Digital Tools for Research

[LAAnthro11]

Hi all, I am a master's student working on a project to introduce/increase the sharing of digital tools within my department. I am looking for input from other students/faculty/anyone on how they research and manage their workflow.

If you have anything in particular that you use and like, I'd love to know about it. It could be anything to:

-filter news and information from wide world of the internet

-amass information (esp. if you do any internet research)

-organize information

-analyze data

-compile/write/edit

-present information/data/research

-collaborate with others

For example, I filter news and current evens through Paper.li, and I am looking at NetVision as another possible option. I bookmark sites and articles with Del.i.cious, and Diigo is another great tool for annotating web pages and bookmarking. Del.li.cious feeds my bookmarks into DEVONThink, which is my main amassing/organizing tool. I also use Mendeley for PDFs. LiveScribe for recording interviews, ExpressScribe for transcribing them. I'll soon be assessing Dedoose for analyzing data, but am open to suggestings. OmniFocus for task managing (to-do lists, basically), although I'd love to know a free option (other than paper and pen). Scrivener for writing. Prezi for presenting.

What do you use? Why? Do you follow twitter or blogs, and do they contribute to your academic work? I am eager and open to all suggestions!

[really_cranky]

I don't know how you use so many management tools, that sounds like you'd have to get a meta-management application for your managment apps.

For PDFs, I use Mendeley to organized pdf articles and to annotate them (annotations are stored in a database outside the PDF file rather than in the file) and have found it really useful, especially because of search functionality across the entire OCR database of everything listed in it. That feature in itself makes me wish I could get all my books into OCR'd PDF without spending $$$.

For a while I used a couple different task-management apps, but finally settled on the command-line-based Taskwarrior for its simplicity and ease. I always liked organizing my calendar via a Blackberry b/c I am too ADD to remember appointments and need a blinking red light to do that but if you don't have MS Outlook that's useless.

I had tried using Scrivener to organize my writing but ultimately found it more limiting than helpful for a number of practical and technical reasons (like it renaming files and storing them awkwardly), and started just writing into text files with a text editor or bare-bones word processor, then organizing those manually via the file system (they're called "folders" for a reason) and putting them into a heavy-weight bloated word processor to finalize--you can find applications that will search inside text, if you don't already have at least one (grep? quicksilver?) on a default install. I also used Gnote/Tomboy extensively for drafting and note-taking, since it is also text-searchable but a little more user-friendly, and links automagically to other notes.

I only ever used internet sources like blogs as primary sources/data points, and really didn't have much to do any non-academic reading while I was in courses. When i felt that sites were important, I would either print them to PDF with a date and time stamp on the PDF, or I would list them in a text file or inside one of Gnote's entries (which are all XML).

As far as presentations, I was taught in public speaking class never to have a visual aid visible when not referring to it directly, so I would just use the IBM presentation software in Lotus and insert blank slides between each content slide. IMO this is more effective at keeping attention on what you say.

Edited October 14, 2011 by really_cranky

[Sigaba]

Hi all, I am a master's student working on a project to introduce/increase the sharing of digital tools within my department. I am looking for input from other students/faculty/anyone on how they research and manage their workflow.

Color me paranoid and grumpy, but there's something about your multiple requests that strikes me as odd. If this is a research project, how are you going to document your findings? How are you going to determine the effectiveness of the tools that other people use? If this is a research project in fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree, should you not be building your own tools?

Also, given the fact that there are several existing threads on this BB that address directly your questions, the fact that you have started multiple new threads does not, IMO, speak well of your commitment to your own project.

(But I'm not bitter.)

[LAAnthro11]

Color me paranoid and grumpy, but there's something about your multiple requests that strikes me as odd. If this is a research project, how are you going to document your findings? How are you going to determine the effectiveness of the tools that other people use? If this is a research project in fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree, should you not be building your own tools?

Also, given the fact that there are several existing threads on this BB that address directly your questions, the fact that you have started multiple new threads does not, IMO, speak well of your commitment to your own project.

(But I'm not bitter.)

Hi Sigaba,

Thanks for your criticism. It's not a research project, it's a personal project and one that I have been asked to undertake by others in my department. I don't need to validate effectiveness, and I don't need a methodology. It's just a workflow question. I have done my own work, and continue to explore digital tools on my own. The collaborative nature of many of the tools means that it is actually a form of commitment to explore what others use, rather than just stopping with the first ones I find.

That said, I have posted multiple times for one reason: the two threads are within separate categories. The first is anthropologically focused, and it is possible that tools specifically useful to anthros might be addressed there. The second (note, there are only two: I'm not thread-bombing the whole site) is in the general research category, which is interdisciplinary. I created a new thread rather than working within the existing threads because the existing threads did not encompass my entire question.

