reflection on access to research data

[jrtom]

One of the ironies of the data sets that I study--social networks--is that they are both omnipresent and often difficult to get access to. So my research has been driven, in part at least, by the properties of the data to which I've been able to secure access. Sometimes organizations (companies, e.g.) will make data sets available to those in academia, and I've benefited from this, but it doesn't happen often. (The fact that a bunch of Enron's corporate emails got dumped on the web has, no joke, changed the course of the field of social network analysis.)

It's just occurred to me that if I take a job in industry, this problem will, in a weird way, invert itself: the company that I work for may be able to give me all sorts of data to work with...but no one else will.

Hmm.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

BTW, you called it first about the data mining, and Cringely agrees with you... http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060126.html

Order any falafel recently? :)
-Judson

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I'm not generally impressed with Cringely. In this case I (and many other people in my field who don't work for the government) have known for years that the Three-Lettered Agencies were doing social network analysis. (Plus, the NSA guy that he quotes doesn't understand social network analysis: this is very clearly someone who's heard some of the terms but doesn't know what they mean.)

Falafel? (I feel I am missing a reference...)

Cringe(ly)

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know - I'm a fan of his because he gives a different perspective to a lot of the bigger issues that I have to deal with for work. For instance, during the surprise Apple switch to intel, his columns helped me to understand some of the non-technical dynamics at play. However, he's only as good as his sources are - I know for a fact that he reads all his email and will reply if he has time. So if you noticed holes or inconsistencies in his arguments, then for goodness sakes send him an email and let him know what you think.

The "falafel" reference is the imaginary situation that if you and a terrorist order take-out falafel from the same vendor, then the govt would put a tap on you.
-Judson

Re: Cringe(ly)

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

That's right, I'd forgotten that you were actually arguably materially affected by the switch. I'd be interested to get your take on it. (Feel free to email me if you'd rather.)

As for Cringely...it's not necessarily his _arguments_ I object to. (Plus I should state that I haven't read very many of his columns, so my sample is somewhat small.) Generally I just get the impression that he's in love with the sound of his authorial voice, he likes making large sweeping statements that get him attention, and he's not overly concerned with accuracy or standards of evidence. I am reminded of a column of his from a couple of months ago in which he presented his theory that Google was going to start providing its own version of the Internet...based on very little other than a misunderstanding of what distributed data centers are for. Another example: his yearly prediction columns. If you looked at his most recent summing-up, several of his predictions are either quite vague or screamingly obvious, but he likes to give himself credit for his high accuracy. Whatever.