Two weeks at the Summer Institute for Computational Social Science
In June, I attended the second iteration of the Summer Institute for Computational Social Science (SICSS), an intensive two-week program held at Duke that was intended to bring together researchers from across the social science and data science disciplines to learn and discuss topics in computational social science (CSS). Each day, the organizers Chris Bail and Matt Salganik taught mini-lectures on different CSS topics, we split into groups to work on activities together, and a speaker came in to present their research.
3 Challenges for behavioral research in the age of multimedia big data
With so much diverse data to dig into, the future of quantitative social science is exciting, particularly for those studying the granularities of individual-level behavior. In doing so, we must make sure that this research is ethical, robust and ultimately useful
ESRC Research Methods Festival
The Economic and Social Research Center hosted the biennial Research Methods Festival at the University of Bath last week.
Experimenting with data visualization in virtual reality
To learn more about the potential for VR to transform data visualization, Katie Metzler worked with SAGE colleagues, Diana Aleman and Andrew Boney and the team at Datavized, a startup based in New York City, on a project to turn data from one of SAGE’s data products, SAGE Stats, into a 3D VR experience.
Matthew Salganik: The Open Review of Bit by Bit
Open Review: better books higher sales, and increased access to knowledge
Nesta to set up new Centre for Collective Intelligence Design
Nesta confirmed they are to launch a new Centre for Collective Intelligence Design this summer. The centre will seek to harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a particular focus on the combination of human and machine intelligence.
Ignorance and interdisciplinary work: field notes from the Social Science Foo Camp
The first-ever “Social Science FOO Camp” was held a couple of weeks ago at the headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park, California
The first ever Soc Sci Foo: social media, fake news, AI & much more
The first ever Social Science Foo Camp took place earlier this month, co-hosted by SAGE, O’Reilly Media and Facebook.
Sandy Pentland on social physics
"Alex 'Sandy' Petland tells interviewer Dave Edmonds about the origins of social physics in the days before widespread good data and solid statistical methods and explains how it blossomed as both a field and for Pentland’s own research. Full interview on Social Science Space"
Gary King on big data analysis
In this Social Science Bite, Professor Gary King, uses text analysis as an example of this big data analysis... King, spotlights the difference between computer scientists’ goals and social scientists’ goals, then talks about work examining social media and censorship in China.
In Praise of the Digital in Social Research
"The collection of “big data” and the ability to do experiments using the internet, may be the start of a scientific revolution in social research. But there are important ethical considerations that also need to be factored in." says Roby Muhamad in this piece which both praises the innovations big data has been able to allow us to explore and puts caution to the wind for the future of what these advances may entail.
Big data rich and big data poor
Data is being created faster than ever before however without access to these data-sets or the expertise to analyse them, research is confronted with a replication crisis and is vulnerable to commercial motivations. The problem is growing as Katie Metzler points out, "Firstly, because replication is the engine of science, and irreproducible research slows progress... secondly the motivations of industry researchers and social scientists may differ in ways that may really matter."