Showing papers in "Social Science Computer Review in 2006"

Web-Based Questionnaires and the Mode Effect

Abstract: Most methodological evaluations of web-based questionnaires have focused on the issues of sampling and response rates. Some have considered the issues of privacy and ethics. Relatively few have addressed the question of whether people provide different information depending on the mode of questionnaire delivery. This article contributes to this relatively overlooked aspect of the evaluation of web surveys. It presents initial findings from a survey that was designed to enable near-identical groups to respond to near-identical questionnaires delivered in different modes. Web-based questionnaires and paper-based questionnaires, used as part of a schoolbased study of young people's health-related behavior, are compared in terms of (a) completion rates and (b) data contents. Issues surrounding the quality of data and the reliability of webbased questionnaires are discussed. It is concluded that, on the basis of the quantitative data from this survey, there is little evidence of a mode effect linked to web-based questionnaires.

Profiling the Adopters of E-Government Information and Services

Abstract: This exploratory study examines the effects of nondemographic characteristics on the adoption of e-government services in the United States combining two main theoretical perspectives: diffusion of innovations and the technology acceptance model. The results of a national survey suggest that nondemographic audience characteristics influence e-government adoption. The study adds to previous research in the area by identifying several sociopsychological characteristics that play a role in the adoption process: perceived usefulness, perceived uncertainty, and civic mindedness. The study also ascertains the influence of interpersonal communication and mass media channels on e-government adoption. Theoretical implications for future researchers and policy implications for producers of governmental web sites are discussed.

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Visual Analog Scales

Abstract: The use of visual analog scales (VAS) in survey research has been relatively rare, in part because of operational difficulties. However web surveys permit the use of continuous input devices such as slider bars, making VAS more feasible. The authors conducted an experiment to explore the utility of a VAS in a web survey, comparing it to radio button input and numeric entry in a text box on a series of bipolar questions eliciting views on genetic versus environmental causes of various behaviors. The experiment included a variety of additional comparisons including the presence or absence of numeric feedback in theVAS, the use of a midpoint or no midpoint for the other two versions, and numbered versus unnumbered radio button scales. The response distributions for theVAS did not differ from those using the other scale types, and theVAS had higher rates of missing data and longer completion times.

Dynamics of Internet Dating

Abstract: This study examined the world of Internet dating. It explored the motivations of daters, their styles of courtship, and how they negotiated problems of trust and deception. The authors employed in-depth interviews and participant observation with men and women who met online. Internet daters sought companionship, comfort after a life crisis, control over presentation of themselves and their environments, freedom from commitment and stereotypic roles, adventure, and romantic fantasy. The authors also studied the development of trust between daters, the risks they assume, and lying online. Most participants in the study eventually met, which sometimes resulted in abrupt rejection and loss of face, but other times ended in marriage.

Online interactions and social capital: distinguishing between new and existing ties

Abstract: Some of the earliest and best-known theoretical work on the social implications of the Internet focus on interpersonal interactions with other users met online. However, in part because of the difficulty of measuring the level of interactions with others met online, generalizable empirical research on this topic remains limited. In this study, the authors develop a new approach to measuring the degree of online interactions with those not known offline. Next, they test the relationship between these online social interactions and social capital using a probability sample survey of U.S. residents. Contrary to previous empirical investigations, they find that the level of online interaction with people met on the Internet positively relates to common indicators of social capital, such as generalized trust. Finally, they discuss the implications of these results.

A comparison of agent-based models of income tax evasion

Abstract: This article compares three multiagent-based simulation models of individual income tax evasion. The models' similarities and differences are highlighted, and their significance for the field of computational social science is discussed. Emphasis is placed on the importance of process validity for models intended to represent real-world phenomena of interest to policy makers.

A disappearing digital divide among college students?: peeling away the layers of the digital divide

Abstract: Given debate about the existence of a digital divide in the United States, the question remains: If individuals are in situations where all have access to the Internet (e.g., a university), will aspects of a digital divide still exist? The authors examine whether a racial digital divide exists among college students in the odds of their using the Internet and the different levels and types of usage. Data are from a random sample of full-time, residential college freshmen. Results indicate that aspects of a digital divide exist in terms of whether one uses the Internet for specific purposes; however, once individuals begin using the Internet, few racial differences exist. Internet experience and gender affect particular types of Internet usage, suggesting that the digital divide is multilayered. A policy implication from this study is that bringing individuals into structured environments with assured access may help to decrease aspects of the digital divide.

