With apologies for cross-postings.

The first seminar in the Centre for e-Research Seminar Series for 2012, 
Digital Transformations of Research and Styles of Knowing by Ralph 
Shroeder and Eric Meyer, is on Thursday 17th January in the Anatomy 
Theatre and Museum, King's College London. For more information and to 
register, please go to 
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/groups/cerch/events/seminars/index.aspx

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Digital Transformations of Research and Styles of Knowing

Ralph Schroeder, Senior Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute

Eric T. Meyer, Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute

Tuesday 17 January, 6.15pm, Anatomy Museum. Followed by drinks
In recent years, large-scale research programmes have been implemented 
across the globe with labels like e-Science, e-Infrastructure and 
cyberinfrastructure (Meyer and Schroeder 2009). It has been argued that 
these various digital transformations have fundamentally changed how 
research is done. In this paper, we challenge this argument, and suggest 
instead that there are more specific changes in particular areas of 
research that have taken place. To delimit the scope of what can be 
considered a digital transformation of research or ‘e-Research’ (since 
these could potentially encompass a vast range of phenomena), we define 
these as the distributed and collaborative use of digital tools and data 
in the production of scientific knowledge. One feature that e-Research 
efforts share is that they consist of online research technologies with 
a digital component, though what this component consists of varies among 
particular e-Research projects (for example, data in a digital format, 
the use of computing power to perform processing, or the creation of 
complex visualizations with computer graphics). We argue, however, that 
this variety in technologies is not infinite, but that there are a 
limited number of these components which can be identified.

Please register to attend at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2658460527

About the speakers

Dr Eric T. Meyer is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. 
His research in the area of social informatics focuses on understanding 
how digital technologies enable changes in the way people work, relate 
and interact. A particular focus has been studying how the practices of 
research are changing as digital tools and data become central in the 
sciences, social sciences, and arts & humanities. He is broadly 
interested in a fundamental question regarding how technology and 
practice are related: what evidence is there that technology has enabled 
people and organizations to do entirely new things? More information is 
available at: http://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/people/?id=120

Ralph Schroeder is Professor at the Oxford Internet Institute at the 
University of Oxford. He is director of research at the Institute and 
director of its Master's degree in 'Social Science of the Internet'. His 
books include 'Rethinking Science, Technology and Social Change' 
(Stanford University Press 2007) and 'Being there Together: Social 
Interaction in Virtual Environments' (Oxford University Press 2010). 
Before coming to Oxford, he was Professor at Chalmers University in 
Gothenburg, Sweden. His current research is focused on the digital 
transformations of research

-- 
Dr Stuart Dunn
Research Fellow
Centre for e-Research
King's College London

www.stuartdunn.wordpress.com

Tel +44 (0)207 848 2709
Fax +44 (0)207 848 1989
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