Research Methods Introduction

Answering questions or solving problems – require data to justify. Require to interpret the data. By doing so it allows the development of critical, analytical thinking.
Sometimes in analysing and perform comparative studies.

Ask questions:

• What is the reliability? Reliability of the data, reliability of the source
• How general is it? Generalizability
• What is the validity?

Need to always be critical of each piece of research to see if it is valid.

1. Intuition
“Act or process of coming to direct knowledge or certainty without reasoning or inferring”
Own gut feeling - not systematic way in acquiring information and is inaccurate method.
Intuition basis to formulate a hypothesis.

2. Authority
High respected people of power or source providing information that the community will accept. Helps with one’s hypothesis providing feedback.

3. Rationalism
Uses reasoning to arrive at knowledge.

4. Empiricism (observation)
Using observation to acquire knowledge.
- Naive – if I experienced something it must be true. Only believe in what you experienced.

Must perform rigorous observations to avoid naive problem. Controlled conditions (testing done in a lab), us systematic strategies, participant selection.

What we see is subjected to limited view.

5. Scientific Methods
Drawing conclusions via induction (general reasoning process).
Also from deduction (general to specific).

Hypothesis testing – 2 methods
Method 1: Generate hypthesis testing
Conduct experiments, observe then derive whether true or false
Compare whether facts match hypothesis.

Method 2: Collected data to see if it disproves the hypothesis.
When we do research we assume it has regularity and predictable.
In reality of nature (for observations), things we hear, feel, see, smell, taste are real and able to obtain evidence to back the claims.

In discovering data, you need appropriate research data collection methods and able to group them to explain a phenomena.
In having control, one is able to eliminate influences.

6. Have to decide on what you want to measure (operationalization). Each concept is defined well. Sometimes it has strict demands and hard to specify because it is objective.
How does one define usability? Is it the same for everyone? (http://www.usability.gov/)

7. Replication
Able to reproduce the results obtained from one study to other studies. If unable to replicate, there must be something wrong.
(http://www.pewinternet.org)

8. So once you identify characteristics of a phenomenon, you need to be able to explain the cause and existence.

9. There needs to be empirical evidences and should be quoted. Explanations must be logical and rational. Must have consistent facts. It should be testable through direct observation, parsimonious whereby there is as few assumptions as possible and it has to be general. Can never prove a hypothesis but it can be confirmed.

10. Theories allow the prediction of future data. It allows the categorization of results. Diff level of operation: descriptive theories, analogical theories (analogy description), fundamental theories (IT usefulness and ease of use)

Quantitative: Fitt’s Law
Qualitative: Uncanny Valley

What is a good theory?
Should be account for “most” data.
Testability – capable of failing some empirical test (fail under certain conditions).
Parsimony – simplest possible terms and fewest assumptions.

Research Process
Ideas and hypothesis – must be precise as possible. Makes it easy to test.
Decide on what to observe, what are the questions you want to observe.
Report your results.
Start the whole process over again (results may raise more Questions than Answers)

Multitasking with Media

Speaker: Dr Zhang Weiyu
Date: 21 Oct 2009

Henry Jenkins once said “How one can multi-task can link to one’s learning.”
How does it affect the efficiency of having primary and secondary task being media?

Working on computers, one could be multi-tasking many applications already. What are the motivations for this? Instantness and social effective dimensions.

Using the situational theory, how does media and users influence each other in situations?
What are the personal psychologies of needs and gratifications that create new media multi-tasking behaviours?

Reflecting on this, how many of us actually sit in front of the television with another media device? This is very common now a days. People can be on their mobile phones while watching tv or even have their iPad. Some have their phone and a laptop while in front of a tv. This is definitely a trend that is happening now (refer to http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=55&sectionid=237). However does this decrease one’s efficiency level in this case? Or perhaps changed the way one processes information? Does a person perceive they do much more but in reality they do less? According to Science Daily(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110502084444.htm), media multitasking is considered multi-distracting!

The information age has changed peoples’ behaviour in their daily lives:(http://multitasking.stanford.edu/MM_FinalReport_030510.pdf). According to the report of “The Impacts of Media Multitasking on Children’s Learning & Development”, 2010, it creates a cognitive fatigue factor. At the end of the day, are these changes in society’s behaviour something one should be worried about. If it truly is affecting one’s learning abilities then what new learning ways will help the younger generation to ensure the education system suits them?