Pursuing social change online : The use of four protest tactics on the internet

Abstract: This article examines the distribution and architecture of web sites hosting or directly linking to opportunities to participate in four online activist tactics: online petitioning, boycotting, and e-mailing and letter-writing campaigns. Specifically, this article addresses five basic structural questions: (1) Are opportunities to engage in these tactics usually organized around social movement organizations and/or actors? (2) Do sites tend to host or link to these tactics? (3) On average, how tactically specialized or tactically diversified are sites? (4) How are these tactics distributed across different types of sites? and (5) How many implementations of each tactic were offered per web site? Contributions include a clearer understanding of online opportunities to participate in these four tactics and the introduction of an innovative, methodological technique that generates best approximations of reachable populations of online content, which can be randomly sampled when those populations are large.

Michel Foucault in the Social Study of ICTs: Critique and Reappraisal

Abstract: Despite the considerable cross-disciplinary influence of Foucault’s work, he is, the article argues, unjustly neglected in the study of information and communication technologies (ICTs), especially in the information systems (IS) field. The article argues for the abiding relevance of Foucault’s oeuvre. His thinking on techne and technology is reviewed, and a critique of his relative neglect in the IS discipline is provided. The article then critically evaluates and illustrates how he can and has been used in the study of ICTs in IS, organization, management, and surveillance studies, and, more recently, by those studying network society, technobodies, and cyberspace. The article concludes by pointing to the potential for utilizing Foucault in deconstructing the growing interest in ICT-supported knowledge management and related systems and understanding control in liquid modernity.

Cash lotteries as incentives in online panels

Abstract: Six incentive experiments were conducted in a nonprofit online panel. In each experiment, the incentive offered for participation was a cash lottery. The control group was not offered any incentive. The cash lottery was offered in two versions: Either the total payout of the lottery was mentioned, or the lottery was split into multiple prizes. Dependent measures included response and retention rates. The results of the six individual experiments were meta-analytically summarized. Cash lotteries relative to no incentives did not reliably increase response or retention; neither did it make a significant difference if one large prize or multiple smaller prizes were raffled.

Being Professional: Organizational Control in Indian Call Centers

Abstract: The relationship between technocratic and socioideological control in organizations is contested among scholars. In an attempt to understand this complex interlinkage, the present study examined organizational control processes in inbound and outbound call centers in Bangalore, India. Relying on qualitative interviews and thematic analysis, the study demonstrated how organizations invoke the concept of professionalism in their employees. Organizational efforts in this direction result not only in employee compliance but also internalization of professionalism such that agents’ sense of self changes to embrace employer-defined professionalism. Socioideological control thus sets the stage for the acceptance and effectiveness of technocratic control. Rather than viewing organizational identities and organizational cultures as additional or separate extensions of the substantive, structural, material dimensions of control, the findings of the study highlight that socioideological and technocratic forms of con...

TAMS analyzer : Anthropology as cultural critique in a digital age

Abstract: This article provides an overview of an open source qualitative coding and analysis program called TAMS Analyzer, where TAMS stands for Text Analysis Mark-up System. The article reviews the history and design of this software. This history focuses on transformations in the software that have allowed it to work with larger scale projects, more abstract analytic categories, and wider varieties of media. In examining the software design, the article reflects variously on the value of software-assisted qualitative research, issues of openness with respect to software standards and licensing, and transparency to the user. It concludes by looking at some future directions for software-assisted qualitative research and by noting contradictions in the qualitative marketplace that will likely shape what will be available to qualitative researchers.

E-Government Web Site Accessibility in Australia and China: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract: This article examined the accessibility of provincial government web sites in China and state-level web sites in Australia in December 2004 and again in September 2005. This research found that there were serious accessibility problems on Chinese e-government web sites in the first audition, and the situation was even worse in the second audition. This demonstrates that no efforts have been made to build accessible e-government web sites in China. As for the Australian e-government web sites, although they generally did well in terms of accessibility, some small errors found in the first audition were not eliminated in the second audition. It thus suggests that more efforts are still needed for Australian government web sites. Through the comparisons between China and Australia, some valuable lessons can be learned, especially for the development of accessible Chinese e-government web sites for people with disabilities.

Understanding Complex Behavior and Decision Making Using Ethnographic Knowledge Elicitation Tools (KnETs)

Abstract: Understanding ethnographic data in a formal way is imperative when faced with multiple responses of humans within their environments. Knowledge Elicitation Tools (KnETs) incorporate techniques for modeling knowledge using methods long used in anthropological fieldwork and formalizing knowledge using knowledge engineering methods from computer science. KnETs enhance our understanding of our data to reveal new avenues for enquiry. KnETs support traditional participatory fieldwork methods and produce input for agent-based models, supporting a formalized link between qualitative and quantitative representations of knowledge and their interaction. The fusion of these techniques has resulted in a four-stage process that incorporates consistent verification and validation on data as it is collected by domain experts and informants. The application of this innovative methodology is successful precisely due to the mutual benefits that each technique provides by addressing current bottlenecks in both processes of e...

