HELPING PEOPLE'S

Kathleen McNiff is a blogger with QSR International, the people that brought you NVivo. Get in touch with Kath on Twitter @ KMcNiff . Imagine you’re sitting on a qualitative goldmine—in-depth interviews, focus groups, intriguing survey results, nuanced observations and a comprehensive lit review.  All the traditional boxes are ticked and yet there’s the nagging feeling that something is missing.  Chances are, it’s social media—and that’s probably why you’re here.   The Challenges There are so many impassioned and revealing conversations taking place online that it’s becoming harder (and more dangerous) to ignore them.  But embracing social media is not straightforward and you may be grappling with questions such as:   How do I build social media into my research design? What platforms are worth concentrating on? How should I collect the data? What tools and methods should I use to analyse it? NVivo gives you a practical way to face these challenges.   NCa...

Kelsey Beninger is a researcher at NatCen Social Research and can be contacted through Twitter @KBeninger. Attending two conferences related to social media the past three days took me on a long journey, and not just from the 6 train rides, nonexistent mobile reception or from navigating my way around overly complex campus layouts! My journey also included the reflection on different approaches to talking about social media research and the need, now more than ever, to be transparent about what we do, why we do it and what is wrong with our approaches (because we aren’t perfect- it’s too early days!). At the European Conference on Social Media in Brighton I was fortunate to meet and learn from some of the people from the 35 different countries represented. While I wont shy away from saying that I think the strongly academic focus was a wee bit theoretical for my applied social policy mind, I did learn about very different types of projects, from e-health platforms in Lithuania and ...

Janet Salmons is a network member and a contributing expert to the online team.  There are nearly as many kinds of research approaches as there are questions to study. While it is the task of the researcher to match approach to question, it is clear that some researchers simply prefer one approach over another, and select types of questions that permit them to carry out the inquiry in the preferred way. I admit it, I am guilty. While I see the value in all sorts of studies, I would not be content to crunch Big Data, even if it meant I could generate impressive maps and diagrams. I want to learn about their experiences first hand. I want to know why. Why did you make that choice and not another, why was it important to you, why do you plan to do things differently in the future? I cannot ask an extant mountain of Big Data to tell me more. Online interviews allow researchers to pose questions in a variety of ways with participants anywhere, at any time. In synchronous interviews we ...

Are you a PhD student or Early Career Researcher doing work in digital sociology? The BSA Digital Sociology Group has organised a PhD/ECR Workshop where a  limited  number of participants can get feedback on their work from peers and established academics in a supportive environment. The event will take place between  11am to 4pm on February 19th at Goldsmiths College in South London . Confirmed academic respondents are Emma Uprichard (Warwick) and Noortje Marres (Goldsmiths) with one or two more TBC soon. If you would like to register then please e-mail mark@markcarrigan.net with a short bio and 200 to 300 word abstract. The exact format of the day hasn’t been finalised yet but the intention will be to allow substantial time for discussion of each presentation so places will be extremely limited.

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...

Not long ago entrepreneurs depended on financial capital to build the physical stores and factories needed to launch a business. And while costly physical operations are still important in some lines of business, 21century entrepreneurs see social capital as essential to a new venture. “Social capital” is the ability to build mutually-beneficial networks of partners, allies and customers ( Adler & Kwon, 2002, p. 214 ; Carolis & Saparito, 2006 ; OttÓSson & Klyver, 2010 ; Xiong & Bharadwaj, 2011 ). Free or cheap technologies make it possible for start-ups to build social capital and sell products and services without huge initial investments. How do women entrepreneurs perceive their opportunities given the availability of these technologies and how do they use them to build networks that generate business? How have their choices vis a vis use of technology influenced the types of businesses they chose to run– and the goals they have for the future? This set of questions ...