Summary: Web Social Science Concepts, Data And Tools For Social Scientists In The Digital Age | 9781446283110 | Robert Ackland

Read the summary and the most important questions on Web Social Science Concepts, Data and Tools for Social Scientists in the Digital Age | 9781446283110 | Robert Ackland

• 1 Introduction

• What is the difference between the web and the internet. Give a description of both concepts

  - The internet is a collection of connected computers who send data packages to one another, they do this through the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and the IP (internet protocol). Emails are send through the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
  - The web is a gigantic distribution network of resources (documents, sounds, images etc.) These are send through HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) whom translate it into webpages in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). 

• Clarke (2004) identified 7 different aspects of cyberspace Ethos. Which ones and give a description of each concept

  - Interpersonal communications: Option to have interactive conversation with others. 
  - Internationalism and Universalism: Internet is without borders, everyone is equal.
  - Egalitarianism: There are roles that participants have but there is no hierarchical order. 
  - Openness: Internet should be accessible for everybody, some places are restricted however. 
  - Communitarianism and mutual service: Feeling part of a community, giving and taking.
  - Freedoms: Importance of individual freedom (copyright, censorship etc.)

• What is offline collective identity and what are the three main factors.

  Offline collective identity: A feeling of connection and belonging to a certain group. 
  1. High degree of perceived homogeneity among members on important criteria.
  2. Physical proximity or co-location of individuals (villages, neighborhoods etc.)
  3. Existence of social relations or ties between the actors. 
  (Wellman, 2001)  “A community is a network of interpersonal ties that provide sociability, support, information, a sense of belonging and social identity.”

• What 4 types of research conducted on the web.

  - Network Science (Applied Physics / Computer Science)  characteristics of networks
  - Information Science  Webometrics, statistical databases used to analyze websites/hyperlinks. 
  - Media studies  Internet is a message spreading tool, focus on impact and content. 
  - Network Science (Social Science)  How individuals use the internet (economical, political and social) and how this can influence behaviour.  

• 2 Online research methods

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• Wat zijn vier verschillende manieren van onderzoek doen. Geef een uitleg van alle vier

  Experimental:  - Lab studies: high control of variables
   -Veld experiments: natural environments,  respondents often do not know they are researched.
  - Natural experiments, Quasi-experiments.
  Survey: On paper interviews
  Interviews
  Focus groups
  Field research: Participation observation
  Non-participation observation 
  Unobtrusive research: Secondary data analysis: Data that is already gathered and used for new analysis
  Content analysis: research conducted on noted communication.(no respondent contact whatsoever)

• What is a positive and a negative note of an online survey

  Online surveys: Low costs and easily made. 
  There could be problems with the sampling, a sampling error may arise: where there is a difference between the sample and the population. (Disadvantage = low response rate for online survey)

• What are the two different types of sampling error

  - Chance error: unusual cases in the sample influence the results. This can be fixed with a bigger sample (the influence of one particular sample will not be as big). 
  - Sampling bias: systematic error within the sample. 

• What are two types of sampling bias

  o Coverage bias where a part of the population is not included in the sample 
  o Non-response bias: where a part of the population does not respond. 

• 3 Social media networks

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• What is the strength of weak ties

  One with a bigger network of friends increases the possibility to get useful information that could help enhance ones chances on the labour market. The structure of these social relationships can therefore help increase the resources within ones network. If you have bridging ties across different clusters of bonding ties you are more likely to get new information that helps increase resources. 

• What are structural holes according to art ?

  The tendency for people to cluster into social groups on the basis of opportunity structures, such as where they live, their work place or project team, leads to gaps or holes in the social structure of communication, which inhibits the flow of information between people.