The effects of data collection mode and disclosure on adolescent reporting of health behavior

Abstract: This study examined how information obtained from an adolescent screening instrument administered in a medical clinic is affected by the method of data collection and knowledge that a summary report would be given to the provider. The Adolescent Health Review (AHR) was administered to 610 adolescent patients randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions to test the effect of mode of administration (paper vs. computer) and disclosure of results to the provider versus only to researchers (using the computer version). The AHR obtained information on mental health, sexual experiences, and use of psychoactive substances. Response patterns varied by mode of administration, with the paper version generally eliciting higher, and arguably more accurate, rates of disclosure. Knowing that the results would be provided to the doctor further attenuated disclosure. Results suggest that the paper version's higher rates of reporting must be weighed against the computer version's benefits of automated scoring and reporting.

Simulation of Natural and Social Process Interactions

Abstract: New multimodel simulations of Bronze Age Mesopotamian settlement system dynamics, using advanced object-based simulation frameworks, are addressing fine-scale interaction of natural processes (crop growth, hydrology, etc.) and social processes (kinship-driven behaviors, farming and herding practices, etc.) on a daily basis across multigenerational model runs. Key components of these simulations are representations of initial settlement populations that are demographically and socially plausible, and detailed models of social mechanisms that can produce and maintain realistic textures of social structure and dynamics over time. The simulation engine has broad applicability and is also being used to address modern problems such as agroeconomic sustainability in Southeast Asia. This article describes the simulation framework and presents results of initial studies, highlighting some social system representations.

An evaluation of nonresponse and coverage errors in a prerecruited probability web panel survey

Abstract: This study examines nonresponse and coverage errors separately in a probability Web panel survey by applying traditional postsurvey adjustments This was done by using variables whose estimates were obtainable at both the survey respondent and the full survey sample levels and whose values were known for both the full survey sample and the target population Nonresponse error measured by the differences between the estimates from the respondents and the known full sample values was not found to be large, implying that nonresponse error in this Web survey data may not be critical However, coverage properties of the full survey sample show some problems, and traditional postsurvey adjustments were limited in alleviating the unequal coverage of the survey sample This coverage problem was more evident for the subpopulation-level estimates

Postmodernism and criticality in information systems research : What critical management studies can contribute

Abstract: This article identifies a gap in the inclusion of the postmodern concept in critical information systems (IS) research. Starting from the three critical tasks, insight, critique, and transformative...

High-Fidelity Computational Social Science in Anthropology: Prospects for Developing a Comparative Framework

Abstract: Approaches to modeling social phenomena vary on a continuum from simple models, in which causality is clear and parameters few, to realistic, high-fidelity models designed to capture the most detailed system behavior possible in a specific setting. Anthropologists have produced both simple and high-fidelity models. The focus of this article is on high-fidelity modeling in anthropology and the special challenge its complexity presents for model comparison. Useful model comparison requires docking, or rendering models comparable, and the author presents a framework for docking based on the work of Axelrod, and Cioffi-Revilla and Gotts. Docking not only renders models more comparable, allowing for more traditional theory testing, but it also sharpens the discussion about the ontology of anthropological phenomena and how they are best represented as theories and models.

Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES): A Software Implementation of a Cultural Theory

Abstract: The computer program Kinship Algebra Expert System (KAES) provides a graphically based framework for constructing, if possible, a generative algebraic model for the structure of a kinship terminology (the terms used to refer to one’s kin). The algebraic modeling is based on a theory of kinship terminologies elaborated through writing the software program. The theory relates the properties and structure of kinship terminologies to an underlying logic that the KAES program helps uncover and model as a generative structure. The program then relates the structural logic of a kinship terminology modeled by the KAES program to a genealogical space based on genealogical tracing of kin relations. The KAES program demonstrates the surprisingly logical character of kinship terminologies and challenges the received view of the primacy of genealogical relations in defining cultural kinship through showing how genealogical definitions of kin terms can be accurately predicted in the terminologies considered to date.

The Consumer as Foucauldian “Object of Knowledge”:

Abstract: This article adapts and extends Michel Foucault’s theorization of technologies of power, originally formulated with regard to the paradigm of the prisoner, to the paradigm of the consumer. Using examples of marketing practices and Internet technologies employed by Amazon.com, the author explores how sight-based technologies of power—individuation and surveillance—shape consumer agency and, employing the Panopticon metaphor, theorizes the link between surveillance and consumer spectacle. In addition to analyzing these techniques, the author indicates the formation of consumer resistance to them. The analysis of sight-based technologies of power is opposed to phenomenological analyses and analyses of discourse in the service of (a) providing an alternative hermeneutical viewpoint from which to view the consumer, (b) positioning marketing practitioners in our theories of consumer behavior, and, most importantly, (c) exploring how the consumer subject is constructed through technologies of surveillance and in...