Social Data Revolution

Speaker: Dr Andreas Weigend 
Date: 17 September 2009

The data being created is increased by the power of 10.
Social data = Shared data
Web 2.0 = World 2.0

Software that tries to help people make decisions will become successful.
Alternative way is to use reviews. People are giving meta data of the meta data. The impact of reviews is 5-25% increase with recommendations. People trust reviews and comments. Looking at customers behaviour (looking at what other things did they buy). Give surveys of feedback from users.
Attention / Intention / Situation

Use the scheme of 10% off discount to share with your friends.
Context – Content – Connection By the People.
Facebook allows distribution out to the world.

Web 1.0 – pages
Web 2.0 – people

Use marketing to the people to do things for freebies. For example Burger King on Facebook dumping friends. Allows social network intelligence and social graph targeting. There is a shift from private to public. “Information serves as an excuse for communication”.

Surviving Peer Review

Speaker: Dr Amanda Davis
Date: Mar 04 2010

Summary: Looking at how journals are accepted, rejected before being accepted to be published.

To publish you are persuading readers and develop some form of acceptance by your peers. Accept the feedback as a learning experience. Rejection will occur before reviewing when the materials are not presented the way the format is or declarations are incomplete.

During the checking, they check scope, quality, methodology used. They see if the aims are clear and whether statistics are appropriate. The process involved in getting published is going to one publisher at a time. It is considered a serious offense in changing the results – falsification.

Preliminary works are shown at conferences or data at a data. It’s ok to publish more at a journal. Reusing other people’s work, one needs to seek permission (eg. figures, tables, etc.). Combining several images together must ensure it is clear you have done so. Once submitted, the version usually can be hosted on your web site however one must seek for approval first. Submission is to an electronic peer review system (for Wiley Blackwell). There are English polishing services for pre submission available but done privately.

For biological, life sciences it takes 6-8 weeks. One paper is preferred to have 2-3 reviewers.

Turning Good Ideas Into Great Business

Speaker: Fredrik Haren
fredrick.haren@interesting.orh / anything@interesting.org
Date: 4/3/2010

Fredrik spoke a while back at a goLibrary event about his book “The Idea Book”. He talks about business creativity and gives a few tips about ideas.

1. Find the big problem then you will find the big idea.
All industries are creative. Creativity has never been taught in class so when you climb up the ladder in the working world, they people sitting in the offices don’t know how to teach it.

He then asks the audience what we would like to know. And he reminded me of how he was trying to make our experience from the seminar more “valuable”.

Looking at how he defined creativity, idea and innovation:
- Creativity is about the whole process.
- Idea is about having a spark, consciousness becoming conscious (just like a lightbulb being switched on).
- Innovation involves marking an idea happen.

Ideas are combining knowledge and information in a way to make something new. The mind looks for patterns to make sense of it all. Creativity though is seeing beyond the patterns.

idea = p(k+i)

Looking at examples

1) Cirque du Soleil – street performers + broadway

2) Blue Ocean Strategy (W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne)
Everybody does the same thing or the water will be bloody.

Important to take note that ideas don’t have to be nobel prize ideas. Just have to change it slightly.
How do we cultivate such behavior? Have small ideas and make it to a better idea (through iterations).

Use external capital to leverage the idea. What does this mean? For example, email direct to him so he can communicate to the audience. So the audience emails for a competition involving of winning a book where they had to send a photo. So at the end of the day, the company had multiple pictures for marketing purposes.

Copyright = copying right?
Creativity does not mean carbon copy. It means taking what other people are doing and making it yours.
Copy from the best.
Rick Warren wrote a book called The Purpose Driven Life What on Earth am I Here For.
Take away the fundamentals.

Question everything you do. What is the purpose of doing it? Questioning doesn’t mean everything has to be changed.

Last tip given is to run global. To grow and not only focus on one geographic area. Now a days it seems easier to go global because of the Internet’s accessibility.

Knowledge Workers in the Information Society

Speaker: Vincent Mosco (moscov@mac.com)
Date: 2/9/2009

His objective involved looking at laborers in the communication industry.
Ideas shifts behavior. Looking at Rio Tinto, their legal department got outsourced to India which was a lower wage area in comparison. There is a global divide and through outsourcing it’s building bridges across information of users, workers which involves cultures. In times of economic crisis, people are joining unions and you can see that there is a trade union convergence and new social movements. Convergence of technology has allowed all devices to be plugged with each other.

