Centre for e-Research Seminar: Digital Transformations of Research and Styles of Knowing

Digital Transformations of Research and Styles of Knowing

Ralph Schroeder, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute

Eric T. Meyer, Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute

Tuesday 17 January, 6.15pm, Anatomy Museum. Followed by drinks.

In recent years, large-scale research programmes have been implemented across the globe with labels like e-Science, e-Infrastructure and cyberinfrastructure (Meyer and Schroeder 2009). It has been argued that 
these various digital transformations have fundamentally changed how research is done. In this paper, we challenge this argument, and suggest instead that there are more specific changes in particular areas of 
research that have taken place. To delimit the scope of what can be considered a digital transformation of research or ‘e-Research’ (since these could potentially encompass a vast range of phenomena), we define 
these as the distributed and collaborative use of digital tools and data in the production of scientific knowledge. One feature that e-Research efforts share is that they consist of online research technologies with a digital component, though what this component consists of varies among particular e-Research projects (for example, data in a digital format, the use of computing power to perform processing, or the creation of complex visualizations with computer graphics). We argue, however, that this variety in technologies is not infinite, but that there are a limited number of these components which can be identified.

Please register to attend at:http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2658460527

About the speakers:

Dr Eric T. Meyer is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. His research in the area of social informatics focuses on understanding how digital technologies enable changes in the way people work, relate and interact. A particular focus has been studying how the practices of research are changing as digital tools and data become central in the sciences, social sciences, and arts & humanities. He is broadly interested in a fundamental question regarding how technology and practice are related: what evidence is there that technology has enabled people and organizations to do entirely new things? More information is available at: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=120

Ralph Schroeder is Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. He is director of research at the Institute and director of its Master's degree in 'Social Science of the Internet'. His 
books include 'Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change' (Stanford University Press 2007) and 'Being there Together: Social Interaction in Virtual Environments' (Oxford University Press 2010). 
Before coming to Oxford, he was Professor at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden. His current research is focused on the digital transformations of research.