Scribd
Upload
7 views15 pages

Introduction To Digital and Online Research 2022 Part 3

Uploaded by

James Stewart
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
7 views15 pages

Introduction To Digital and Online Research 2022 Part 3

Uploaded by

James Stewart
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 15

Introduction to

Digital and Online


Research and their
Ethical Issues
Part 3

EUDACT 2022

1
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
Science ‘Big data’ – e.g. structured data
from astronomical observations, genomics
etc
Big Data? Qualities associated with ‘big data’: ‘Raw’,
'Volume'; Lack of structure; Realtime high
flow; multiple types co-mingled

• Data sets not collected for research


• the outputs of administrative (bureaucratic
or technological) systems. Tax authorities,
Facebook logs, Phone logs
• Not Data collected with a methodology
design to answer a research question,
2
24/0415 James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
(read Rob Kitchin, Thomas Davenport for example)
The Challenge of Informatisation:
• Messy real world data –but there must be some value
in it!
Big Data • Phone companies mining data to eliminate or keep
customers
2 • Banks, ecommerce, tax – detecting fraud
• Security services - video, voice, text mining
• Completing census statistics with mobile phone tracking
• Search patterns (e.g. Val Varian, Google trends, 2015)
• Transport tracking by ticketing, sensors, video, smart cars
etc
• Health Researchers - biosocial data genomics and
combining large scale medical records+ other data (e.g.
Usher Institute, Google Flu, apple healthkit etc)

Very hard and expensive to do on full data, in real time.


E,g, Google works only on small samples.
• Potential for natural experiments
3
24/04/15 James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
1. Beyond conventional analysis – new techniques
and skills:
e.g. qualitative research using vast data sets
A few Big • Analysing natural language by machine
Data • (Compare with machine translation

challenges e.g. Real-time analysis and Use


https://www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/browse-our-areas-of-investment-
and-support/putting-data-analysis-at-the-heart-of-decision-making/
2. If it is not collected it is invisible

3. Ethics - Massive and intrusive reuse of data

See for example by boyd and Crawford 2011 for basic


introduction

4
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
• In Surveys, social monitoring etc – the subjects are the
participants
• In citizen science Participants are part of the research
process :
Crowdsourcing • Collecting Data
and Citizen • Analysing data/producing evidence/visualising
• Using evidence
Science • Paid and voluntary • Organisational tools
(CSCS) • Curation of the crowd
Much ‘crowdsourcing’ • Engagement
has now become large-
scale low-cost labelling
of information to make • Quality Assurance Tools
it suitable as data for • Legitimacy
training machine
learning models
24/04/15 James Stewart, University of Edinburgh 5
•Direct to individuals
•Surveys (limited by format and context)
Mobile •Ethnographies
•Qualitative
Research: the
•Event triggered
new frontier •Location tracking, app use and data logging
•Mobile a data collection tool (crowdsourcing)
Week 5

6
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
• Much research is • Research is used to build
related to informing a model of the world – a
decision making theory
Serious Games
• Complex issues are hard • A simplified model can
and Models to understand e.g. be used to communicate
tradeoffs. the main trade-offs and
• How does one find out issues
what people who do, = A GAME
what priorities they e.g. agriculture, energy
would give, if they don’t
understand what they
are being asked about?

James Stewart, University of Edinburgh 7


• By playing, people learn about the issues,
and then can be surveyed or interviewed
Serious games normally
and models • The use of the game – the ‘analytics’ can also
be used to understand about understanding,
and observe choices.
• Can be used with Policy makers and with
general or targeted publics
• Can introduce the option to challenge and
change the model (Yearley 1999)

e.g. Radchuk, el at (2016). Homo Politicus meets Homo


Ludens: Public participation in serious life science games.
8
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
• There are many other use cases, techniques that you can
explore, here are some of them:
Data Linking • Data Linking – one of the key areas of development – and one
undermines de-personalisation efforts of any one dataset.
Open Data • Open Data and publicly available data, including commercially
available data – investigative journalists, banks, hedge funds and spies
Remote and intelligence agencies, or public health researchers have
increasingly turned to the vast number of data sources that are open
Sensing or available to purchase – from satellite images, employee posts on
and Open platforms such as Glassdoor, search trends, social media posts (e.g. tax
evasion), and crowdsourcing (sanction breaking evidence), mobile
Source phone traces – from phone companies or from individual apps ,
tracking ships, planes etc.
Intelligence • Remote sensing – particular satellite imaging is becoming increasingly
detailed, cheap and available in real time – and use in agriculture,
investing, measuring economic development, environmental changes
etc. It can now be used for many uses until recently inconceivable
• Networks of internet of things devices and systems are emerging as
new sensors of activity
• The Russia-Ukraine war has surfaced many of these things and would
be a great topic for an essay
Techniques and Technologies
Skills = People
Summary: Organisation
Challenges for
Standards
Practice
Legitimacy
Consent and Privacy
Access
Law
Reuse (open data)

10
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
• Facebook example (Zimmer 2008)
Ethics Reading • SAGE handbook paper (2008)
• Professional guidelines
• Other reading

Observations and Comments on the online


discussionPlease

11
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
Main challenges to • Blurring of Public and Private
research ethics: Discuss (privacy)
• ‘Data’ v. ‘people’
• Mass observation (Surveillance)
• Mass experimentation
(Manipulation)

12
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
• Harm v. Social value
Ethical issues • Dignity
• Confidentiality
• Informed Consent
• Observer role
• Public or private? (Tweets, wikileaks etc)
• Deception
• Reuse of data/ open Data

13
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
• Aim: help you understand ethical issues associated with
digital research.
Homework
• Write a short summary of a particular ethical issue
• Write a summary of the ethical issues associated with a
particular research approach

14
James Stewart, University of Edinburgh
Next Week Open Data
Look for examples in your work or
field

15
24/04/15 James Stewart, University of Edinburgh

You might also like