Going digital: Using new technologies in visual sociology

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Notes

[1] I teach Visual Sociology on the MA course in ‘Languages and Technology of New Media’, University of Udine.

[2] Freeware is complete software that does not require payment, has a proprietary licence but no access to the source code. Open source is free software licensed to permit changes and redistribution of its source code.

[3] See CAQDAS Networking Project at http://caqdas.soc.surrey.ac.uk/.

[4] SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a widely used program for statistical analysis in the social sciences.

[5] See http://www.iview-multimedia.com/.

[6] See http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

[7] HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language) is the predominant mark-up language for the web.

[8] See http://www.stratopoint.com/pfolders.htm.

[9] The three most common types of metadata for photographs are EXIF, IPCT (International Press Telecommunications Council), and XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform).

[10] Other information are, for example, File date, File size, Make, Model, Description, Artist, Copyright, Date modified, Orientation, X-Resolution, Y-Resolution, Resolution unit.

[11] See http://www.softplatz.com/Soft/Graphics/Converters/Mihov-EXIF-Renamer.html.

[12] See http://www.geosetter.de.

[13] See http://www.apple.com/aperture/overview/.

[14] See http://www.filemaker.com.

[15] See http://www.nch.com.au/scribe/index.html.

[16] After my research I came across similar software named ImageInterviewer. It is open source (Java) and has been developed by Janet Bagg at the University of Kent. Unfortunately I was not able to verify whether it could export the data as a video file, a format useful for CAQDAS analysis. See http://sourceforge.net/projects/audionotes.

[17] See http://sourceforge.net/projects/camstudio/.

[18] See http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/.

[19] See http://www.gimp.org/.

[20] Pixelation happens when the eye can distinguish individual pixels as single-colour square display elements.

[21] See http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2.

[22] Noise is a random fluctuation of pixel values in an image.

[23] See http://www.neatimage.com/.

[24] See http://vue.tufts.edu/about/index.cfm.

[25] See http://vue.tufts.edu/about/index.cfm.

[26] ‘The VUE 2.0 project has introduced tools for constructing maps from information ontologies. This functionality enables groups of scholars to build maps using a controlled vocabulary which may then be analysed, compared and merged based on shared concepts’ (see http://vue.tufts.edu/about/index.cfm).

[27] ‘Shooting scripts are lists of research topics or questions which can be examined via photographic information. They provide a means by which photography can be grounded in a strategic and focused exploration of answers to particular theoretically-generated questions’ (Suchar 1997).

[28] ‘Continuous interaction between the collecting and coding of data and the writing of memos is essential. As the research advances, the researcher develops an increasingly abstract and complex conceptual structure, specifying the connections between the concepts of the emerging theory and regularly returning to the data to check whether this theoretical structure is in fact supported by the data’ (Markku 1998, 42).

[29] ‘In open coding the categories are developed by focusing on their properties (attributes of a category) and examining their nature, relationships and dimensions… . Whereas in open coding the main aim is to freely generate new categories and specify their properties and dimensions, axial coding means working intensively with one category’ (Markku 1998, 43).

[30] See http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/photomesa/.

[31] Semantic regions are ‘an innovative way for users to construct display representations of their conceptual models by drawing regions on 2D space and specifying the semantics for each region’ (Kang and Shneiderman 2006).

[32] Click the left mouse button to zoom in on any photograph, then click the right button to glide back out.

[33] According to its producers Nvivo 7 allows users ‘to combine subtle analysis with linking, shaping, searching and modelling. Regardless of the type of data or the language it is in, NVivo 7 is also ideal for team projects and research involving multiple methods. Is designed for qualitative researchers who need to combine subtle coding with qualitative linking, shaping, searching and modelling. Ideal for those working with complex data, such as multimedia, wanting to do deep levels of analysis. Also allows researchers to import and export data to and from statistical packages. Is suited to research in the following areas where very large quantities of data need to be analysed: Longitudinal studies, Content Analysis, Action research, Conversation analysis, Ethnography, Literature Reviews, Mixed methods research’ (see http://www.qsrinternational.com).

[34] See http://www.atlasti.com.

[35] Version 2.12 of Transana is still available free, later version must be purchased.

[36] The user can get similar results with the freeware Impress OpenOffice.org. It is a GNU Lesser General Public License, a free software licence. See http://www. openoffice.org/.

[37] Flash, commonly used to create animation and various web page components, refers to Adobe Flash Player and Professional multimedia authoring program.

[38] See http://www.scribus.net/.

[39] See http://rit.mellon.org/retreat/2008-mellon-rit-sc-retreat/project-descriptions/vue.

[40] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki.

[41] See http://pbwiki.com/.