This one's been out for awhile, but I don't recall posting it here. The Washington Post has put together a browsable and searchable database of Congressional votes that includes every vote since 1991.
You can even set up RSS feeds for timely updates.
Hmm... if you tied the RSS feed to a text messaging service, you could follow your representative or senator down to the minute. I imagine with a bit of creativity, you could even hardwire email responses based on the vote.
2.28.2006
Qualitative strategies
You have until June 1st to submit an abstract to the 2006 Strategies in Qualitative Research conference, to be held at Durham University (UK) next September 13-15th.
The conference, which focuses on the use of QSR software (e.g., NVIVO, N6) in social research, is in its 7th year.
Registration fees are variable (e.g., academic, one-day attendance), but you must register by June 1st.
The conference, which focuses on the use of QSR software (e.g., NVIVO, N6) in social research, is in its 7th year.
Registration fees are variable (e.g., academic, one-day attendance), but you must register by June 1st.
2.27.2006
Pen scanner
Those of us who find themselves in a musty reference library, with a musty or glacially slow fotocopier (e.g., the LOC), may have wished for a small, powerful scanner. Well, it seems our prayers have been answered.
Kris Bozio has just written a review for ThinkComputers on the Planon RC800 Color Pen Scanner. No word on whether it supports OCR, but Kris gives it high marks on all other points.
Kris Bozio has just written a review for ThinkComputers on the Planon RC800 Color Pen Scanner. No word on whether it supports OCR, but Kris gives it high marks on all other points.
Transana 2.10
The newest beta version of Transana is now available. I highly recommend Transana to anyone using audio or video recordings in their research.
Designed as a transcription software, it can also be used for code-and-retrieve and hypothesis testing.
It's great software, really. And did I mention that it's FREE?
Designed as a transcription software, it can also be used for code-and-retrieve and hypothesis testing.It's great software, really. And did I mention that it's FREE?
Social sci summer camp
The 39th annual Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis and Collection will be held from July 8-18th at the University of Essex.
Over the decades, participants from more than 90 countries have attended, learning about data collection, analysis and model building in a series of intensive courses.
Space is limited, and tuition is based on the number of courses taken. Deadline to apply is May 2nd.
Over the decades, participants from more than 90 countries have attended, learning about data collection, analysis and model building in a series of intensive courses.
Space is limited, and tuition is based on the number of courses taken. Deadline to apply is May 2nd.
Digital communities
On April 9-10th, UC Santa Barabara is hosting the 2006 Forum on Digital Transitions: Social collaboration and dynamic communities.
The idea is that the information revolution is facilitating long-term social changes, from the way we work, to political and social activism, to how we identify our communities.
Registration is $190 for non-corporate types (e.g., academics, NGOs).
The idea is that the information revolution is facilitating long-term social changes, from the way we work, to political and social activism, to how we identify our communities.
Registration is $190 for non-corporate types (e.g., academics, NGOs).
Methods of content analysis
Will Lowe is a really bright guy who specializes in content analysis methodologies at Harvard. If this is your thing too, check out his publications. Most are available in pdf, all are interesting. For instance:
(2004) Content analysis and its place in the (Methodological) scheme of things. Qualitative Methods 2:1 p 25-27
(2002) 'Software for content analysis: A review' Report for the Identity Project.
(2004) Content analysis and its place in the (Methodological) scheme of things. Qualitative Methods 2:1 p 25-27
(2002) 'Software for content analysis: A review' Report for the Identity Project.
2.26.2006
Open scholarship
Charles W Baily Jr has a mission: to Liberate Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals. The work he's done to further that mission, including documenting over 1,300 publications on the topic, is staggering.
Also impressive - he's made the whole thing FREE under a Creative Commons license.
Also impressive - he's made the whole thing FREE under a Creative Commons license.
Strategies of the commons
Stanford Law's Center for Internet and Society will be hosting a conference on Cultural Environmentalism on March 11-12.
The idea is that the fight to democratize intellectual property law shares many parallels with the environmental movement.
Presenters include Jamie Boyle, Molly Van Houweling, Susan Crawfor, Rebecca Tushnet, Madhavi Sunder, and Lawrence Lessig.
Admission is FREE, but you must be pre-registered.
The idea is that the fight to democratize intellectual property law shares many parallels with the environmental movement.
Presenters include Jamie Boyle, Molly Van Houweling, Susan Crawfor, Rebecca Tushnet, Madhavi Sunder, and Lawrence Lessig.
Admission is FREE, but you must be pre-registered.
