social-issues.org and Co
social-issues.org is retiring
Thursday, March 31, 2022 - 13:30 — Optimus.PrimeDear readers,
On October 1, 2022, after a fruitful 15-year existence, the social-issues.org community will be discontinued and this website will be decommissioned.
We thank you all, readers and writers, and especially the community members who, through their contribution, made this adventure very interesting.
Although the website is now configured in a mode read-only, its content will remain accessible until the 30th of September (and perhaps a bit longer.)
We wish you all the best and peace for Ukraïna.
The moderators
Towards International and Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration for the Measurements of Quality of Life
Saturday, July 14, 2012 - 10:37 — SachieOur paper (with the title above) has been published and is available as "Online First" on SpringerLink now: www.springerlink.com
When we started creating our eLab in 2006-2007, it was probably one of the earliest ones. Now there are many eLabs, especially nice ones in the UK and other universities. Though, I understand that many researchers focus on eScience, while we are more interested in eSocial Science and measuring societal progress.
We have written the earlier versions of this paper for the last three years. And, as the time has passed, we have learned new stuff, and tried to make the paper shorter and less technical. Therefore, quite frankly, the paper is getting outdated as technology advances so quickly. Though, our article provides a general introduction to eSocial Science.
A good news is that we've got a new idea. Although we cannot go into details at this time, what we wish is we make it accessible and useful for as many people as possible.
We hope to update you about progress on this site (by the end of this year, if possible). Also, we will see you at future conferences and meetings! At the moment, we are interested in the 9th IEEE International Conference on e-Science in Beijin, China in 2013: escience2013.csp.escience.cn
Updating you on eLaboratories
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 21:01 — SachieWe have been working on two main subjects: (1) international and interdisciplinary collaboration for quality of life (QoL) research; and (2) computer-based technology and infrastructure assisting (1). This type of computer-supported cooperative work in the social sciences has been termed eHumanities or eSocial Science.
QoL or human well-being research has gained momentum after the representatives of the European Commission, the OECD, the UN, the UNDP, and the World Bank made the Istanbul Declaration in 2007 to undertake the measurement of societal progress in each country. In the context of QoL or human well-being research and measurement, one of the most influential concepts is the capability approach (CA). Yet, the operationalization of the CA has long been one of the serious challenges faced by social scientists. As regards to this issue, we argue that modern technology has the potential to provide ample tools for enhancing the measurement of human well-being, and facilitating large-scale collaborative research on the QoL.
We have developed a methodology, procedures, and tools based on the new technologies developed for both governmental and intergovernmental (OECD) sponsored assessments and that are ready to be used for QoL analysis. We propose a viable alternative for facilitating international and interdisciplinary research collaboration to develop a methodology and a dashboard of indicators to monitor the progress of human well-being over the years and to formalize its multidimensional measure for international comparisons.
Barriers to the wider uptake of eResearch in the social sciences
Sunday, August 09, 2009 - 19:45 — SachieeResearch is to conduct research of all kinds with the use and support of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). TAO (a French acronym for "Testing Assisté par Ordinateur") is one of such eResearch tools and over the last years, TAO has become prominent in international comparative assessments in education (e.g., for OECD). In winter 2002, TAO was started (as a little almost-doomed project with little resources) in Luxembourg; it gradually got known in the EC, Europe, and the USA, and then it became some kind of international "Million Dollar Baby" tool.
Observing people's reactions to eLab and eResearch
Monday, February 09, 2009 - 22:24 — SachieIn our Online Community, we wish to offer a taste of the future of the virtualization of some scientific tasks, and to let the reader imagine a world built on interconnected networks of eLaboratories designed to push our collective thinking and understanding into an Era of Globalization.
In this Community, we use the core technology (named TAO/Generis) that has been successfully employed in the electronic reading assessment of the OECD's PISA 2009 and for PIAAC 2011 and many other international projects. Developed since 2003, the platform TAO is fully-fledged and Blah blah blah. It sounds too much boasting and I am not even a TAO creator. But, I would like to disseminate information about TAO because it is brilliant!!
Social-issues.org jumps from D.6.4 to D.6.6
Saturday, November 15, 2008 - 18:41 — Optimus.PrimeSocial-issues.org: public participation and scientific collaboration
Sunday, September 14, 2008 - 17:24 — Raynald 
This presentation, "Social-issues.org: public participation and scientific collaboration", was presented by Raynald Jadoul of Public Research Centre Henri Tudor to the session entitled 'RC23 - Sociology of Science and Technology", held at the occasion of the First ISA (International Sociological Association) Forum of Sociology themed on "Sociological Research and Public Debate", at Barcelona, Sain, on 5-8 September 2008.
The content of this mini-book focuses essentially on the methodology aspects developed inside the social-issues.org eLaboratories; without providing too many technical details, the presentation gives a good overview of the models and tools involved in all the steps required to manage a real survey - from the modeling of the studied domain to the collecting of the interviews' results.
This mini-book is available in the "Books" section: click here to read this book.
