Technology and Social Research Peter Halfpenny GMCVO seminar 18 September 2009

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

Hype versus reality would a pen be easier?

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

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

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

2. Software  commercial - expensive  open source – download to PC or server  often well-supported by user-community  web-based – runs on someone else’s server  example: Microsoft Office Professional - £450 Open Office: download freehttp:// Google Docs: use online free

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

4. Technical support  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  firewall (built into modems/routers)  antivirus programme free.avg.com  anti-spyware Windows Defender  auto-update turned on  less needed for Apple Macs  not needed for Linux

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

1. Collaboration …  and attachments  distribution list of contacts  JISCMail list for subscribers e.g.  versioning Track Changes in Word  sharing Google docs online 

… Collaboration  collaboration software (VRE, VLE)  contact list, calendar, , blog, announcements, file manager, wiki, etc  complex to install  social networking websites  Facebook and many others   Create your own e.g.

2. Literature review …  subject / topic  books academic and specialist library catalogue  articles BL’s electronic Contents of 20,000 journals and 16,000 conference proceedings Scopus is similar

2. … Literature review …  blogs  Google books  Google scholar  Wikipedia

2. … Literature review  keeping references £145  sharing references free free  sharing bookmarks/tags

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

3. … Secondary data …  UK Data Archive  Economic and Social Data Service ESDS Longitudinal ESDS International ESDS Government ESDS Qualidata  UK National Statistics

3. … Secondary data  archives galore  UK government archive  newspaper archive lexisnexis®  BL sound archive

4. Collecting data  quantitative  online surveys – design, deliver, analyse  lots of rivals from free to costly  qualitative  digital recording devices audio, photos, video constantly evolving microphone is critical

5. Analysing data  quantitative  SPSS dominates  lots of rivals from free to costly  qualitative  CAQDAS packages – Atlas.ti, NVivo transcripts, photos, video data management – still evolving CAQDAS Networking Project

6. Dissemination  presentations  websites  photos  video

New dissemination opportunity

Courses  searchable catalogue of research methods training events  research methods community networking

… and more resources

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

The end Thank you for your attention if I have had it. This presentation is available at: ogy%20and%20Social%20Research.ppt