Assessing Different Bayesian Neural Network Models for Militarized Interstate Dispute Outcomes and Variable Influences

Abstract: This article develops and compares two Bayesian neural network models, a more restrictive Bayesian framework using Gaussian approximation and a less restrictive one using a hybrid version of Markov Chain Monte Carlo method (HMC), for the prediction of militarized interstate disputes (MIDs). In addition, to compare and analyze different Bayesian models for international conflict, the authors introduce a new measurement to interpret the relative influence of the model variables on the MIDs. The results indicate that the Gaussian approximation and HMC models are not statistically different in their performance. However HMC correctly recognized a marginally higher number of militarized disputes whose classification is important for policy purpose. On the variable effect, both models indicate similar patter of influences, where the two key liberal variables, democracy and economic interdependence, produce a strong dynamic feedback loop among each other, which greatly increases or decreases the probability of MIDs.

Book Review: The information ecology of e-government:

Abstract: Victor Bekkers and Vincent Homburg define e-government as “the strategic use of modern information and communication technologies (ICTs) within the public sector” (p. 1). In practice, e-government is implemented in many ways. The volume contrasts information ecology with what the editors call the machine engineering approach to e-government. The machine engineering approach is what a government-client would receive if it hired a hardware technician to construct a computer network and a programmer to build an information system and web site. The hardware-software team (characterized as “IT cowboys” by two of this volume’s contributors) would consult with client personnel regarding their needs in an orderly or haphazard manner depending on the team’s experience and then assemble the e-government system with little thought to its potential side effects such as its effect on intraor interagency relationships or the agency-citizen nexus (p. 22). The editors argue that machine engineering practitioners make simplistic assumptions without being aware that they are doing so:

Digitization of the experience sampling method : Transformation, implementation, and assessment

Abstract: The implementation and the assessment of the digital experience sampling method are reported in this article. The experience sampling method is transformed into a digital format and is examined in the Web environment to elicit online Web users’ experiences through multiple iterations of an online questionnaire. By sampling Web users’ online experiences and detecting Web users’ situated experiences from a time point very close to their actual experiences, this tool may collect reliable and valid data with minimal distortion. This tool may effectively and unambiguously tap Web users’ internal experiences associated with their use of the Web. Two empirical studies are reported to verify the usefulness of this method.

Politics, Complexity, and Systems Implementation Critically Exposing Power

Abstract: This article identifies the role of power and politics in systems implementation under a critical epistemology. Research in information systems has typically adopted a positivist or interpretive approach. This article highlights the use of the critical epistemology, providing a case study exploring the power and politics in the systems implementation process. Previous implementation studies that have investigated human and political factors involved in systems implementation have taken a simplistic view of power and politics. A critical, poststructuralist view of power provides a lens for observing the selection and implementation of an enterprise-wide learning management system. Such an approach has important implications for research methods as the critical epistemology needed is challenged by acceptance of bias and the need to expose it as an important factor in explaining success and/or failure in systems implementation. This article illustrates how useful a critical approach is in seeking out the real impact of power and politics in systems implementation and offers an alternative perspective that provides more insight into the observed process.

Introduction: Configuring Anthropology

Abstract: The authors present examples of how anthropologists are presently using computers to advance ethnographic research in new directions while building on what has come before. All the methods, protocols, and tools created by the authors are free, open source, and available on the Internet. The contributions are the authors' attempts to address greater complexity through greater control over the data and structures within which anthropologists work. These methods are suitable to a large number of problems, basic and applied, across the range of anthropology from its humanities axis to its science axis. Anthropology is what anthropologists make of it, and each author is attempting to make a little bit more of anthropology and to configure anthropology for addressing old problems in new ways and positioning anthropology to address new problems and new opportunities to influence others through anthropology.

Securing the virtual state recent developments in privacy and security

Abstract: Recent developments in U.S. privacy and security policy are traced, including coverage of the renewal of the PATRIOT Act, the domestic spying affair of 2005 to 2006, passage of the Real ID Act, and other developments associated with the Department of Homeland Security. Threats to democratic values are assessed.

Social interaction with computers: an interpretation of Weizenbaum's ELIZA and her heritage

Abstract: Social interaction with computers is a key part of the frontier of automation. Weizenbaum's ELIZA continues to be relevant as the focus of the debate shifts from artificial intelligence to the future of narrative and emotional design. A version of ELIZA was implemented in Excel-Visual Basic for Applications that combines adherence to the original specification with easy experimentation.

Sociologists Engaging with Computers

Abstract: This article introduces the Symposium on the History of CITASA, the Communication and Information Technologies section of the American Sociological Association, from 1988 through 2005. It traces this history from the interest of those who founded the original Microcomputing section in developing computer applications for doing sociological research and teaching. It discusses the fit of this interest with the continuing "war" in the organization of computing between computer center centralization and individually autonomous decentralization. It explains the expansion of the scope and membership of the session to encompass the sociological study of communication and information technologies.