Interesting Research Tools (Goodies) to Investigate

Google Maps Mashup: MapTube

• http://www.bartlett.ucl.ac.uk/casa/latest/software
• To share maps with other researchers
• Example crowd sourcing.

Tweet-o-Meter

• http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/tom/
• Tweets per minute around the world

Digital Replay System

• http://thedrs.sourceforge.net/
• The DRS (Digital Replay System) is a desktop application for replaying and analysing combinations of video, audio, images, transcripts and computer log files in an integrated way.
• http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/projects/neiss/about.php
• Simulation tools for social scientists
• http://www.surveymapper.com/
• Free, real-time geographic survey and polling tool.
• Developed by CASA, University College, London

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National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation

• http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/projects/neiss/about.php
• Simulation tools for social scientists

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Survey Mapper

• http://www.surveymapper.com/
• Free, real-time geographic survey and polling tool.
• Developed by CASA, University College, London

My Experiment: Social Networking Site for Scientists

• http://www.myexperiment.org/home
• Scientific workflows that contain information about the stages of research.
• You can borrow others’ workflows and modify them, etc.
• You can share, etc.
• Could be useful if working with research assistants and partners by distance.
• Useful for complex projects involving Design-Based Research? Will show complex workflows.

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#phdchat – 1st time

Today I participated in my first #phdchat in Twitter. To be honest, it felt a bit chaotic. But, I had the sense that there were more participants than normal. It’s a strange way to communicate. At 140 characters an utterance, one must consider how to best use those characters.

Nevertheless, the #phdchat group provides leads to some very good resources.

How to find this group:

• http://twitter.com/search?q=%23phdchat

Information about this group:

• https://www.martineve.com/2011/02/02/on-phdchat-call-for-collaborationhistory-overview-themes-and-response/

The phdchat daily:

• http://paper.li/tag/phdchat

And the phdchat wiki:

• http://phdchat.pbworks.com/w/page/33280234/PhD-Chat

When: Wednesdays at 12:30 pm (MST/Edmonton time)

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Mendeley – Phenomenal tool for keeping track of references

A friend, Jeffrey, Tweeted about Mendeley. So, I watched the video while getting ready to start working through my proposal today.

Phenomenal. I’ve been trying to keep my library synchronized across computers. I’ve been using Windows Desktop Search to locate them on my hard drive while writing. But, I fear it slows my system. I have been carefully organizing all my PDFs and notes into topic folders. But, the problem is that they belong in multiple folders. To solve that problem, I have been using tags in RefWorks. (And, of course, I have been keeping paper copies filed by author’s last name in a filing cabinet in my office.) As a result, I have been constantly cross-searching different systems. This has been working, but I think Mendeley might make things even more efficient.

Although Mendeley indicates that you can Import and Export with other referencing software, it does not mention Refworks. Good news: I was able to export a .txt file from Refworks and upload it into my Mendeley interface. Then, I was able to synchronize it online.

The synchronization feature is brilliant because it means that I can install the Mendeley interface on my travel computer or any other computer and synchronize the references with those computers. No more carting around USB drives and carefully dating the most recent list.

My only problem now, is to upload the articles. I have been careful to upload the URLs for journal articles, but I want easy access to my library from anywhere in the world. I can match the PDFs with the citations on my less productive hours. Mendeley is not intended as a publishing tool, but a resource-networking tool. I will investigate this further as I wish to respect copyright legislation.

Note that Mendeley also allows you to search through others’ reference lists, connect with other researchers, etc. Hence, it also serves as a social networking tool.

I have yet to explore it further.

Back to writing!

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