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To discuss two research projects, illuminating the ways in which digital technologies are both enfolded into people’s lives and open up new possibilities for practice that, in turn, have to be managed. To revisit this material to reflect on the benefits and limitations of in-depth interviewing for understanding the dynamics of new textual and visual forms of data in everyday life.

A broadly relational approach to technology and practice was employed, pursued through in-depth interviewing in two research projects about digitization and memory making.

In employing the qualitative method of in-depth interviewing to focus upon what people regularly do, the chapter shows how the material and mediating capacities of networked digital technologies such as cameras and smartphones are enacted and actively negotiated in relation to expectations and conventions about the temporality and visibility of personal life through diverse memory practices. These can be considered multiple ‘practices of adaptation’.

The research reported on provides some novel ways of thinking about devices and data in relation to practice.

This paper sets out to explore the potential benefits of using digital photography in the evaluation of prospective donations of book collections.

The paper describes a methodology for creating a collection of images to preserve bibliographic information from large book donations where time and distance restrictions limit the ability to carry out a thorough investigation on‐site. This image collection will assist in the initial assessment of the collection's suitability for acceptance, documentation and creation of a gift list.

Using digital photography allows for relatively quick and comprehensive documentation to aid in the evaluation of large potential gift‐in‐kind donations. Additional benefits realized from acquiring digital images may include automation of gift list creation, publicity for the newly acquired collection, and enhancing exhibitions. This methodology utilizes readily available and affordable equipment that will likely be well within the resources of most libraries.

This paper offers practical advice on employing current and emerging digital technologies to assess and enhance gift‐in‐kind donations.

In 1984 the number of photographs taken by people in the U.K. broke the 1 million mark and 75% of all households had a camera. By the end of the millennium (1999) people in Britain spent over 1 billion on cameras, film and processing and the number of photographs taken had exceeded 3 billion.¹ There is little doubt that most people are familiar with cameras, and the majority will be engaged in forms of photographic practice as amateurs, that is as a “pastime” or hobby or as an adjunct to events, activities and leisure in their everyday lives.

This paper presents a framework for understanding the technological change and its impacts on environments where multiple versions of a technology exist simultaneously. Both orienting and limiting role of physical (skeumorph) and conceptual metaphors on the products, processes, and user experience in changing from a familiar functional implementation to the one employing new media is illustrated using examples showing the transition from wet photography to digital imagery and from surface mail to e‐mail. People use physical (skeumorph) and conceptual metaphors to orient themselves with new technology by understanding new functions in terms of earlier technological versions. Since new technology is adopted at varying rates and varying times, multiple versions exist at any given time. Sometimes expectations appropriate for earlier technological iterations obscure the challenges and possibilities presented by the new media implementation. This paper examines how new technologies challenge and are challenged by the contexts into which they are introduced. By understanding the function that physical (skeumorph) and conceptual metaphors play in facilitating technological change, we can become more conscious of the discontinuities between the new technological iteration and earlier implementations to gain deeper awareness about how “the new” functions differently and to help us engage new technology closer to its own terms and open up new possibilities for its use.

We examine how the organizational identity of established firms affects their strategic outcomes during the emergence phase of a new market. Drawing on cognitive theories of analogical learning, we build theory about how the established identities of producers influence the fluency with which consumers make sense of novel products, and hence affect valuations. We illustrate this theory through an empirical study of consumer evaluations of de alio entrants during the emergence of the digital camera industry.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the social uses of digitisation within the social context of HIV/AIDS by building digital archives of photographs.

Visual data sets on HIV/AIDS are drawn from photovoice studies in our previous work in Canada and South Africa. To organise and describe visual data sets, protocols for scanning and metadata have been developed.

Based on these protocols, a digital archive is being built to store and provide access to digital images.

The study intends to develop a methodological and technological framework to understand the social uses of photography by using digital technology.

The observations and lessons garnered from this study provide insights into the building of a digital archive of photo collections on HIV/AIDS and can be used in other social contexts where photos are developed and managed in order to address social issues.

This study examines the role of hybrid products employed in companies' innovation strategy within three American industrial sectors: tires, typewriters and photography cameras.

The authors selected historical cases that enabled us to present the role of hybrid products in periods of discontinuous change. Different sources are employed in this study: papers, books, cases, working papers, videos, manuals and product catalogues, companies' annual reports, company websites, advertising, collectors' websites and museums, in addition to press and other media reports.

The authors’ historical case analysis points to two forms of hybrid products. (1) Exploitation-hybrid, which incorporates significant elements from the existing dominant design and aims at extending the revenue-generating opportunities of the existing products. (2) Exploration-hybrid, which works as an offensive strategy, as the firm uses the exploration-hybrid to promote a gradual and controlled adoption of new technology by reducing risks and the cost of change for the customer.

The authors’ proposed definitions strengthen the idea that hybrids are not only a reflection of organizational inertia (exploitation-hybrid). Hybrids can also mean a more proactive stance in the strategy of developing and adopting new technology (exploration-hybrid).

This study acknowledged hybrid products as a learning instrument that materialized the organizational ambidexterity, favoring at the same time exploitation, generally attributed to organizational inertia, and the exploration of new segments of customers or the use of new technologies.