Stay organized: Tools for research and teaching

Posted on May 24th, 2009 by martijn.
Categories: Research Tools.

When doing research one of the most difficult tasks is preventing information overload. There are so many interesting aspects in your own research (of course my research is the most interesting in the whole world…) that you want to include as much as possible and you don’t want to miss anything. I think my own PhD research consisted of about 2000 pages with interviews, 1000 pages with notes and another 1000 pages with newspaper articles, webentries and so on. And lets not forget about the enormous amount of literature out there. It seems like everyday a journal on Islam, Muslims and youth (or a combination of that) is appearing. It is impossible to keep track of it all and even the ones you did read, you have to ‘store’ them in an efficient and effective way. There are several things you can use to create and maintain some order in the chaos.

There are several products for analyzing text, audio, video and pictorial data. The two most well-known are:

ATLAS.ti is a computer software used mostly, although not exclusively, in qualitative data research and analysis.

NVivo 7 (also known as NUD*IST) is a project management software that can be used in qualitative data research and analysis.

I use Atlas.ti because in particular the latest release is very easy and intuitive to use; not only for text analysis but also for audio and video. In addition to that you can use several other programs.

Mind mapping is probably one the most well known software applications to use, but be careful:
How to get the most out of topic notes in your mind maps – Mind Mapping Software Blog

Topic notes are an essential tool for helping to prevent information overload. Because they are normally hidden from view, they are a great place to store extended information that would otherwise be crowded into your mind map. As a form of visual diagramming, mind mapping was never designed to support more than a word or two per topic. Placing five words, or 20, or 50 any map topic results in a map that is almost unreadable. Notes enable you to create a very concise topic name, and then to capture all of the other important information in a note.

A good alternative is also the free Compendium:
Compendium Institute

Compendium is about sharing ideas, creating artifacts, making things together, and breaking down the boundaries between dialogue, artifact, knowledge, and data.

I use the latter two in particular for more concrete tasks such as writing a paper or an article (as a preparation for that) or just for an in between analysis of particular events when I’m confused about the actual meaning of it or about how the event did evolve).

When doing research is can be useful to create your own databases. There are probably many out there that are very good, but I’m very satisfied with Zoho Creator:
Online Database Software, Create Online Database Applications, Web-based: Zoho Creator

Database software to create online database applications

Perhaps in the future you will find such a database attached to this site.

Also very good, but then in particular for teaching is Polity’s website Digital Media and Society. It could be a commercial entreprise this site, but when you are interested in all resources, syllabi and literature on digital media and/in society this can really help you.
Digital Media and Society

This site has been created to support and supplement this series of cutting edge books from Polity on new technologies. It also aims to provide a new space online where those with an interest in the relationship between these new technologies and society can share views, resources and queries. We hope not only that you will find the information here helpful and stimulating, but that you will bookmark this site and return to it frequently, as both a contributor to the site and a consumer of it.

All these programs of course do not mean that you don’t have to do anything anymore. Perhaps more important than as a means to organize your material, these programs when used frequently make it easy for you (or even force you to) organize yourself.

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Anthropology on the web – the culture of youtube

Posted on May 15th, 2009 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Blogosphere, Method, Research Tools.

Of course, anthropology is one of the most important and interesting studies one can imagine. I know, I’m an anthropologist. But what does an anthropologist actually do? And why should you study it? Well the next video on Youtube gives a nice impression

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xErJAsZo2Pw /]

One of the things we do in anthropology is observe,  analyze the mediation of culture. We can show how cultures are mediated by posting videos on Youtube. At the same time however Youtube is also one of the mediums through which cultures are mediated, so also Youtube can be studied as an ethnographic field:

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYcS_VpoWJk /]

And as an anthropologist posting your own videos on the web is actually a particular form of participant observation; one of the (if not the) most important characteristic of the ethnographic / anthropological method. Of course doing research on Youtube and, as a part of that, participate in it brings about a lot of issues pertaining to method, interpretation of the medium and the mediated messages that call for a reflection on the ethnographic studies of Youtube based upon anthropological methods:

[flashvideo filename=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU /]

For the most part the latter two videos have a clear celebratory message about the emancipatory possiblities and Youtube as a source of belonging and connecting to others. The latter video in the end also shows some attention of ‘drama’ on Youtube but there is a lack of attention (in many web studies I think) of the disciplining aspects of the medium. What does it mean for identities or religious messages to mediated through visual culture? How does the medium force people into displaying their messages and get their messages heard and seen on the web?

