GMCVO seminar 18 September 2009 Technology and Social

GMCVO seminar 18 September 2009 Technology and Social Research Peter Halfpenny

Three disclaimers 1. By technology I mean Information & Communication Technology (ICT) 2. I’m a sociologist not a techie (so I don’t understand a lot of what I’m going to talk about) 3. Pardon? (I don’t hear a lot of what other people talk about)

Organisation of my talk q q q q q Some questions about you Hype versus reality Academics are spoiled Basics ICTs across the research life cycle Courses More resources The future The end

Some questions about you 1. Who has access to: a. b. c. 2. Who uses: a. b. 3. 4. Windows Apple Who has access to the internet? Who is outside academia? a. 5. a desk-top computer? a laptop, notebook or netbook? a hand-held or high-end mobile phone? and outside any organisation? Is there an ICT expert here?

Hype versus reality www. Gartner. com would a pen be easier?

Academics are spoiled Access to: q § § Therefore befriend an academic q § § § q hardware software support online resources collaborate honorary appointment join a university as staff or student But : non commercial only

The basics 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. hardware software internet connection technical support security

1. Hardware q q desktop replacement laptop 17” screen, heavy, poor battery life £ 500 to £ 1, 000 q notebook / ultraportable 12” to 14” screen, light, no cd/dvd £ 600 to £ 1, 200 q netbook 10” screen, web-browsing £ 250 to £ 400

2. Software commercial - expensive open source – download to PC or server q q § q q often well-supported by user-community web-based – runs on someone else’s server example: Microsoft Office Professional - £ 450 Open Office: http: //www. openoffice. org/ download free Google Docs: http: //docs. google. com/ use online free

3. internet connection Internet Service Providers q § § ispreview. co. uk for reviews price comparison sites for costs bundles cost of support connection mode q § § broadband line (DSL) broadband cable (Virgin) wireless (hotspots; BTOpenzone; The Cloud) mobile broadband (phone or dongle)

4. Technical support q q q essential budget for it beware of expensive phone calls hardware – buy with your kit software – online support forums restore points in Windows

5. Security essential for Windows q firewall (built into modems/routers) antivirus programme § § • • anti-spyware § • § q q www. free-av. com free. avg. com Windows Defender auto-update turned on less needed for Apple Macs not needed for Linux

ICTs across the research cycle 1. 2. 3. 4. collaboration literature review secondary data collecting data a. b. 5. analysing data a. b. 6. quantitative qualitative dissemination

1. Collaboration … email and attachments q § § distribution list of contacts JISCMail list for subscribers http: //www. jiscmail. ac. uk/ e. g. § versioning • q q vol-sector-studies-network@jiscmail. ac. uk Track Changes in Word sharing Google docs online https: //www. getdropbox. com/

… Collaboration collaboration software (VRE, VLE) q § § contact list, calendar, email, blog, announcements, file manager, wiki, etc complex to install social networking websites q § § § Facebook and many others https: //www. researchgate. net/ Create your own http: //www. ning. com/ e. g. http: //vssnmembers. ning. com/

2. Literature review … q subject / topic http: //www. intute. ac. uk/ q books academic and specialist library catalogue http: //copac. uk/ q articles BL’s electronic Contents of 20, 000 journals and 16, 000 conference proceedings http: //zetoc. mimas. ac. uk/ Scopus is similar

2. … Literature review … q blogs http: //technorati. com/ q Google books http: //books. google. co. uk/books q Google scholar http: //scholar. google. co. uk/ q Wikipedia http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Main_Page

2. … Literature review q keeping references http: //www. endnote. com/ q sharing references http: //www. connotea. org/ http: //www. citeulike. org/ q £ 145 sharing bookmarks/tags free http: //delicious. com/ web-based http: //www. diigo. com/ web-based

3. Secondary data … huge amounts of data now available digitally q § § q born digital digitised search similar to literature review

3. … Secondary data … q UK Data Archive http: //www. data-archive. ac. uk/ § Economic and Social Data Service • • q ESDS Longitudinal International Government Qualidata UK National Statistics http: //www. statistics. gov. uk/hub/

3. … Secondary data q archives galore q http: //www. archiveshub. ac. uk/ UK government archive http: //www. nationalarchives. gov. uk/ q newspaper archive lexisnexis® q BL sound archive http: //sounds. bl. uk/

4. Collecting data quantitative q § online surveys – design, deliver, analyse http: //www. surveymonkey. com/ § lots of rivals from free to costly qualitative q § digital recording devices • • • audio, photos, video constantly evolving microphone is critical

5. Analysing data quantitative q § § SPSS dominates lots of rivals from free to costly http: //en. freestatistics. info/ qualitative q § CAQDAS packages – Atlas. ti, NVivo • • • transcripts, photos, video data management – still evolving CAQDAS Networking Project http: //caqdas. soc. surrey. ac. uk/

6. Dissemination q q presentations http: //www. slideshare. net/ websites http: //www. google. com/sites/ http: //www. webnode. com/ photos http: //www. flickr. com/ video http: //www. vimeo. com/

New dissemination opportunity http: //www. policypress. co. uk/journals_vsr. asp

Courses q searchable catalogue of research methods training events http: //www. ncrm. ac. uk/training/ q research methods community networking http: //www. methodspace. com/

… and more resources

The future q digitisation of archives / everything q technology convergence / integration § interoperability q ubiquitous -> invisible § computers embedded in many devices q sensor networks § radio-frequency identification devices (RFIDs) q context-aware services q methods and topics transformed

The end Thank you for your attention. . . if I have had it. This presentation is available at: http: //dl. getdropbox. com/u/2060906/Technol ogy%20 and%20 Social%20 Research. ppt

p. halfpenny@man. ac. uk