Higher ground
John Markoff had a fascinating article in yesterday's New York Times, about the NSA's Amazon wishlist.
Actually, it was about the tools the NSA is throwing at terrorism (and apparently the American people), such as Analyst's Notebook, and a meeting between the blue-gloved ones and several Silicon Valley venture capitalists.
Equal parts fascinating and disturbing, well worth a read-through. How might such tools might be used in social science? Does privacy have any meaning in a world of inescapable data? Do freedom or liberty?
Actually, it was about the tools the NSA is throwing at terrorism (and apparently the American people), such as Analyst's Notebook, and a meeting between the blue-gloved ones and several Silicon Valley venture capitalists.
Equal parts fascinating and disturbing, well worth a read-through. How might such tools might be used in social science? Does privacy have any meaning in a world of inescapable data? Do freedom or liberty?
2.25.2006
NetSci 2006
You have until March 31st to submit an abstract to NetSci 2006, the International Workshop and Conference on network science. Workshop meets from May 16-20th, conference from May 22-25, in and around Bloomington, IN.
Registration ($120 for both events) is open through April 21st.
And you thought you'd be bored this spring.
Registration ($120 for both events) is open through April 21st.
And you thought you'd be bored this spring.
Operatic networks
Bruce Hoppe (over at Connectedness) spotted an interesting article in the New York Times, which used elementary network diagrams to explain the plot of the Verdi opera "Simon Boccanegra."
Networks, networks, everywhere...
Networks, networks, everywhere...
History, televised
Yesterday, Google announced that it would be digitizing all of the National Archives' video collection.
Check out the proof-of-concept page, including the moon landing, old newsreels, and old propaganda from the Interior Department.
Check out the proof-of-concept page, including the moon landing, old newsreels, and old propaganda from the Interior Department.
e-voting workshop
Political scientists are heartily encouraged to attend the Electronic Voting Technology Workshop sponsored by USENIX and ACCURATE this summer.
EVT06 will be held in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, which is reason enough to attend. But for those who want to work instead of hiking or kayaking, the organizers are hoping to get a good mix of computer scientists, legal experts, vendors, and of course, the aforementioned political scientists.
POLNET 2006
Lots to do this summer... From July 31-August 4, the University of Konstanz will host POLNET 2006, the summer school on Analysis of Political and Managerial Networks.
Designed for both grad students and professional researchers, the goal is to offer an introduction to quantitative network analysis, working from UCINET and visone software.
300 EUR (plus travel), deadline is May 1st. Seats are limited.
Designed for both grad students and professional researchers, the goal is to offer an introduction to quantitative network analysis, working from UCINET and visone software.
300 EUR (plus travel), deadline is May 1st. Seats are limited.
MeshFourm 2006
'Tis a bit pricey ($500!), but this year's MeshForum (May 7-8) has opened the doors to general public registration.
Speakers include Manual Lima of VisualComplexity, and tons of academic, business, and government types.
So if you want to learn about the latest in Network Science, and get a chance to explore the great city of Chicago, give 'em a call. Deadline for early registration is March 1st.
Addendum: Shannon notes in the comments that scholarships and discounts may be available for those of diminished means (e.g., grad students).
Speakers include Manual Lima of VisualComplexity, and tons of academic, business, and government types.
So if you want to learn about the latest in Network Science, and get a chance to explore the great city of Chicago, give 'em a call. Deadline for early registration is March 1st.
Addendum: Shannon notes in the comments that scholarships and discounts may be available for those of diminished means (e.g., grad students).
A new year, a new face
Hello all. We sorta missed the day (busy, busy, busy), but on February 19th, Augmentation was one year old.
514 entries later, we've covered a lot of ground, from qualitative and qualitative software, to e-democracy and privacy concerns. Indeed, the list of topics is very, very long.
I hope those of you who wander through our lobby have found something of interest; we do our best to keep the magazines up to date and the fish fed.
Anyway, we're looking forward to our second year and beyond, and hope to make Augmentation an even better source to learn about innovative methodologies and tools, as well as the questions raised by the sometimes dramatic changes in politics and culture as we wade deeper into the information age.
P.S. Hope you like the facelift. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
514 entries later, we've covered a lot of ground, from qualitative and qualitative software, to e-democracy and privacy concerns. Indeed, the list of topics is very, very long.
I hope those of you who wander through our lobby have found something of interest; we do our best to keep the magazines up to date and the fish fed.
Anyway, we're looking forward to our second year and beyond, and hope to make Augmentation an even better source to learn about innovative methodologies and tools, as well as the questions raised by the sometimes dramatic changes in politics and culture as we wade deeper into the information age.