The first video appears on many anthropological websites such as Anthropologist about Town. The other two (Introducting Our Youtube Ethnography Project and An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube) are part of the Mediated Cultures website where you can find several more Youtube videos. Mediated Cultures is a group led by Dr. Michael Wesch dedicated to exploring and extending the possibilities of digital ethnography. The blog from this working group has many interesting posts ranging from ethnographic tools for the internet such as SmartPen, to impressions of the Youtube content.

Another example is AnthroVlog of Patricia G. Lange who uses her weblog as a site for participating in online video communities, experimenting with tools, too learn how a site/weblog actually ‘works’ and as a means for exchanging ideas. Besides the posts she also provides us with some of the papers she has written for example on social networking and the issue of private and public and on youth, identity and online community.

The Internet offers a range of possibilities for anthropologists and the work of Michael Wesh with Youtube and that of Patricia Lange is fascinating. Moreover, the participation of students in it, make it highly relevant for teaching as well. Perhaps we should do things in the Netherlands too?

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Open Source Research Tools

Posted on October 12th, 2008 by martijn.
Categories: Research Tools.

This is not a blog about research tools, software and so on. I would like to make an exception in this post however since I have come across two excellent open source tools.

First of all there is Zotero. Zotero is a Firefox extension reference manager. Most people will probably use Endnote or the version of Open Office; both work quite will but I think Zotero beats them every way possible. It is faster, just as reliable as Endnote, can be used in Word. Also just as Endnote it has a little strange way of saving PDF’s and it seems to have a little trouble with really large libraries (I haven’t noticed it yet).

With Zotero you can take notes, store websites (and screenshots), annotate files and so on.The note taking system is good, easy to use but could be a little more flexible and easier to search through. Strange thing (in the beginning anyway) is also that when you want to work with Zotero in your Word text, Firefox has to be running also: as noted it is a Firefox plugin.

Notwithstandig these qualifications Zotero is a must for everyone doing research. I switched from Endnote to Zotero a few months ago and written quite a lot since then without even thinking about switching back. Not only because it is a free and easy to use reference manager but has much more and has the potential to become a real research manager/program with a lot of extras already built in. Zotero has great features such as:

  • Automatic capture of citation information from web pages
  • Flexible notetaking with autosave
  • Automatic saving of the PDF of several sites
  • Storage of PDFs, files, images, links, and whole web pages
  • Formatted citation export

I think it is a must have, and since firefox has also a simple to use version for (for example) on a usb-stick, you can actually carry it everywhere you want.

  • Zotero can be downloaded HERE.
  • For Zotero you need:Firefox 2.0.* or 3.0, Netscape Navigator 9.0, or Flock 0.9.1 for Windows, Mac, or Linux.
  • Help on how to embed Zotero in Word you can find HERE.
  • Zotero is being sued by Thompson because of the easy switch for Endnote libraries to Zotero.
  • How to switch to Zotero.
  • Zotero saves the library and notes in the Firefox user settings. I don’t really like this and in the options of Zotero (you can find via the add ons window in Firefox) you can change this to every map you like.

Second of all, and an extra reason to use Zotero!, is the release of a plugin for Zotero: Vertov. Vertov a free media annotating plugin for Zotero, that allows you to store media, cut video and audio
files into clips, annotate the clips, and integrate your annotations
with other research sources and notes stored in Zotero. Also easy to use and for free.

  • You can download Vertov HERE
  • For Vertov you need: Firefox 2.0 browser and QuickTime Player for Mac or Windows; Java Runtime Environment (Windows only);
    Zotero, a Firefox extension
  • Note to Windows users: you will need to reinstall QuickTime if you
    install Java Runtime on top of an existing QuickTime installation
  • Linux support is planned

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