Info, info, everywhere

Well, maybe you can't drink it, but ResourceShelf sure helps you to keep track of an ocean of information that gets bigger and bigger everyday.

With categories like Social and cultural issues, Environment, Citation analysis, Webcasting, Online research, Lists and rankings, Privacy, and more, it's a veritable coral reef of information richness.

Remember to subscribe to their RSS feed to stay on top of new entries.

e-cademic publishing

Another milepost on our way to the virtual academy? Rice University recently announced that it would be reviving its long-moribund academic press in a fully-digital form.

There are several academic journal models out there (see Forum: Qualitative Social Research for an excellent example), but this is the US' first digital university press.

Given the costs associated with printing, distribution, etc., plus the general trend towards e-delivery of most media forms, I suspect that Rice will be followed by many, many others over the next decade.

Think of it as a sort of Gresham's Law for the electronic era (with perhaps less normative implications).

Studying online networks

Seems some folks down at ANU (Canberra) have been pushing the envelope for social scientific study of online mobilization. In 2005, they established a Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON), which uses web-crawlers, text mining, network analytics, and data visualization to study activist and party networks on several salient issues (e.g., environment, reproductive freedom, migration).

Check out their publications for more details. Note that they've included several pdf Presentation files, to help you get a quick take on their methods.

Online survey design

The Form Assembly allows non-technical users to develop their own web-based surveys. The developers are not explicit about its use for research purposes, but if you can ask people their name, you can ask all sorts of other things, no?*

The software supports at least 2 dozen languages; additional features (e.g., secure forms, uploading and export options) are available on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis.

* Realizing, of course, that you'll likely need to submit it to Human Subjects Review before deployment.

Online spreadsheets

This could be useful. As near as I can tell after a few minutes poking about, the beta version of Google Spreadsheets works much like standard spreadsheet software (except for the lack of graphing functions).

Since it's online, there's no need to be tied to a specific operating system or machine. Could be handy when doing fieldwork in the far and away. Or visiting mom.

Online SNA

In response to a recent post* of mine on SOCNET, Valdis Krebs reminded me of an article he published back in 2002: "Uncloaking Terrorist Networks", First Monday, 7:4 (April).

Using only publicly available online sources, Valdis mapped a network centered on the 9-11 hijackers:

What I find most interesting about this is not the map itself, but that virtually anyone with sufficient gumption (and basic SNA training) could develop similar maps for virtually any group or institution.

I've always found Lombardi's work absolutely compelling, even without seeing the materials on which he based his maps. Imagine being able to embed archival and online sources to the nodes and links.

* SOCNET 07-13-06:

"...where are the texts focusing on current means of gathering SNA data? It would seem that the "realm of the possible" has shifted somewhat dramatically over the past few years, though certainly not for all forms of SNA data. It's clearly not just about surveys anymore.

"There are several excellent texts on SNA analytical methods, but I've found that data gathering techniques seem to be treated rather sporadically. As someone keenly interested in expanding SNA into a field (political science) where it is still rarely applied, I would be very interested in a textbook focusing on the techniques, challenges, and possibilities of generating a wide variety of network data."

OMB security guidelines

Finally. After the confidential data of millions of military personnel and federal employees have been stolen or threatened, someone finally steps up to deal with the threat.

Late last month, the White House announced it was giving all federal civilian agencies 45 days to implement encryption protections on all sensitive data.

Now if we only had similar protections for military and private-sector organizations, both at home and abroad.

Charting stats in Excel

While digging out my inbox, I noticed that Gary Klass had offered several links to Excel charting tricks and add-ins to the POLMETH listserv:

Gary himself has assembled an excellent overview of best-practices when using charts and graphs.

John Peltier, on box and whisker plots, simulated probability charts, dynamic control, histograms, etal. Peltier also offers several tutorials on charting tricks.

John Walkenbach has many add-ins to extend Excel's labeling, chart sizing, and exporting functionalities.

Kelly O'Day offers an excellent overview of Excel's capabilities, placed within a cognitive framework to emphasize the most effective means of visual communication.

Tushar Mehta has compiled an extensive collection of add-ins, tutorials and tips, including Gantt charting, flexible log scaling, and handling arrays.

Andy Pope offers several tricks to get the most out of Excel's graphing functions.

CFP: SPSA

The Technology and Politics Section of the Southern Political Science Association has extended its call for papers, panels, and roundtables for their Jan 4-6, 2007 meeting in New Orleans.

Proposals are especially encouraged for: e-Gov, political blogging, e-voting, campaign tech, online political communities, surveillance, info security and privacy, online trust, digital divide and tech diffusion, and teaching technology in political science.

Proposals and further questions should be sent directly to Prof Robert Brookshire (U South Carolina), Section Chair.

CFP: e-govt research

Call For Papers: Special Issue: The Future of E-Government Research.

The International Journal of Electronic Government Research is soliciting papers from a range of disciplines in academic and practitioner communities for its Oct-Dec 2007 issue. Papers addressing future research with the implementation, management, and impacts of e-govt are especially encouraged.

Deadline for abstracts is Sept 1, 2006, with full manuscripts due by Jan 1, 2007.

Please address further questions to the guest editors of the Special Issue, Professors Ignace Snellen (Erasmus U), and Arre Zuurmond (Leiden U).