P.S. Hope you like the facelift. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
Crawdad Technologies LLC
Crawdad Technologies LLC: "Crawdad Technologies helps analysts and research professionals gain insight from the unstructured text found in customer interview and focus group transcripts, customer survey comments, news articles, written reports and proposals, and incident and safety reports."
2.24.2006
By the way...
Did I mention that I phinished my dissertation? Now I just have to trick my committee members into agreeing to the same date and time for the defense.
Tatu - margaritas for all our friends.
Addendum: miracle of miracles, they finally agreed - defense is scheduled for March 15th, 11am-12:30pm. Wish me luck.
Tatu - margaritas for all our friends.
Addendum: miracle of miracles, they finally agreed - defense is scheduled for March 15th, 11am-12:30pm. Wish me luck.
Summer methods meeting
The Society for Political Methodology will be holding its 23rd annual, invitation-only conference at UC-Davis this July 20-22.
To apply, fill out the online application.
To apply, fill out the online application.
Vensim 5.5d
For the uninitiated, Vensim is a modeling software (similar to Stella or Madonna), which allows users to develop complex, dynamic systems, working from graphical symbols (stock, flow, and modifier variables).
I know social scientists who use these packages for concept mapping, but really - the sky's the limit.
I know social scientists who use these packages for concept mapping, but really - the sky's the limit.
Co-word analysis tools
Loet Leydesdorff (U Amsterdam) has written TI.exe and Fulltext.exe, basic concordance programs that generate wordlists and a variety of co-occurence matrices (exportable to popular statistical and network analysis packages).
There's also a version for Korean texts.
All are FREE for academic use.
There's also a version for Korean texts.
All are FREE for academic use.
Innovative e-government
The Worldwide e-democracy Forum is reporting on a UN-DESA report that highlights 74 e-government best practices from 38 countries - developed and developing both.
2.21.2006
A hiatus near its end
I apologize for not posting much over the past couple of months, but the dissertation is a cruel mistress. The good news is that I've now finished a full draft, and will be making adjustments for only another week or so.
During my "vacation," I've stocked up scores (potentially hundreds!) of augmentation tidbits, and will loose the floodgates as soon as I've handed the manuscript over to my committee members.
Anon.
During my "vacation," I've stocked up scores (potentially hundreds!) of augmentation tidbits, and will loose the floodgates as soon as I've handed the manuscript over to my committee members.
Anon.
The scientific study of law
This week saw the birth of the Empirical Legal Studies blog, focused on "advancing productive interdisciplinary discourse among empirical legal scholars."
Produced by professors and lecturers from the law schools of Marquette, Cornell, and Chicago, it's gotten off to a great start. I'll be subscribing to their feed - you should too.
Produced by professors and lecturers from the law schools of Marquette, Cornell, and Chicago, it's gotten off to a great start. I'll be subscribing to their feed - you should too.
2.16.2006
Open-source qualitative tool
Weft QDA is a free and easy-to-use tool to assist in the analysis of textual data such as interview transcripts, written texts and fieldnotes. It includes a number of fairly standard CAQDAS features. Could be useful for introducing students to CAQDAS since it is simple to use and free to download.
2.10.2006
New media pedagogy
I've just come back from a presentation by Frank Moretti, ED of the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning.
Wow. Any academic who wants a sneak peek at what teaching and learning will be like in 10-15 years should browse the CCNMTL website. Not all of the material is fully available to the public (copyright concerns), but what you can see is still very, very impressive.
As you look over some of the course modules (e.g., Conflicts of Interest, Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences), I encourage you to think not only of how useful these techniques could be for teaching, but also how they could be used for scholarly publications more generally.
Much of the criticism of social science research (especially, but not only qualitative methods) has been a lack of transparency. Well, as CCNMTL has shown (e.g., The Annihilation of Caste), this need not be an issue anymore. I strongly suspect these sort of embedded annotations will be the norm for a host of disciplines within the next generation.
Truly fascinating.
As you look over some of the course modules (e.g., Conflicts of Interest, Quantitative Methods in Social Sciences), I encourage you to think not only of how useful these techniques could be for teaching, but also how they could be used for scholarly publications more generally.
Much of the criticism of social science research (especially, but not only qualitative methods) has been a lack of transparency. Well, as CCNMTL has shown (e.g., The Annihilation of Caste), this need not be an issue anymore. I strongly suspect these sort of embedded annotations will be the norm for a host of disciplines within the next generation.
Truly fascinating.
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