Random Snark

November 7, 2016

Civic engagement in practice and in metrics

In commentary, Random Snark

2 Min Read

07November

The institutional language of engagement has been defined by its measurement. Chief engagement officers in corporations are measuring milliseconds on web pages, and clicks on ads, and not relations among people. This is disproportionately influencing the values of democracy and the responsibility of public institutions to protect them. Too often, when government talks about engagement, it is...

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November 4, 2016

Where’s the beef?

In cry for help, Random Snark

4 Min Read

04November

And by beef I clearly mean civic interaction. I’m in the beginning of a phd, which means swimming in theory and concepts. This can get pretty removed from actual practice, but has led to one surprising question: despite all the field’s rhetoric on responsive government, e-participation and conversational governance, there are very few examples of digital interaction between people and their...

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November 4, 2016

The long haul towards evidence: information in elections edition

In commentary, Random Snark

2 Min Read

Civil society groups emphasize the need for high quality public information on the performance of politicians. But, does information really make a difference in institutionally weak environments? Does it lead to the rewarding of good performance at the polls or are voting decisions going to be dominated by ethnic ties and clientelistic relations? Enter the Metaketa project’s first phase...

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October 14, 2016

Gaps in Human Rights Research, Advocacy and Compliance

In commentary, Random Snark

2 Min Read

14October

How human rights scholars conceal social wrongs. That’s the title of an Open Democracy article published yesterday, which takes issue with the way that international comparative indices (such as Ciri Human Rights Data Project and Freedom in the World) hide injustice in rich western democracies. Specifically, the authors are angered by the US government’s consistently high ranking...

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October 13, 2016

Panel weights and voice for the voiceless (lessons from Uncle Sam’s Rock-Bottom Yankee Doodle Suicide Pact 2016)

In methods, Random Snark, Uncategorized

2 Min Read

13October

So not even MethodicalSnark can resist the US presidential elections (as christened by John Oliver). New York Times ran a piece this week entitled How One 19-Year-Old Illinois Man Is Distorting National Polling Averages. Our Trump-supporting friend in Illinois is a surprisingly big part of the reason. In some polls, he’s weighted as much as 30 times more than the average respondent, and as much...

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October 7, 2016

The Open Data Research Symposium 2016: summary and issues

In event takeaways, Random Snark

6 Min Read

07October

Wednesday saw the second Open Data Research Symposium, convened on the sidelines of the International Open Data Conference (and this year’s IODC was a doosie, with side events and opre-events stretching across 5 days different parts of Madrid).  Here is a quick summary of the papers and working groups, followed by some hanging questions and challenges for next year’s Symposium.

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September 29, 2016

When Indicators Get in the Way, Go Report Minimal?

In commentary, Random Snark

2 Min Read

29September

Now, there’s a lot we could debate here about data collection processes, or tools, or when and how data clerks should be employed – but that’s not the point. Instead, we suggest that a growing amount of the qualitative evidence indicates that costs of collecting and reporting on the data that inform high-level performance indicators (for various agencies) can be quite high – perhaps higher than...

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September 27, 2016

All the books on researchers and the interwebs

In commentary, Random Snark

3 Min Read

27September

Or at least the three I had in my bookmarks. But I feel like there’s been a lot in recent weeks. Are there others to add to this list? Being a Scholar in the Digital Era: Transforming Scholarly Practice for the Public Good (Jessie Daniels and Polly Thistlewaite, Eds).  Strong normative bent in this one, for open research as well as social impact. Explicit focus on collaborating with...

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September 23, 2016

The problem with the problem with input transparency

In commentary, Random Snark

5 Min Read

23September

This isn’t about research or methods, so I’ll be brief. Cass Sunstein, US policy veteran and eminent scholar, recently released a draft article distinguishing between input and output transparency, suggesting that arguments are weaker for the former, and offering reasons why input transparency might often not be a good thing.  (To grossly oversimplify: there are too many inputs to policy-making...

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September 23, 2016

password security tools in an age of constant breaches

In musings, Random Snark

2 Min Read

I keep a fairly close eye on Pindrop’s On the Wire and the Hacker News, which means I’m bombarded by a constant stream of news about hacks and exploits and data leaks. I’m also lucky enough to get notified whenever one of them affects me, thanks to the Have I been pwned?, which crosschecks your email against the lists of any hacked credentials made public, then sends you a...

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