Social Science Research Practice in the Digital Age Changes, Illustrations, Challenges

1
Social Science Research Practice in the Digital
AgeChanges, Illustrations, Challenges

• World Class University (WCU) Project
• YeungNam University, Republic of Korea
• WCU Webometrics Institute
• http//english-webometrics.yu.ac.kr
• 21 September 2009
• Nicholas W. Jankowski
• Visiting Fellow
• Virtual Knowledge Studio (VKS) for the
  Humanities Social Sciences
• nickjan_at_xs4all.nl

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Introduction

• WCU Project YeungNam University
• appreciation to Prof. Park WCU staff
• introduction respondents
• Procedures
• Panoramic overview (ca. 40 min)
• Respondents (4) (10-15 min each)
• Questions discussion (20-30 min)
• Personal background
• Academic milieus
• Research scholarly publishing
• Recent publication
• e-Research Transformations in Scholarly
  Practice (Routledge, July 2009)

3
Overview

• Overall objective
• critically examining the claim to revolutionary
  change
• Palette of conceptual formulations
• Illustrating new ways of scholarship
• Challenges in the Digital Age
• Broader questions

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Claims to Revolutionary Change

• Environmental science is undergoing a
  revolution.
• (Badcock, et al., 13 Oct. 2009)
• eScience - The Revolution is Starting
• (Gray, 2005 Microsoft Research)
• Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through
  Cyberinfrastructure (Atkins et al., 2003)
• We are living in exciting times. (Herring, 2004)

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Conceptual Formulations(potpourri)

• cyberinfrastructure
• cyberscience
• e-Science
• e-Social Science
• e-Research
• Internet science (studies)
• e-Scholarship
• online research
• See further Schroeder (2007)

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Cyberinfrastructure

• Indiana University (March 2007),
  http//rc.uits.iu.edu/newsletter/archives/
• Cyberinfrastructure consists of computing
  systems,
• data storage systems, advanced instruments and
  data
• repositories, visualization environments, and
  people,
• all linked together by software and high
  performance
• networks to improve research productivity and
  enable
• breakthroughs not otherwise possible.
• Compared to ubiquitous infrastructures in
  society
• transport, electrical power, gas water
• Note concept in flux see Edwards et al. (2007)

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e-Science Big Science

• CERN http//www.gridpp.ac.uk/pics/stand2004/cern.h
  tml
• Big budgets, staffs, machines, laboratories

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e-Science

• Definition
• National e-Science Centre, http//www.nesc.ac.uk/
  nesc/define.html
• In the future, e-Science will refer to the
  large scale science that will increasingly be
  carried out through distributed global
  collaborations enabled by the Internet.
  Typically, a feature of such collaborative
  scientific enterprises is that they will require
  access to very large data collections, very large
  scale computing resources and high performance
  visualisation back to the individual user
  scientists.
• Features
• sciences engineering primary humanities
  social sciences secondary
• grid computing key component
• alliance with computer science tool development
• top-down mandate incorporated into science
  policy
• documents sense of inevitability, technological
  determinism

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e-Research

• Rationale
• Broad disciplinary relevance social sciences and
  humanities
• Unhindered by proclivities of other terms
• Features
• Distant, international collaboration
• Data preservation access
• Internet-based instruments
• Visualization
• (high-speed) networked computers

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Illustrations capita selecta

• e-Science
• e-Research social sciences
• e-Research humanities

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e-Science large-scale instrumentation distant
collaboration

• Birnholtz, J. P., Horn, D. B. (2007). Shake,
  rattle and roles Lessons from experimental
  earthquake engineering for incorporating remote
  users in large-scale e-science experiments.
  Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication,
  12(2), article 17. http//jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/i
  ssue2/birnholtz.html

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Social Sciences Data Visualization 1

• Classical data visualization
• Source Livingstone, S., Helsper, E. (2007)
  Gradations in digital inclusion children, young
  people and the digital divide. New Media
  Society 9(4) 671-696.

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Social Sciences Data Visualization 2

• IBM ManyEyes Visualization Project
• http//services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/view/S
  m4H4JsOtha6AL-ANrG8J2-
• http//services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/page/T
  our.html
• Finding the right way view your data
• is as much an art as a science.

