Week+3

Dominic DiFranzo is Professor of Web Science at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Balliol College. Before coming to Oxford in 2023, he was a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Southern California. Professor DiFranzo is the directory of the Web Science lab in OII and the Principal Investigator of Oxford e-Social Science (OeSS) project and the Oxford Big Qualitative Data project. He is the author of “A New Method for a New Science: Mixed Methods for Studying the Web”. His research interest include Web Science, Semantic Web, e-Social Science, Social Informatics, Information Science and Virtual Communities.
 * Biosketch 2033**

Semantic Web for Qualitative Data (Semantic Web as a Link between Database and Narrative): Lev Manovich talks about the differences of between databases and narratives as a cultural form, and how they are diametrically opposed to each other. The semantic web maybe be able to go beyond this, by sharing qualities of both, but being nether. This will not be the place for clean, consistent ontologies, but messy vocabularies. Many people, with different ideas and definitions of truth and reality can still be able to work together and link their ideas and data together.
 * Delineating a Project**

We have many truths, not one that is consistent with itself. Big Ontologies many times confuses the model for the actual thing. A model is just one world view about a thing. It is not that thing. (Mixed Methods by Linking Qualitative and Quantitative data) The e-Science Framework and the Linked Open Government Data project have already shown what a little bit of semantics can do in quantitative datasets, but it has yet to be seen how these frameworks and tools will work with qualitative data. If some of this could be done, it could be possible to actual link these datasets together in a more explicit method, allowing researchers both in the hard and social sciences to work together at the data logic level. (Abductive Information System)

Abductive reasoning starts when an inquirer considers of a set of seemingly unrelated facts, armed with an intuition that they are somehow connected. Many researchers in the social sciences and digital humanities have natural research flows that resemble this process very well. Having their data expressed and linked using semantic web technologies could allow for a abductive information to be build. What this would look like or be is still theoretically at the moment.


 * Habits Neuroses, Talents**

Do you have more trouble articulating your frame (social theoretical questions) or object?

I usually have an idea of my object, but find it hard to get the right frame, or keep it the same, if that makes sense.

• Do you tend to project-hop or to stick to a project, and what explains this?

I project-hop way too much, and usually have many projects happening at the same time. I think this is because I get bored very easily. Once the hard questions have been solved, actually doing the work to prove it is correct is usually boring and I wish to move on to the next problem.

• Do you tend to be more interested in internal dynamics, or external determinations? In the terms laid out by Keller, do you tend to focus so intently on the object of your concern that context falls away (i.e. are you obsessive compulsive, rather than paranoid)? Is your desire is to name, specify and control your object? Is your desire is for figure, its ground your annoyance? Or are you paranoid, context being your focus and obsession? All is signal. Only begrudgingly will you admit that something is noise, outside the scope of your project? Figure is hard to come by. Its ground has captured your attention. I focus much more on the bigger picture, and can get lost in the actual details of my idea.

• What do you do with unusual or counter examples? Are you drawn to “the deviant,” or rather repulsed by it?

I am usually drawn to the “deviant”. I find that’s where the interesting things are. I usually am the one in a group to play devils advocate, even with myself.

• Do you tend to over-impose logics on the world, or to resist the construction of coherent narratives? I think its the nature of my field to impose logics and frame on the world around me, but at the same time, I kind of hate it, and work hard to be more loose in my constructions.

• Do you tend to over-generalize, or to hold back from overarching argument?

I over-generalize all the time. I feel like I’m always looking for that grand unified theory that connects everything.

• Do you like to read interpretations different than your own, or do you tend to feel scooped or intimidated by them?

I often find them interesting and exciting. If I feel it's valid, I get excited about have my old ideas and models challenged.

• Do you tend to change an argument as you flesh it out, or do you tend to make the argument work, no matter what?

I find that while I’m working on a project, my idea of what it was, or what I was going to do with it, can change completely. Sometimes without me knowing it.

• Do you tend to think in terms of “this is kind of like” (metaphorically)? Do you hold to examples that “say it all,” leveraging metonymic thinking?

Yes all the time. I find it can help me understand by having that comparison object, but I also see that it can blind me as well.

• Do you like gaming understanding in this way? Does it frustrate you that your answers often don’t fit easily on either side of the binaries set up by the questions? (Jakobson suggests that over attachment to a simple binary scheme is a “continuity disorder.”)

It can frustrate me. It would always be easier to have that binary view on things. And sometimes I catch myself doing just that.


 * Grid**

What data do they produces and use? What is their tech understanding? What interfaces would work best? || Interviews with users of Asthma Files Documents on Asthma Files Design docs ||  || Information science CS STS and ethno ethory ||
 * aims || Questions || Data Collected || arguments || Lit ||
 * Understanding how Ethnographers use data systems || What are the workflows?