MS-A – Data Cultures

Posted on November 29, 2018 by MS-A

Response to “GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR FINDABLE, ACCESSIBLE, INTEROPERABLE AND RE-USABLE DATA “

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Looking back at the posts from last week, I really enjoyed reading the post “The Nature of Scholarship.” The author brought up many interesting points. Specifically, the author states that semantics in this topic. Sometimes, when we say scholarship, we might mean different things than other person who also says scholarship. And, that the article was general at some points. With that said, the author acknowledges the article brings up some interesting topics, but lacks execution.

For this week’s reading, I think it did an OK job of condensing what we have been talking about surrounding the ethics of data in class. At times, I found it a little hard to follow and the layout of the web page was not very helpful. However, it did do a good job of giving scenarios as to why data should be findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable.

Posted on November 8, 2018 by MS-A

Response to “Lynching, Visualization, and Visibility”

From the previous reading responses, I could not agree more with the person who authored “Reading Response 11/6.” I also had a fairly narrow idea of where feminist theory could be applied, especially in a data setting. Feminist theory seems equipped to deal with many issues in the data field and data visualizations sub-field.

Speaking of data visualizations, the graphics used by Mullen in “Lynching, Visualization, and Visibility” aided in the argument Mullen put forward. The data visualizations helped bring the invisible, the records of the lynchings, to being visible using graphs and geographical representations of where they were most prevalent. I also liked how Mullen acknowledged that the article is not to offer an analysis of the data, but simply to show how the visualizations can show patterns. There are certainly limitations of this. It relies on complete and accurate data. This is as much of an issue for the data on lynching as it is for police violence. However, I still think the article achieves its goal of making the invisible, visiible

Posted on November 6, 2018 by MS-A

Response to Feminist Data Visualization

Looking back at last week, I enjoyed reading “Response: Using metadata to find Paul Revere.” The author highlighting something i had not considered when conducting network analysis. Without any prior knowledge of the topic, bias could arise from the analysis. Meaning, the results from network analysis only are meaningful in the context of prior knowledge. This is a really good point, and something worth considering when conducting the network analysis for the interviews.

For this week’s reading, I think it brings up many good points. It seems the problem the authors are attempting to create is the reductive nature of data visualizations. There tends to be a lack of context, overall lack of methods, and acknowledgment. Admittedly, I never considered employing feminist theory to correct for this issue, but it seems like a viable option.

Posted on November 1, 2018 by MS-A

Response to “Using Metadata to find Paul Revere”

From last blog post, I enjoyed reading “A Report Has Come Here Reflection”. The author captured the essence of the article very well. More importantly, the author also acknowledged how the methods employed in this paper can help uncover lost voices throughout history. This is not something I really considered, but I think this is a really good point.

I enjoyed the Paul Revere reading, despite the author’s writing style. I felt it was very distracting from the main point of the paper. I enjoyed the reading mostly because of its simplicity. The data consisted of just dummy variables. The analysis consisted of findings links using the data dummy variables. And from of all of this, the author found that Paul Revere is for some reason at the center of the network. At this point of the article, I was worried the author was going to speculate why this is. However, and this is one of the strong points, the author does not give a reason, but simply just states the findings. I think this reading highlights one of the ways networks can be responsibly used, highlighting something out of the ordinary, but stopping there, and perhaps leaving it up to another field of study to explain the why.

Posted on October 25, 2018 by MS-A

Response to “The Digital Humanities Contribution to Topic Modeling”

First, looking back at the blog posts from last week, I really enjoyed reading the blog titled: “Analysis May be Computerized, but Meaning Remains Human.” The author, in my opinion, correctly noted that although computers performed most of the work, there is still an element to this analysis that is very human. We still get to discern the results we get from algorithms. Point being, the results we get from algorithms are not the end all be all. It is still up to humans to interpret the results in a responsible manner.

With that said, I really enjoyed the reading for this week. It was very clear and concise, and really got to, what I think, is the crux of the issue for topic modeling. This reading highlighted the idea that it is very easy to see how topic modeling and either think that this is a powerful tool and we should use it as much as possible. On the contrary, it is also very easy to see topic modeling and immediately disregard it. After all, how could a computer algorithm give any real meaning to written text. This article pushes back on both schools of thought, and notes the advantages that come from topic modeling lie in the middle of these two schools. Meaning, topic modeling adds an additional data point, and it is up to human to decide what weight to put on the analysis. As the authors of the reading say, topic modeling is simply a tool in a shed, and it is up to the researcher to interpret and weight the results.

Posted on October 11, 2018 by MS-A

Response to the effects of low wages and psychological well-being

First, looking back at the past blog posts on North Dublin, I shared similar worries about the validity of the study. Whoever wrote “Reading Response #2: Mortality in the North Dublin Union during the Great Famine” hit the nail on the head by saying they were concerned that they only looked at workhouse, perhaps creating bias in the study.

For this week, I think there is an issue with study. However, the issue is different than the study above. I think the methods employed were fine. However, I worry the conclusion taken from their results seems a little too strong. Meaning, given the data, they derived meaning from it very well, but I think what they inferred from this sample (the survey), to all the population (everyone) is somewhat misleading. I think to do that, they would have needed to use a entity and time fixed effect model. I do not mean to discount their results, but with all economics papers, this should be taken with a grain of salt.

Posted on October 7, 2018 by MS-A

Response to Simpson’s Paradox

Looking back at the responses for last week, I did not realize how many issues the Pew study contained. I actually went back and read the methods. I think all the criticisms were fair and led me to read that study with a grain of salt. The article on Simpson’s Paradox I found especially interesting because it relates to my thesis topic. I am writing on how (if) economic conditions affect opioid and heroin fatalities. So far, this question has only been directly evaluated on a national level. The goal of my thesis is to break-out the paper’s national level into more sub-groups and evaluate regions of the U.S. with variables that are more pertinent. I don’t necessarily think the relationship will be reversed when looking at my sub-groups, but the magnitude of the relationship might change. Reading this paper, at least, made me realize there is some merit to what I am doing.

Posted on October 3, 2018 by MS-A

Reading Response for 10/4

First, I enjoyed reading the blog titled: “Social Science History: Survival of the “fittest.” I thought the person gave a great summary of the article and related it to class well. For this week, as I mentioned this in my annotation, this article presents some very positive things, while also leaving the reader wanting more. First, it is obviously great that fewer people are heading back to prison after going to prison. However, the conclusions we can draw from that are slightly limited because the study only examined 23 states. Since this study followed those same states from 2005, I think we can only conclude that fewer people are going back to prison in those states. Lastly, I think understanding why fewer people are going back to prison is important. Meaning, understanding what states are doing right is very important in this context so they can better allocate resources.