Remarkable Source

Online QDA is truly a remarkable source. According to its developers:

"This is a free resource developed for those needing support with qualitative data analysis (QDA) and those learning to use a Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS (CAQDAS) package. The website is aimed principally at researchers and postgraduates, but will also be suitable for some undergraduates.

• Resources page – Books, journals and websites by topic
• Methodologies – A-Z of commonly used analytic approaches
• Glossary – Terms used in QDA and CAQDAS
• Intro to QDA – Basics of QDA
• Intro to CAQDAS – Basics of software for QDA
• IT Skills – Required for CAQDAS
• Software – Availability and guides to choosing
• Step by step – Common procedures in widely used packages
• Advanced software – For more experienced software users

Tags: CAQDAS, qualitative research

Foreign Affairs Asks "Who Will Control the Internet?"

An interesting read for anyone interested in the political economy of IT. Somehow the mainstream press did not talk much about the June 30 US Department of Commerce statement that effectively announced "that the United States plans to retain control of the Internet indefinitely" and this author, Kenneth Neil Cukier, aptly described as "a sort of Monroe Doctrine for our times".

Among other things, Cukier offers an interesting discussion of internet governance and pokes holes in the "cherished myth...that the Internet is totally decentralized and inherently uncontrollable". Among the more contentious claims he makes should sound familiar to those used to standard debates over the desirability of greater UN involvement (viz. a viz. the US) in addressing global issues: "As the overseer of the domain name system, the United States has taken a liberal approach in keeping with its liberal values. There is no guarantee that an intergovernmental system would continue on such a course, and so even committed internationalists ought to be wary of changing how the system is run.

This is especially so since the very countries that most restrict the Internet within their borders are the ones calling loudest for greater control". Whatever the merits of this claim, it is apparent that cyberspace is not, and will not be, an anarchic utopia. Ergo politics.

Tags: Internet, governance

Teaching with tech

Our very own UM will hold its 13th annual Teaching With Technology Conference this coming March 31st.

This year focuses on how teaching and learning are changed by tech (including dynamics between faculty, students, and staff), assessing the outcomes of e-pedagogy, new applications, and "best practices."

You are invited to submit relevant papers, panels and posters by February 3rd.

Tags: teaching, conference

Final push

Hello all. I apologize for the lag in posting over the past few weeks; aside from the Thanksgiving holiday, I've also been trying to finish the last chapters of my dissertation.

With that in mind, I won't likely post very much between now and the New Year. Wish me luck!

Happy holidays, all.

Info society and law

U Edinburgh's School of Law will host the 6th annual Computer Law World Conference next year, September 4th-8th.

Generally focused on legal aspects of the information society, topics will include: privacy, innovation, ICT for developing countries, traditional knowledge, virtual communities, gender and tech, cybercrime, and the digital economy.

Abstracts are due March 31st.

Tags: law, privacy, conference

Empirical Legal Studies

For those who are into this sort of thing, the U Texas Law School will be holding the First Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies next October 27-28th.

The conference will focus on "empirical and experimental scholarship on legal issues," with the goal of improving cross-disciplinary connections on new methods and perspectives. Yeah, it wouldn't have occured to me either, but it turns out that law is a pretty fascinating field of study.

Submissions are due by June 30th.

Tags: law, conference

Six degrees of Cetacea

In its latest anti-whaling expedition, Greenpeace is trying a new approach.

"We’re heading out in search of the hunters to take a non-violent stand against them, and calling upon the global community to help us hunt the hunters. The law of six degrees of separation means that you, dear reader, know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who knows precisely where the whalers will be hunting this year."

In other words, it's small world, after all. Maybe your Uncle Leon knows a guy who knows a guy...

Tags: networks

Info Tech and Politics

The latest (Fall 2005) issue of ITP Newletter is now available on the ITP Wiki.

This is an area of multidisciplinary research that is certain to grow over time. Get in early, help to pick the drapes!

Tags: publications

SMS voting in Switzerland

According to the WorldWide e-democracy Forum, "voters of about fifteen cities of the canton of Zurich, in Switzerland, could vote by Internet, but also by SMS, on several referendum" this past November 27th.

No word on whether anonymity was maintained.

Tags: e-democracy