17. Methodological Playgrounds
I first heard the term methodological playground in 2014, from Institute for Education’s Professor Carey Jewitt. She was talking about her work with digital artists and social researchers, synthesizing methods to open up different perspectives, generate imaginative research questions, and create a wider range of research tools. Around that time I was working on an […]
16. Big Data and social research – 2 years on
Next month will be two years since my first post. Back then examples of big data in social research and evaluation were more limited and the courses on offer were not so specialised for a social research audience. Things are different today. 1) A wider range of social research methods courses connected to big data, […]
12. Back to reading, Bit by Bit
I paused efforts on an introductory course on machine learning and statistical inference after finding Professor Matthew J. Salganik’s draft book, Bit by Bit: social research in the digital age, which has been available for open peer review since summer 2016 (click on the book title to access it, and here to learn about the […]
7. A first attempt at social media analytics
My first, uninformed answer to the question what is big data? was ‘stuff off social media’. In particular, social media familiar to me and that is accessible – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Much of the content on Facebook or Instagram is shared ‘privately’ between users that are connected to each other in a closed network. Twitter, being a […]
6. Less reading, more doing: skills for data analysis
When I was ready to start doing more with data, I went looking for courses that would help me achieve three things: Test and refresh my understanding of basic statistical concepts when analysing or interpreting dataIntroduce me to the skills and tools I would need to work with big data, including the role for codingExperience […]
4. Examples of big data in social research
Despite the challenges, there are many interesting examples where social research communities in the UK are engaging with big data. The social research institute NatCen leads a network for people using or seeking to use social media in social science research. Researchers contribute to a blog about methods and practice, with some very practical insights. […]
1. Big data and social research
What is big data? What does it mean for the work I do? What is the role for big data in evaluation? What skills or and experience do I need to develop? As you can probably tell from the questions, I am not a programmer, statistician or data scientist. I have quite a bit of experience analysing data […]