Tag: Methods

6 June 2016

Authors: Sanna Ojanpera

In this year’s Development Studies Association Conference, we will present a paper titled ‘Measuring the Hidden Contours of the Global Knowledge Economy with a Digital Index’. In this paper ...
Read More Presenting the Digital Knowledge Economy Index at the Upcoming Development Studies Association Conference

17 May 2016

Authors: Mark Graham

This chapter outlines how one might utilize the massive amounts of web-based, geographically-referenced digital social data for geographical research. Because much of these data are user-generated and produced through ...
Read More New publication – Using Geotagged Digital Social Data in Geographic Research

7 March 2016

Authors: Taha Yasseri

P-values are widely used in the social sciences, especially ‘big data’ studies, to calculate statistical significance. Yet they are widely criticized for being easily hacked, and for not telling us ...
Read More P-values are widely used in the social sciences, but often misunderstood: and that’s a problem.

7 March 2016

Authors: Ulrike Rauer

Online support groups are being used increasingly by individuals who suffer from a wide range of medical conditions. OII DPhil Student Ulrike Deetjen‘s recent article with John Powell, Informational and emotional elements in online support ...
Read More Facts and figures or prayers and hugs: how people with different health conditions support each other online

27 July 2015

Authors: Oxford Internet Institute

This morning Devin Gaffney and I ran a workshop on trace interviews at the Social Media and Society Conference. Trace interviews involve collecting and visualizing trace data (in this ...
Read More Trace Interview Workshop at #SMSociety15

12 January 2015

Authors: Mark Graham

The publisher has kindly allowed us to freely share three chapters of our new book (that I co-wrote with colleagues Dan Hammett and Chasca Twyman): ‘Research and Fieldwork in Development.‘ ...
Read More Free sample chapters available from our new book ‘Research and Fieldwork in Development’

12 January 2015

Authors: Mark Graham

The publisher has kindly allowed us to freely share three chapters of our new book (that I co-wrote with colleagues Dan Hammett and Chasca Twyman): ‘Research and Fieldwork in ...
Read More Sample chapters available from new book ‘Research and Fieldwork in Development’

10 December 2014

Authors: Mark Graham

  I’m delighted to announce the release of a new book that I co-wrote with colleagues Dan Hammett and Chasca Twyman: ‘Research and Fieldwork in Development.’ The book draws ...
Read More New book: Research and Fieldwork in Development

10 December 2014

Authors: Mark Graham

I’m delighted to announce the release of a new book that I co-wrote with colleagues Dan Hammett and Chasca Twyman: ‘Research and Fieldwork in Development.’ The book draws on ...
Read More New book drawing on fieldwork in Sub-Saharan Africa

24 July 2014

Authors: Oxford Internet Institute

In my research I am trying to understand the political communication patterns of digitally enabled citizens. I sampled from the #CDNpoli Twitter network but my interest goes beyond Twitter. ...
Read More Confession time: I forgot about email!

18 February 2014

Authors: Han-Teng Liao

By 2015, the proportion of Chinese language Internet users is expected to exceed the proportion of English language users. But how easy is it for researchers to find or ...
Read More How easy is it to research the Chinese web?

10 February 2014

Authors: Olessia Koltsova

Blogs are becoming increasingly important for agenda setting and formation of collective public opinion on a wide range of issues — particularly in countries like Russia where the Internet ...
Read More Mapping collective public opinion in the Russian blogosphere

3 December 2013

Authors: Taha Yasseri

Wikipedia is more than just an encyclopaedia; it is also a window into convergent and divergent social-spatial priorities, interests and preferences: aka Edit Wars. In his chapter (with Anselm ...
Read More Edit wars! Measuring and mapping society’s most controversial topics

2 December 2013

Authors: Heather Ford

John McManus studies Turkish football fans in the diaspora at Oxford University’s Center on Migration, Policy and Society (Compas). Editor’s note: This event report is the final post in the ...
Read More Technology and Fieldwork: Ethnographic quandaries

29 November 2013

Authors: Heather Ford

Christine Hine is an early pioneer of virtual ethnography and has been at the forefront of movements towards redefining ethnography for the digital age. She is currently a Reader ...
Read More Christine Hine on virtual ethnography’s E3 Internet

21 November 2013

Authors: Taha Yasseri

Use of socially generated “big data” on collective states of minds in human societies has become a new paradigm in the emerging field of computational social science, but bridging ...
Read More The physics of social science: using big data for real-time predictive modelling

12 November 2013

Authors: Heather Ford

For four years, Bradley Garrett (@Goblinmerchant) explored abandoned hospitals, railways, tunnels and rooftops as part of his PhD ethnography studying an elite group of urban explorers.  Brad has in ...
Read More Glorious Backfires in Digital Ethnography: Becoming an Urban Explorer

7 November 2013

Authors: Heather Ford

This month’s theme is about what it means to be a student ethnographer and is edited by Ethnomatters co-founder, Heather Ford (@hfordsa), a current DPhil (PhD) student who believes that ...
Read More November 2013: Being a student ethnographer

27 October 2013

Authors: Aude Bicquelet

Governments are lagging behind when it comes to exploiting the advantages of text mining to handle and analyze the large quantities of text that result from large-scale e-consultations. In ...
Read More Can text mining help handle the data deluge in public policy analysis?

14 October 2013

Authors: Patty Kostkova

With factors such as air travel act as a catalyst in the spread of new and novel viruses, the need to improve global population monitoring and enhance surveillance of ...
Read More Can Twitter provide an early warning function for the next pandemic?