[LAAnthro11]

@really-cranky, thanks for your input! They are a lot of tools. I don't use all of them at the same time, and some I gave more as an example than anything. I don't want the programs to take more work than the actual research, so it's a balancing act. Clearly from my question, it's still one I'm figuring out.

I have Scrivener loaded and ready to go, but haven't used it for anything substantial yet. I might run into the same problems you did. I know someone who wasn't crazy about Scrivener and instead used Super Notecard (added benefit that it's free!), but it didn't really fit my style. You make a good point about the folders. That is the whole point, isn't it?

I'll look into GNote, Tomboy, and Taskmaster.

Thanks!!

Edited October 15, 2011 by LAAnthro11

[Sigaba]

Hi Sigaba,

Thanks for your criticism. It's not a research project, it's a personal project and one that I have been asked to undertake by others in my department. I don't need to validate effectiveness, and I don't need a methodology. It's just a workflow question. I have done my own work, and continue to explore digital tools on my own. The collaborative nature of many of the tools means that it is actually a form of commitment to explore what others use, rather than just stopping with the first ones I find.

That said, I have posted multiple times for one reason: the two threads are within separate categories. The first is anthropologically focused, and it is possible that tools specifically useful to anthros might be addressed there. The second (note, there are only two: I'm not thread-bombing the whole site) is in the general research category, which is interdisciplinary. I created a new thread rather than working within the existing threads because the existing threads did not encompass my entire question.

Well, since you put it that way.

For on line research, I use Google. Generally, I have a knack for picking the right four words that will get me useable results that will lead to more resources.

For collecting information, I use DownThemAll, a Firefox add on, to download anything and everything that may be remotely related to the topic of interest. I use xplorer2 to make folders and subfolders to contain those files.

Then, as I detailed in this I use Adobe Acrobat Pro and Google Desktop Search to index what I've collected.

Also, I use Firefox's book marks tool bar to organize bookmarks to websites that I frequently visit. I've got drop down menus for news, academic/professional journals, digital archives of historical sources, theory, politics, economics, culture, technology, the American armed services, the U.S. federal government, private think tanks, and internet BBs (such as this one). For reasons that make no sense, my drop down menu for library catalogs is buried in a folder for shopping. (This is a major design error that I ought to correct but then where would I put the drop down menu containing Farmville? )

On Twitter (which I rarely use), I follow a handful of .GOV-type organizations/individuals (such as the White House and the Chairman of the JCS), a couple of broadsheets, and a few public intellectuals and academics (such as Cornel West), and some comedy writers/entertainers I like. (The last because I have a research in American mass popular culture.)

On Facebook, I frequently "like" news outlets, television shows that are both popular and significant, and a few up and coming television comedy writers. (Because what I really want to be is a showrunner.) Invariably, I end up "hiding" most of these in my news feed so I can focus on what is truly important: Farmville.

Finally, I get email alerts/articles from The Economist (although my subscription has expired) and Foreign Affairs. As a rule of thumb, these alerts are of little importance because I'm focused on what matters most-- FARMVILLE

This post has been brought to you courtesy of Farmville, Remember "the first one is free."

[Jason Taylor]

Hi LAAnthro1 and everyone! Full Disclosure: I am an engineer at Dedoose. We are very interested to assist in the type of data gathering and analysis you guys are doing here and would be very interested to hear what would work ideally for you. It sounds like you all are being forced to use an elaborate toolchain in order to conduct your research. Specifically, we would like to know in what ways Dedoose is not able to accommodate your workflow. We are considering options like browser extensions for accuiring content from the browser, but we're guessing you all might have some great ideas. Also, I personally wanted to mention Dedoose's use of Cohen's Kappa for code application and Person's Correlation for code weighting in our training center. These two tools can be leverage to show statistical significance in you and/or your teams ability to apply the same codes and/or weights over and over to content, and show the deviation over time from the standard. This can be incredibly helpful for backing up your findings. Obviously you are still responsible for choose what your codes/weights are, your questions, your methodologies, etc. Good luck and Happy Coding!

~ JT

[LAAnthro11]

Hi JT, Thanks for your message. I actually downloaded Dedoose yesterday - it's one of the tools I will assess and review. Might take me a bit to really get going with it, but I'd be happy to let you know what I find. My workflow is pretty complex, and I would love to simplify it, but I have yet to find one program that does everything I want. I will say that my initial concern with Dedoose is the browser-only option: I tend to like my programs to be accessible, even without the internet. But that's just personal preference.

I'll let you know what I think!

[LAAnthro11]

By the way, @Sigaba: thanks for your nice reply. I hadn't heard of everything you mentioned, and I'm eager to check them out. I'm also in the mid-semester swamp, so I'm slow to reply!

Any chance you have a tool that can stop time, let me catch up, and then restart time? :-)

[Sigaba]

Any chance you have a tool that can stop time, let me catch up, and then restart time? :-)

Yes. It is called "chronic insomnia." I do not recommend it.