[Air-L] iPad as Research Tool

Peter Timusk ptimusk at sympatico.ca
Fri Jul 16 10:00:10 PDT 2010


I prefer the Dell Mini 9 netbook running Linux to an ereader. I am still
impressed that a floppy disk can hold a whole book.

The business news will tell you the number sold. One wonders how fast they
will reach the landfill.

Peter



-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Barry Wellman
Sent: July-16-10 8:51 AM
To: danah boyd; aoir list
Subject: [Air-L] iPad as Research Tool

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
  _______________________________________________________________________

   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
   http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman             fax:+1-416-978-3963
   Updating history:      http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php
  _______________________________________________________________________

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