[Air-L] "Definitive" citation for the concept of digital trace data?

Elijah Wright elijah.wright at gmail.com
Mon Oct 5 11:44:35 PDT 2015


Shouldn't this 'early prehistory' eventually veer off into something like
the early history of accounting as a discipline?  >=3k years ago, to wit.

Log entries (digital or otherwise) are transactional events, generally....
can someone argue that 'digital traces' are fundamentally different than
ledger entries?  [You're going to have to work hard, I suspect...]

I would be very interested in hearing about some sort of digital trace that
isn't representable as either a sequence of events with metadata or as a
time-series of values... given that those are the things I usually see.
 [These days I do a lot of metrics and measurement and logging....]

Prove me short-sighted please :)

--e



On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 1:27 PM, Robert Ackland <robert.ackland at anu.edu.au>
wrote:

> Kevin - I like the term "digital trace data" and used extensively in my
> textbook Web Social Science (SAGE Publications, 2013).  I consciously did
> not use the term "big data" in that book, because I thought digital trace
> data was a better description of the data I was focusing on.  I'm sure SAGE
> wish I *had* used the term "big data", as it would have been good for
> sales....  I've recently bowed to the inevitable and now use "big data" in
> proposals for short courses/session etc.
>
> To get back to your question, I am of course not proposing the following
> as definitive but I do refer to tools for "collecting and analysing digital
> traces of human activity":
>
> Ackland, R. (2005), "Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks
> (VOSON) - Progress and Plans," refereed paper presented at the First
> International Conference on e-Social Science, 22-24 June 2005, University
> of Manchester. http://voson.anu.edu.au/papers/NCeSS_Ackland.pdf
>
> Regards
>
> --
>
> Dr Robert Ackland
> Associate Professor, School of Sociology and ANU Centre for Social
> Research and Methods
> Leader, Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON) Lab
> Australian National University
>
> My book:
> Web Social Science: Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the
> Digital Age (SAGE Publications)
>
> e-mail: robert.ackland at anu.edu.au
> homepage: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/ackland-rj
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Air-L <air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org> on behalf of Kevin G
> Crowston <crowston at syr.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, 6 October 2015 2:17 AM
> To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-L] "Definitive" citation for the concept of digital trace
> data?
>
> An argument for studies of online behaviour is that the systems collect
> records of what people do and that such digital trace data provide a rich
> source of evidence for all kinds of studies. I’m trying to trace back that
> idea but it seems so taken for granted that there’s often not a citation.
> So I wondered what people consider the definitive citation for that idea,
> and for the term "trace data” in this context more specifically.
>
> For example, there’s a 2008 handbook article:
>
> Welser, H. T., Smith, M., Fisher, D., and Gleave, E. 2008. "Distilling
> Digital Traces: Computational Social Science Approaches to Studying the
> Internet," in The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods, N. Fielding,
> R.M. Lee and G. Blank (eds.). London, England: SAGE Publications, Ltd, pp.
> 116–141.
>
> But I suspect there are even earlier sources.
>
> Kevin Crowston | Distinguished Professor of Information Science | School
> of Information Studies
>
> Syracuse University
> 348 Hinds Hall
> Syracuse, New York 13244
> t (315) 443.1676 f 315.443.5806 e crowston at syr.edu
>
> crowston.syr.edu
>
>
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