Data Driven Societies: An IntroductionProfessors Gaze & Gieseking

Visualize This

The greatest value of a picture is when it forces us to notice what we never expected to see. —John W. Tukey. Exploratory Data Analysis. 1977.

DCSI & Data Driven Societies

✦ Digital & Computational Studies Initiative (founded 2013)

✦ DDS: How do we address social issues with digital and computational tools for the common good?

Course: Assignments

✦ Labs ✦ Blog posts and comments

• Flip classroom assignments✦ Quizzes✦ Hackathon✦ Final paper and presentation✦ Exam

Course: Themes & ToolsI. Defining Data through

Collection, Access, Readability, and Reliability

II. Private(s)III. Public(s)IV. The Life of CodeV. Sociality &

(Cyborg)EmbodimentVI. Power & Format

A. Graph analysisPython, Excel, R

B. Spatial analysisGoogleMaps, Social Explorer

C. Network analysisGephi

Course: Approach

socialstudiesclub.com

How do we study society?

0. Identify an issue 1. Ask a question to understand it 2. Decide a way to frame it 3. Narrow down an approach of study 4. Apply the right tool to gather data 5. Analyze data to create findings 6. Relate findings back to other framings and approaches 7. Make evidence-based conclusions

Social Scientific Approach0. Identify an issue 1. Research question 2. Theoretical approach3. Literature review4. Methods5. Analysis 6. Discussion 7. Conclusion

Course Website

Should our site be public?

✦ Pros: share with public, create portfolio of work, represent Bowdoin

✦ Cons: learning process

✦ We will vote on Wednesday

Excel 101

✦ x

Twitter 101

✦ x

“What I Hope for You”

✦ That you look for the question, not the solution. ✦ That you are not seduced by speed and power. ✦ That you don’t see the world as a market, but rather

as a place that people live in — you are designing [researching] for people — not machines.

-Red Burns, Founder, Interactive Telecommunications Program, NYU