# From Ethnographic Research to Big Data Analytics--A Case of Maritime Energy-Efficiency Optimization
## 3 An Ethnographic Study on Ferry Vessels  
To explore the practical energy-saving issues in the use of advanced technologies, the authors of this paper planned an ethnographic study and visited the ferry ships owned by a collaborating ferry company. The company introduced a commercial fuel consumption monitoring system called ETA-pilot to assist the navigators to regulate the speed automatically, as speed is directly related to fuel consumption. Voyages had been divided into multiple legs with fixed positions (waypoints). The ETA-pilot proposed an optimal speed setting for each leg of the journey, based on multiple factors (e.g., ship trim/draft, depth of the water, weather information, distance to the destination and estimated time of arrival, etc.). The speed can also be adjusted by the navigators as course and speed deviations may be required to follow collision avoidance regulations. The fuel consumption (per nautical mile) is displayed as a dynamic curve along with other output parameters in a complex line chart at the bottom of the user interface, while the total consumption is displayed on the top right corner (see Figure 2). In ethnographic study fieldwork, all research team members were learning to become functioning members of the practitioners' community of practice through introspection and intersubjective inquiry in order to better \"percolate\" the tacit knowledge to the surface [43]. The authors actively observed how the deck and engineering officers worked in situ, documented the context of use and their purpose of use in their everyday work and interviewed them to understand their perceptions of how this seemingly advanced technology influenced their knowledge and awareness in saving fuel. Documentation from observations, interviews and other sources of information were sought and used because no single source of information could be trusted to provide a comprehensive perspective on the whole user experience [43]. Using a combination of these data collection approaches enabled the research team to validate and crosscheck findings. What was observed as a significant finding was that the bridge crew frequently disabled the ETA-pilot and manually set the speed and course based on their tacit knowledge around the condition of weather and dynamic traffic situation, claiming that they could improve upon fuel consumption. It was observed that they were frequently monitoring speed, course and wind situation. A higher speed is usually preferred as the commercial risk of a delay is very high, considering the requirements on punctuality, but they were also aware that a higher speed could lead to more fuel consumption, especially in shallow water and head wind. The crew did not base their decision on whether to  
Figure 2: The true speed (17 knots/h), the fuel burning rate (123 kg/nautical mile), as well as total fuel consumption (10,696 kg) were displayed on the user interface of the ETA-pilot. deactivate the ETA-pilot or which speed to set on formulas, but instead, they relied heavily on traditional navigational instruments and their own navigational experience to maneuver the ship. Much of the voyage and post-voyage information provided by the ETA-pilot was not observed being used by the crew members. On one occasion the captain was actively introducing the features of the ETA-pilot to the research team, but because he realized he had received some wrong information about the weather (which was required to be put into the machine for it to function properly), he had to turn off the ETA-pilot completely before departure. That enthusiasm of using the tool was not common amongst the crew members. Instead many of them pointed out that the underuse of the toolbox was subject to a lack of trust and usable information--it was difficult to know if the tool was indeed helpful for reducing the fuel consumption or not as there was no benchmarks for comparison, let alone decision support. A fancy line chart was plotted on the display but almost no seafarers used and reviewed it during or after a journey.