Pilot Study #1 - Blogging
Research can sometimes be a very messy process. If not sure where to start, anywhere would be a good place. Often, a researcher has to use any and all available sources available to him. Also, I learnt that it is often best to have a pilot study before commencing an experiment. At least this might give some indication as whether the research was on the correct track (if any at all). Over the 2 weekends in December for B6554, I had the opportunity to access the data from two different pilot experiments. While not directly useful, such information will probably be valuable when the time comes.
Pilot Study #1 - Blog
Members of the B6554 class were asked to capture their informational needs on a blog. What I didn't realise when reading the instructions for the first time was that this exercise had a dual purpose. Purpose 1 was as a start to their mobile business plan project, and purpose 2 was to yield more data in research. As can probably be predicted, the instructions yielded a large quantity of data. (The pros and cons of this method of data gathering have already been discussed in some of my other postings, I think.)
When collated, the large jumble of data sorted itself to reveal exactly that - a large jumble of seemingly incoherent data. The class was then divided into 4 groups and tasked to segment the writers of the blogs. When the 4 groups came up with 4 different ways of segmentation, it was clear that data will just be data. How it translates into useful information is a matter of which pair of lenses you use to view it.
Anyway, from the data, here are the main findings which have been taken from the paper (An OoBE-based Design Perspective on Sentient Computing) which Prof Lee has recently submitted as part of introducing me to the publication process (I'll discuss that in another post):
"In this study conducted among NTU MBA students, respondents were asked to capture their informational needs over a 48 hour period and post it in an online blog. What the data revealed was that internet news was the most accessed by this group of people (55%) followed by hard copy (19%). This suggests that people are not averse to obtaining information electronically. However news via mobile devices received a 0% rating. Respondents mostly felt that news was too troublesome and confusing to check on their mobile devices, further emphasizing the need for proper pattern usage in the context of mobile data services."
Pilot Study #1 - Blog
Members of the B6554 class were asked to capture their informational needs on a blog. What I didn't realise when reading the instructions for the first time was that this exercise had a dual purpose. Purpose 1 was as a start to their mobile business plan project, and purpose 2 was to yield more data in research. As can probably be predicted, the instructions yielded a large quantity of data. (The pros and cons of this method of data gathering have already been discussed in some of my other postings, I think.)
When collated, the large jumble of data sorted itself to reveal exactly that - a large jumble of seemingly incoherent data. The class was then divided into 4 groups and tasked to segment the writers of the blogs. When the 4 groups came up with 4 different ways of segmentation, it was clear that data will just be data. How it translates into useful information is a matter of which pair of lenses you use to view it.
Anyway, from the data, here are the main findings which have been taken from the paper (An OoBE-based Design Perspective on Sentient Computing) which Prof Lee has recently submitted as part of introducing me to the publication process (I'll discuss that in another post):
"In this study conducted among NTU MBA students, respondents were asked to capture their informational needs over a 48 hour period and post it in an online blog. What the data revealed was that internet news was the most accessed by this group of people (55%) followed by hard copy (19%). This suggests that people are not averse to obtaining information electronically. However news via mobile devices received a 0% rating. Respondents mostly felt that news was too troublesome and confusing to check on their mobile devices, further emphasizing the need for proper pattern usage in the context of mobile data services."
posted by ~Z~ | 3:26 AM
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