Exercise for JT's research group.

Scruffy.md

All,

I am very much looking forward to meeting with you on Tuesday. I though we might do a writing exercise in preparation.

Some background:

I subscribe to a world view where empirical research can be located along two axis: One having to do with the speed that data are collected, analyzed, and described and the other having to do with the precision of knowledge that is produced.

In short, empirical research can be quick or slow in one dimension, and neat or scruffy in the other. At the intersection of these two dimensions you can likely locate your epistemic commitments (and your own comfort).

I am guessing that none of you are comfortable with being labeled quick and scruffy researchers. You likely pride yourself on being careful, diligtent, and certain in your empirical claims. Anything less goes against the ethos of academia. It also goes against the predilection of your esteemed advisor.

I am not your advisor... :)

In the neats vs scruffies divide I am very much the latter. (note being scurffy does not mean being sloppy)

So, if you are going to spend an hour with me talking about wikidata I ask that you try to engage on my grounds. Let's try to embrace the spirit of quick and scruffy research.

If you completely object- think about it this way: Graduate school is about learning to do research as well as you possibly can... But, it is also about learning how other people work (and borrowing / stealing from them as much as possible).

Exercise

Tools needed: GoogleDocs, Zotero, and a timer

Total time to complete: 1 hour

1. Write 2 paragraphs following the directions below. Don't worry about whether they are well structured, cited, or even all that coherent. Just get your ideas down on paper. (Max 10 minutes)

• The first paragraph should explain what you think wikidata is and why it is relevant to your research (maybe it isn't). DO NOT REREAD YOUR NOTES OR LOOK AT WEB SOURCES. Just write from the top of your head. Some questions you might consider: How does wikidata intersect with or compliment other schemas for publishing structured data on the web? ; what about wikidata as a system of structuring factual information is novel and what is mundane?; Why should a group of KO researchers care about structured data?; In what ways is wikidata upholding the peer production principles that undergird much of the wikimedia foundation?
• The second paragraph should explain what types of things (topics, concepts, technologies, uses, people) you find interesting about wikidata. This might end up being just an annotated list. It does not have to be justified unless you really know why you are interested in that thing.

2. Using your second paragraph - start a literature review on one specific thing you find interesting about wikidata. THIS IS NOT A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW. Do just least three searches in Google Scholar and try not to go more than two pages / screens deep in your search (see below). Record your results in a Zotero group, or in a spreadsheet so that you can revisit in the future (Max 30 minutes - 10 minutes on each search)

• A keyword search that combines your topic and wikidata (e.g. wikidata AND authority control)
• Find some literature about wikidata - for example, What is the canonical wikidata publication? Who is now working on wikidata related research? What kinds of methods do they use? What kinds of questions do they ask? Where do they publish?
• Now, repeat this process for your topic (n.b. even if you think you know your topic well repeat this process).

3. In your same google doc - What was the most interesting thing that you read about in the literature review? Given this new interesting thing - in relation to wikidata - what do you want to know? (in the form of a research question).

4. Bring 1-3 to our meeting on Tuesday and be prepared to talk about the exercise and its outcome. Do not spend more than an hour on this exercise. Do not edit and clean things up.