Looking at the rise of global union convergence, it has led to mobilizing workers of many different groups to come together which increases their power. It is usually the case where globalization can catch media attention that one wouldn’t usually get. However there are still challenges faced in converging other countries cultures and traditions. There needs to be understanding and learning how to conceptualize  it.

Roundtable Discussion

Dated: 27/8/2009

Looking back at my notes on the roundtable discussion on the changes of information technology and communication research, the following are what I have jotted down:

Impact of the Internet has created change.
Changes such as India where they are becoming the major source of being an information society. Over the past few years a lot of outsourcing has been to India. Who would have thought this was possible? In China – they have become the IBM center of computer.

Technology has provided a world of “exciting times”. Mostly positive but there are changes involving on a political, economical, cultural and social. For communication, it has allowed a relationship between different or similar social waves. The personalization perspective of communication closes the gap of distance and misunderstanding. However there are still concerns on how the Internet has also become depersonalizing, anonymous which creates distance and misunderstanding perceptions. Certain tasks however still require face to face. Social media such as Facebook has created the possibility of establishing / foster / re-establishing fundamental relationships and networking possibilities (eg Linkedin). The Internet has allowed more of ourselves to be hyperpersonal.

Other significant changes is that “we are better informed” even though there are still gaps. Unable to have conclusive evidence of this though. Having the Internet allows individual “enhanced learning” but has this created an increase in brain power? It has created “ICT in work environment” but has it provided greater productivity? If you look what role ICT plays in the third world countries, we should question whether it has created a digital divide and what is the ICT development. In rural they still cannot get access (82% don’t have access to technologies – changed over the past 2 years as technology has advanced). In 2008 it started the mobile phenomenon  (1.2 billion mobiles sold). In India there were 5 million subscribers a month. Africa had 90% where the mobile connected them to the Internet. The next goal is to get the next billion of the rural poor to be connected. This would create many opportunities to improve life.

But how much do we actually know about ICT currently? What are the new usage patterns? What is the new theoretical framework? How will this effect us in the short term and long term?

Looking at democracy and power. It is not from technology but the use for it. It allows cheap communication and converges people and groups (eg worker organizations) – allowing the seize of control over their future. What is scary is that the Internet uses people’s synergies of needs and increases possibilities of humans to become good and bad. The behaviors can be extended and heightened. An example of this is the “human flash search” which occurred in China. It mobilized Internet users to track someone (a China lady swearing). They found her in 2 days. It not only allows empowerment to lower social users and groups but there are also increase to misuses of ICT users and increase threat to privacy and confidentiality. Does this redefine’s one’s private space? Are we no longer safe?

IBM has come up with the “spoken web” – operated via voice alone. Will this help the illiterate of the third world countries? Is it considered too much to handle to teach third world countries to use the technology now?

Having a social network allows alternation between face to face to offline connectivity. Is this better? Richer? and Viable? Is it considered pervasive that can lead to stalking? It can link to everybody and anybody displaying social connections advertising one’s public identity. It can be very personal – be instantly connected to a particular person directly. This can lead to more connectivity where people can control over you as well as allow an individual to be more control over their social lives, reaffirming and liberating to see their social status.

For the success of social networks, there is a need of increase flexibility and agility. Allow consumers to broadcast and choose the people they want to let see their identities. Allowing the sense of control.
For Government and companies, they are marketing commercial data, surveillance on the people and what some control on people. The biggest worry is probably the loss of control. What happens when power of companies takes advantage to choices social makes and market it. Is this ethical?

It is no longer a one way relationship anymore. There is a need for technology to satisfy a certain need. Humans like to be in touch with each other. Use the Internet to build and maintain relationships. However are we becoming ruder because we are checking our phones when we are eating? Are we becoming shyer? Only the medium has changed. Now it is far more easier than just note passing and snail mail. However there is still a fear that big corporations may use such technology against us to control us and market us. In the past the Government couldn’t filter or control the net. But if you look at China’s government they have created and forced laws to control the people and the net as a way for surveillance. No one wants to be a marketable product. Thus need to establish policies in order to be safe from Government and corporate control. Governments and companies are changing our social norms and we are not aware. It generates uncertainty, ambiguity, frustrations. Having a public medium means that all individuals will have the power to seize it.

