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Sociologists and new technologies: challenges and opportunities for developing a common language among colleagues
Sat, August 10, 8:30 to 10:10am, New York Hilton, Floor: Second Floor, RegentAbstract
Sociologists working in applied settings must learn to communicate with researchers across disciplines to be effective. As sociologists increasingly use new technologies such as mobile devices and web-based interfaces to conduct their work, their collaborations may include colleagues that are not from a social science or research background but who are nonetheless vital partners in collecting high quality data for evaluation research and providing implementation assistance.
This communication challenge requires an awareness of potential differences in approach, assumptions and the research process. To address these challenges, I discuss lessons learned through working with computer scientists and programmers to develop data collection tools on mobile devices and web-based tools for aggregating data. Setting up clear expectations about data quality and checkpoints in which programmers and researchers can provide support to each other can avoid potential pitfalls. This discussion will draw on my experiences working with computer scientists and programmers both within an academic research center and at a non-profit research organization.
Sociologists working in applied fields could benefit from a conversation on how to best start the process of incorporating and collaborating with programmers and computer scientists. This would help them develop new communication tools that allow them to effectively reach beyond the specialized language of sociology and to be mindful of different approaches and potential blind spots and establish a mutual understanding of the process and expectations. Further, these collaborations allow sociologists to influence the development of new tools for conducting future sociological research.