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Social Sciences Data Visualization 3

• Vizster Visualizing Online Social Networks
• Http//jheer.org/vizster/
• Note see Burns (2007) for description of
  IssueCrawler

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Humanities Data Preservation Access 1a

• International Institute for Social History
• manuscript Communist Manifesto
• http//www.iisg.nl/collections/manifest/manifest.p
  hp

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Humanities Data Preservation Access 1b

• Musée Rodin http//www.musee-rodin.fr/
• Note see Hine (2006) for discussion of the
  digital versus the original in scholarly
  practice

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Humanities Data Visualization 1

• The Qumran Visualization Project
  http//www.nelc.ucla.edu/qumran/

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Humanities Data Visualization 2

• http//www.romereborn.virginia.edu/

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Challenges for Social Science Research in the
Digital Age (abbreviated version)

• Collaboration
• How can distant collaboration be achieved across
  scholarly divides cultural divisions?
• (challenge of cross-national, cross-disciplinary
  research)
• Data preservation access
• How can quantitative qualitative data be
  archived, preserved made accessible to other
  researchers?
• Internet-based research designs
• How can representative samples be studied using
  online instrumentation for data collection
  analysis?
• Visualization
• How can social scientists utilize the potential
  of high-speed networked computers in visualizing
  social political relations?

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Broader Discussion

• How are features concerns of e-Research
  relevant to ordinary scholars in the humanities
  social science?
• RQ In what manner to what extent are features
  of e-Research adopted / adapted (social sciences
  humanities) across disciplines, scholarly
  cultures political climates?

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Selected Resources (semi-ordered list)

• Jankowski, N. W. (ed.) (2009). e-Research
  Transformation in scholarly practice. New York
  Routledge.
• Badcock, N. S., Garnett, E. A. Godfray, H. C.
  J., Gurney, R. J. (eds.). (2009). The
  environmental eScience revolution. Theme issue.
  Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society,
  367 (1904), Oct. 13. Available at
  http//rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/issues
  /eScience.xhtml
• ACLS. (Dec. 2006). Our Cultural Commonwealth.
  Report of the American Council of Learned
  Societies Commission on Cyberinfrastructure for
  the Humanities and Social Sciences.
  http//www.acls.org/cyberinfrastructure/
• Akins Report. (Jan. 2003). Revolutionizing
  Science and Engineering Through
  Cyberinfrastructure. Report of the National
  Science Foundation Blue Ribbon Advisory Panel on
  Cyberinfrastructure. http//www.nsf.gov/od/oci/rep
  orts/toc.jsp
• National Science Foundation Cyberinfrastructure
  Council (March 2007). Cyberinfrastructure Vision
  for 21st Century Discovery. http//www.nsf.gov/pub
  s/2007/nsf0728/nsf0728.pdf
• Edwards, P.N., Jackson, S.J., Bowker, G.C.,
  Knobel, C.P. Understanding Infrastructure
  Dynamics, Tensions, and Design. (Jan. 2007).
  Report of a Workshop on History Theory of
  Infrastructure Lessons for New Scientific
  Cyberinfrastructures. http//www.si.umich.edu/Inf
  rastructureWorkshop/documents/UnderstandingInfrast
  ructure2007.pdf
• Jankowski, N. W. (Ed.) (2007). Theme issue on
  e-Science, JCMC, 12(2), http//jcmc.indiana.edu/vo
  l12/issue2/
• Bruns, A. (May 2007). Methodologies for Mapping
  the Political Blogosphere An Exploration Using
  the IssueCrawler Research Tool. First Monday,
  12(5). http//www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_5
  /bruns/index.html
• de la Flor, G., Meyer, E. T. (2008). Talking
  bout a revolution Framing e-Research as a
  computerization movement. Presentation at
  e-Research 08 Conference. Sept. available at
  http//www.slideshare.net/etmeyer/talking-bout-a-r
  evolution-framing-eresearch-as-a-computerization-m
  ovement-presentation
• Schroeder, R. (March 2007). e-Research
  Infrastructures and Open Science Towards a New
  System of Knowledge Production? Prometheus,
  25(1) 1-17. http//www.tandf.co.uk/journals/title
  s/08109028.asp

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Thank You!

• Nicholas W. Jankowski
• Visiting Fellow, VKS
• nickjan_at_xs4all.nl
• URLS institutions resources
• WCU Webometrics Institute http//english-webometr
  ics.yu.ac.kr/
• YeungNam WCU Project Blog http//yeungnam.edublog
  s.org/
• e-Research book web site (beta)
  http//e-research.cyswik.net/
• Virtual Knowledge Studio (VKS) for the Humanities
  Social Sciences www.virtualknowledgestudio.nl
• VKS wiki e-Research www.virtualknowledgestudio.n
  l/wiki/