Looking at the overview of productivity in the communication of an organization, whether it has helped in any way. It has been more productive in the back office of the assemble line. However not so successful in managerial ranks in knowledge work. Why? Because it’s harder to regiment and control. For information economics, the costs are based on transactions. An organization will try to avoid paying for this and reduce it. There is no clear cut impact and one should not expect it to bring greater productivity on its own. It is changing the structure of the work environment as we work longer and it ensures that we are working during that time. In a way it undermines people under their own will by restricting them and again controlling them. People want to be empowered. So you see workers converging and forming unions. It empowers them to reject to company changes and feel a sense of control of having a voice. Barack Obama used it for elections. He build a campaign infrastructure over the Internet. It allowed him to increase the mobilization of people.

Technology is just an instrument to assist but not determines of actions. Internet is like a living breathing system. Many people are using it. Will the Internet reach a stage that because of so many people it would cause it to slow?

Kauffman Economics Bloggers Forum 2011

The economics bloggers forum was streamed live on Friday April 1 2011 from Kansas City. I unfortunately was not able to capture everything live but I got to hear a few of the speakers. One of my favourite speakers was by Virginia Postrel talking about the psychological of glamour. There are many other speakers that gave really good content as well. Growthology has been kind enough to publish the link to the talks on their own website at: http://www.growthology.org/. Growthology is a blog created by the Kauffman Foundation of Entrepreneurship.

A disussion that was often brought up in class, Interactive Digital Marketplace, is that ever since the Internet started, it has caused journalism to change and affected traditional media: printed newsapers, radio, television, etc. Consumers of journalism that were once consumed through traditional mediums, now a days these consumers are also becoming the producers of content known as prosumers. Blogs have become a medium in which people are delivering what is happening today instantly on the world wide web network and the power behind this is because of the Internet. However, there is huge discussion going on that traditional media ways that delivered content are going to die and be extinct and I disagree with this view. During the time when traditional media was first used to deliver news, or happenings, it was innovation of communication and it followed a S curve. It grew and many people adopted it and people were listening to radios, watching televisions and it reached a point where there was no more growth and they had to find an additional S curve innovative idea which involved digital and the Internet. New ways of accessing information will not kill off traditional methods of delivering content, rather it is just another extension and option in presenting, delivering and communicating content.

goLibrary!

A few days back, 4th March ’10, I went down to the Central Library in Singapore (for those that don’t know that is 100 Victoria Street in Bugis) to listen to Fredrik Haren on his talk on “Turning Good Ideas into Great Business”. Again thank you to NBDCS and NLB in organising the collaborative event and of course Fredrik Haren tips were amazing.

Since I was really really early there, I walked around looking at the books and the layout of the place and knowing me I picked up NLB’s booklet on “goLibrary” March 2010 edition. There are so many happening events planned that I think to myself, “have I been living in a hole?” Events ranging from listening to Entrepreneurs Wong Hoong An (the person who did HungryGoWhere.com) and learning about doing business in the Middle East, library enrichment classes, acupressure, campus performances, growing herbs, comics workshop, and the list goes on and on and on.

So are you bored and you got nothing to do in Singapore? Make a trip down to the NLB library and check out the upcoming events. Bound to have at least one thing you would be interested in!

Upcoming Events – Publication Ethics and Entrepreneurship

4 March 2010

1) NTU library has organised a “Surviving Peer Review and Best Practices on Publication Ethics” from 1:30pm till 3pm. Register by clicking here.

2) NBDCS The Book Council and NLB Public Libraries Singapore has organised a talk on “Turning Good Ideas into Great Business” from 7pm till 8:30pm. Register email info@bookcouncil.sg (name and telephone number)

11 March 2010

The Chua Thian Poh Public Lecture. Topic on “The New Silk Road: Global Implications for Marketing and Entrepreneurial Practice”. See here for more information and for registering.

12 March 2010

1) The Chua Thian Poh Entrepreneurship Research Symposium and

2) The Chua Thian Poh Entrepreneurship Speaker Series.

Both can be found here for more information and please register if you are interested.

———————————————————-

Those interested in Entrepreneurship remember to sign up and register for a place.