[Air-L] iPad as Research Tool

[Barry Wellman]

Thanks danah for showing us 1 way the iPad could be useful in research, 
rather than just entertainment or being kewl: "mine is bigger than 
your's." ***I still maintain that the iOS is an inadequate engine, and as 
for battery life, most peeps in all but poorest countries have electricity in 
their homes.***

Of course, we're kinda obsolescent, but when NetLab did the 
COnnected Lives interview, our piloting found that laptops were a 
distraction -- both intimadating and fascinating -- and we went to a 
modified paper-pen-stickynote data collection technique. Read about it in 
our Field Methods paper (also on my website).

Bernie Hogan, Juan-Antonio Carrasco and Barry Wellman. 2007. "Visualizing 
Personal Networks: Working with Participant-Aided Sociograms." Field 
Methods 19 (2), May: 116-144.

Maybe it would be useful if CITASA, AOIR, CSCW had a session or 2 on data 
gathering gadgets. I've seen lots on data analysis -- the Sunbelt Social 
Network conference was filled with dazzling ones -- but little on the 
pesky problem of getting the stuff in.

YMMV IMHO -- my .02

  Barry Wellman
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   S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC               NetLab Director
   Department of Sociology                  725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388
   University of Toronto   Toronto Canada M5S 2J4   twitter:barrywellman
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   Updating history:      http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
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