e-Social Science
The concept of Social Informatics has certain overlap with is e-Social Science. E-Science as it is known in the UK , or Cyberinfrastructure (NCeSS), examines uptake and use of emerging e-science technologies within the social sciences (NCeSS).Wikipedia defines E-science as a “computationally intensive science. It is also the type of science that is carried out in highly distributed network environments, or science that uses immense data sets that require grid computing. Examples of this include social simulations, particle physics, earth sciences and bio-informatics."
According to John Taylor, Director General of Research Councils, the “e-Science is about global collaboration in key areas of science and the next generation of infrastructure that will enable it.” In July of 2004, the ESRC created the National Centre for e-Social Science with a remit to explore and develop ways in which e-Science research methods and infrastructure can be applied in the social sciences. (Procter, 2005) "The e-Social Science programme of the UKs Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is designed to promote the use by social scientists of Grid-enabled computing and data infrastructure, both in quantitative and qualitative research." (e-Social Science Symposium, 2004)
Useful links:
- UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, 2011
- Virtualknowledgestudio
- European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)
- European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC)
- The emergence of e-Science and potential issues for the Social Sciences
- ASIST 2008 Annual Meeting: e-Research Crosses the Pond: Contrasting transformations in the U.S. and U.K. (session)
- The Oxford e-Social Science Research (OeSS)
- Menchester eResearch Centre
- Digital Social Research
- Data Management through e-Social Science
Important papers and presentations:
- Jankowski 2009 (e-Research: Transformation in Scholarly Practice)
- Schroeder and Fry 2007 (Social Science Approaches to e-Science: Framing an Agenda)
- Atkins et al. 2003 (Revolutionizing Science and Engineering through Cyberinfrastructure - Report of the NSF)
- Searight et al. 2011 (e-Research in the Social Sciences: The Possibilities and the Reality)
- Jonathan Zhu (e-Social Science and inplications for the communication research and education)
- Meyer 2008 (Social shaping and the flexibility of new technologies as a lesson for a project planning)