HELPING PEOPLE'S

Questions regarding all areas of research ethics have been central to our recent knowledge exchange seminars and have percolated nearly every discussion network members have had at events or during our twitter chats. Clearly, there are many issues at every stage, from research design, to sampling and recruiting, collecting or generating data, analysing data and reporting results. Yet there is not a set of respected guidelines for good ethical practice to which e-researchers, research supervisors, reviewers, commisioners or editors can turn. We would like to make a contribution in this area, beginning with an assessment of existing e-research guidelines and resources to identify common themes, divergent views, gaps, and unanswered questions. NSMNSS network member Janet Salmons is taking the lead on this initial stage, and you can contact her to share any thoughts and resources: jesalmons@gmail.com. We hope this preliminary step will serve as a foundation for possible further development...

Join us as we kick up a twitter storm on Monday 11th March from 4-5pm BST. We hope you'll be able to join us to discuss the issues related to data and analysis quality arising from social media research. Some of the questions we'll be discussing include: What are the main quality issues associated with social media research?  How confident are you that social media research is replicable?  Can appropriate meta-data be assigned to social media data, given privacy concerns? What would the meta-data be?  How valid is social media data – is it only telling us about online personas  Join in the debate by following #nsmnss. You can read more about how to join the chat in our earlier post: http://nsmnss.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/how-to-join-in-nsmnss-tweetchat.html Do join us and please spread the word!

Dear NSMNSS members, We're delighted to invite you to the next set of free NSMNSS network activities: ■   We will be holding our final Knowledge Exchange Seminar, hosted at NatCen Social Research on 15 March at 35 Northampton Square, London, EC1V 0AX. This half day session (12.30-4.30pm) will focus exclusively on the issues related to data and analysis quality arising from social media research , please see the programme copied below for more details. We have very limited spaces for this event so places will be allocated on a first come first served basis and preference will be given to participants willing to contribute a case study or example from their own experience to one of the sessions.  If you would like to attend the seminar please contact us (see below) confirming your contact details (email and phone number). We would hope attendees are able to share their experiences throughout the day of quality issues they have faced using social media. ■   Although t...

The third Knowledge Exchange Seminar of the New Social Media, New Social Science (NSMNSS) network was held on the 28th of January. The topic for this event was 'Qualitative Research and Social Media' and it brought together specialist speakers to discuss a range of topics, including opportunities and challenges of 'Deep Data', understanding behaviors and networks through the lens of netnography, and the changing role of the qualitative researcher online. We asked a range of contributors to share case studies illustrating their experiences of using qualitative methods in social media research and these were really useful starting points for highlighting the challenges today’s researchers face. Our first speaker of the day was Janet Salmons, from the Capella University School of Business and Technology, on the opportunities and challenges of ‘Deep Data’. In an era where increasing focus is laid on social media’s potential to provide quantitative researchers with ‘big dat...

We ran a very succesful webinar this week exploring the challenges facing researchers who use social media platforms for qualitative research. You can view the webinar by following this link: https://sas.elluminate.com/p.jnlp?psid=2013-02-05.0803.M.0D5B68C957... Please be aware the audio quality was poor for the first 6 minutes but is fine after that. We'd like to open up the discussion to people who couldn't attend the session, so please do consider the questions below and share your thoughts on the issues raised over on our Methodspace forum . What issues are raised by researchers going 'undercover' in online communities to research online behaviour? How can we ensure that the person we observe/interact with online fits our sample profile, how can we verify/trust profiles? How can you guarantee confidentiality if the platform owns the data created/shared on it? When we interact with people online what impact does that interaction have on people's behaviours, is th...

The Digital Brain Switch project is a RCUK Digital Economy and EPSRC funded project, led by the University of Lancaster Computing Science Department, in collaboration with the School of Management at Royal Holloway, University of London; the Open University Business School; and the School of Engineering and Digital Arts, University of Kent. The project explores how the rise in the use of digital technologies challenges work life boundaries, particularly as individuals increasingly work from a range of locations, experience frequent interruptions and feel required to 'stay connected' through multiple communication channels. We are interested in exploring how modern communication technologies affect our ability to manage transitions across work life boundaries. Does technology support us to manage transitions more flexibly, creating more permeable boundaries and a less segmented persona, or does it encourage leakage across boundaries and a difficult identity management task?  The...