Digital Research

I've previously talked about the role of the Internet as a data generator as well as a medium for collaboration. I thought that I'd drive the point home some more by talking about a very specific example of these roles in action.

The Internet: Another piece of lab equipment!

Today, I'm going to talk about a weekend project of mine. It was an open-ended group assignment meant to prime us for the research process of grad school. The fact that we could even get anywhere with the project is a testament to the sheer power of the Internet as a resource.

The Data Dump

One of the buzzwords floating around these days is "big data" - data that exists in such large quantities that traditional data processing begins to break down. There are a lot of very cool underlying patterns that can be found when you're looking at a large enough data set, and there is no shortage of large, complex sets of data.

"Big data" can also mean you're really into Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Luckily for scientists, we live in an age where we have a constantly growing pile of data, teeming with transactions and activity records. Analyzing the Internet itself has become a worthy scientific endeavor. From economic studies of video game worlds to assessing trends on dating sites, interesting information can be found in the most unsuspecting of places online.

So today, we'll be looking at some interesting studies that have used information extracted online.