of academic/ethnography workflow.
