I've been watching this thread and glad the discussion has finally come back round to the idea that, basically, what's good for one, might not be good for another. My own experience is a good example even within a project: I'm working as part of a team studying and engaging in practice aimed at getting boys and young men engaged in the maintenance of their sexual health. On the one hand we've created videos which show you how to put a condom on properly - this will get distributed on the net, but also will be shown to young people in parks and other public spaces they hang out. We're doing this because at the moment outreach workers have to take condom demonstrators, essentially red dildos, out into the field and it can be kind of embarrassing and clunky to do the demonstration in public - but they have to do this so they can hand over the condoms to an 'educated' person. The idea is that now they can take the videos out on a phone, ipod or ipad or whatever rather than having to take the condom demonstrators. Now, we had the discussion about screen size (no don't go there!)... Were phone screens big enough, should they use itouches or ipads. ipads were ruled out due to their 'coolness' specifically viz cost and safety - we didn't want the outreach workers getting mugged! Battery life we do need to consider as they are out in the field and not near a socket. However, in another part of the project we are seriously considering using iPads as a way of nurses collecting data and as a way of getting feedback from service users within a clinic setting. In other areas we're using bog standard pcs and mobile phones to collect data. So... this is a long winded way of me saying - it's just a question of what you consider to be the right 'tool' for the right job. Finally, I like Barry's idea and I think this comes up in some of the other posts - sometimes we can be too quick not to think about the role of technology in shaping our experiences as researchers and indeed that of our research participants. I wonder if there are any historical studies to offer some background? I guess if anyone is like me, I'm arguing against technological determinism that much, I end up a tad socially deterministic. As an antedote, I've recently done some work around the ethics of Facebook with Kathy McGrath where we drew on disclosive ethics and ANT - others might find them helpful for a study of the role of the non-human in the research process - that is if you can live with ANT! Kathy did a good job of beating it into me only for us to later downplay it's role :O) B. Ben Light Professor of Digital Media Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Research Centre Associate Head of School - Research and Innovation School of Media, Music and Performance University of Salford Adelphi House SALFORD M3 6EN Tel. +44 (0)161 295 5443 www.benlight.org www.smmp.salford.ac.uk On 16/07/2010 13:50, Barry Wellman wrote:
Thanks danah for showing us 1 way the iPad could be useful in research, rather than just entertainment or being kewl: "mine is bigger than your's." ***I still maintain that the iOS is an inadequate engine, and as for battery life, most peeps in all but poorest countries have electricity in their homes.***
Of course, we're kinda obsolescent, but when NetLab did the COnnected Lives interview, our piloting found that laptops were a distraction -- both intimadating and fascinating -- and we went to a modified paper-pen-stickynote data collection technique. Read about it in our Field Methods paper (also on my website).
Bernie Hogan, Juan-Antonio Carrasco and Barry Wellman. 2007. "Visualizing Personal Networks: Working with Participant-Aided Sociograms." Field Methods 19 (2), May: 116-144.
Maybe it would be useful if CITASA, AOIR, CSCW had a session or 2 on data gathering gadgets. I've seen lots on data analysis -- the Sunbelt Social Network conference was filled with dazzling ones -- but little on the pesky problem of getting the stuff in.
YMMV IMHO -- my .02
Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________
S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________
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