Danah Boyd - Apophenia Big Data - Opportunities For Computational and Social Sciences

15/11/2017 danah boyd | apophenia Big Data: Opportunities for Computational and Social Sciences
Harassment Speaking
by Q&A: Initial about Privacy
Thoughts on and Publicity
Formspring.me [http://www.z
[http://www.zephoria.org/
about-
by-qa- privacy-
initial- and-
thoughts- publicity.html]
on-
formspring-
me.html]
Big Data:
Opportunities
for
Computation
al and Social
Sciences
Scott Golder recently wrote
blog post at Cloudera entitled
Scaling Social Science with
Hadoop
[http://www.cloudera.c
om/blog/2010/04/scalin
g-social-science-with-
hadoop/] where he
accounts for how social
scientists are using large
scale computation. He
begins with a delightful quote
from George Homans: The
methods of social science are
dear in time and money and
getting dearer every day. He
then turns to talk about the
trajectory of social science:
When
Homans
one of my
favorite
20th
century
social
scientists
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/04/17/big-data-opportunities-for-computational-and-social-sciences.html 1/22
wrote
the above,
one of the
reasons
the data
needed to
do social
science
was
expensive
was
because
collecting
it didnt
scale very
well. If
conducting
an
interview
or lab
experimen
t takes an
hour, two
interviews
or
experimen
ts takes
two hours.
The
amount of
data you
can collect
this way
grows
linearly
with the
number of
graduate
students
you can
send into
the field
(or with
the
number of
hours you
can make
them
work!).
But as our
collective
body of
knowledge
has
accumulat
ed, and
the low-
hanging
fruit
questions
have been
answered,
the
complexity
of our
questions
is growing
faster than
our
practical
capacity to
answer
them.
Things are
about to
change.
This is his bouncing off point

for thinking about how
computational social
science provides new
opportunities because of the
large archives of
naturalistically-created
behavioral data. And then he
makes a very compelling
claim for why looking at
behavioral data is critical:
Though
social
scientists
care what
people
think its
also
important
to observe
what
people , do
especially
if what
they think
they do
turns out
to be
different
from what
they
actually
do.
By and large, I agree with

him. Big Data presents new
opportunities for
understanding social practice.
Of course the next statement
must begin with a but. And
that but is simple: Just
because you see traces of
data doesnt mean you
always know the intention or
cultural logic behind them.
And just because you have a
big N doesnt mean that its
representative or
generalizable. Scott knows
this
[http://scottgolder.wor
dpress.com/2010/04/06
/scaling-social-science-
with-hadoop/] , but too
many people obsessed with
Big Data dont.
Increasingly, computational
scientists are having a field
day with Big Data. This is
exemplified by the web
science community and
highly visible in conferences
like CHI and WWW and
ICWSM and many other
communities in which I am a
peripheral member. In these
communities, Ive noticed
something that I find
increasingly worrisome
Many computational scientists
believe that because they
have large N data that they

know more about peoples
practices than any other
social scientist. Time and
time again, I see
computational scientists
mistake behavioral traces for
cultural logic. And this both
saddens me and worries me,
especially when we think
about the politics of
scholarship and funding. Im
getting ahead of myself.
Let me start with a concrete

example. Just as social
network sites were beginning
to gain visibility, I reviewed a
computational science piece
(that was never published)
where the authors had
crawled Friendster, calculated
numbers of friends, and used
this to explain how social
network sites were increasing
friendship size. My anger in
reading this article resulted in
a rant that turned into a First
Monday article
[http://firstmonday.org/
htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/in
dex.php/fm/article/view
/1418/1336] . As is now
common knowledge, theres a
big difference between why
people connect on social
network sites and why they
declare relationships when
being interviewed by a
sociologist. This is the
difference between
articulated networks and
personal networks.
On one hand, we can laugh

at this and say, oh folks didnt
know how these sites would
play out, isnt that funny. But
this beast hasnt yet died.
These days, the obsession is
with behavioral networks.
Obviously, the people who

spend the most time together
are the REAL strong ties,
right? Wrong. By such a
measure, Im far closer to
nearly everyone that I work
with than my brother or
mother who mean the world
to me. Even if we can
calculate time spent
interacting, theres a
difference in the quality of
time spent with different
people.
Big Data is going to be

extremely important but we
can never lose track of the
context in which this data is
produced and the cultural
logic behind its production.
We must continue to ask
why questions that cannot
be answered through traces
alone, that cannot be elicited
purely through experiments.
And we cannot automatically
assume that some theoretical
body of work on one data set
can easily transfer to another
data set if the underlying
conditions are different.
As we start to address Big

Data, we must begin by
laying the groundwork,
understanding the theoretical
foundations that make sense
and knowing when they dont
apply. Cherry picking from
different fields without
understanding where those
ideas are rooted will lead us
astray.
Each methodology has its

strength and weaknesses.
Each approach to data has its
strengths and weaknesses.
Each theoretical apparatus
has its place in scholarship.
And one of the biggest
challenges in doing
interdisciplinary work is
being about to account for
these differences, to know
what approach works best for
what question, to know what
theories speak to what data
and can be used in which
ways.
Unfortunately, our disciplinary

nature makes a mess out of
this. Scholars arent trained to
read in other fields, let alone
make sense of the conditions
in which that work was
produced. Thus, its all-too-
common to pick and choose
from different fields and take
everything out of context.
This is one of the things that
scares me about students
trained in interdisciplinary
programs.
Now, of course, you might

ask: But didnt you come
from an interdisciplinary
program? Yes, I did. But
theres a reason that I was in
grad school for 8.5 years. The
first two were brutal as I
received a rude awakening
that I knew nothing about
social science. And then I did
a massive retraining as an
ethnographer drawing on
sociological and
anthropological literatures. At
this point, thats my strength
as a scholar. I know how to
ask qualitative questions and
I know how to employ
ethnographic methods and
theories to work out cultural
practices. I had to specialize
to have enough depth.
Of course, theres one big

advantage to an
interdisciplinary program: its
easy to gain an appreciation
for diverse methodological

and analytical approaches. In
my path, Ive learned to value
experimental, computational,
and quantitative research,
but Im by no means well
trained in any of those
approaches. That said, I am
confident in my ability to
assess which questions can
be answered by which
approaches. This also means
that I can account for the
questions I cant answer.
Now back to Big Data Big

Data creates tremendous
opportunities for those who
know how to assess the
context of the data and ask
the right questions into it. But
mucking with Big Data alone
is not research. And seeing
patterns in Big Data is not the
same as hypothesis testing.
Patterns invite more
questions than they answer.
I agree with Scott that theres

the potential for social
science to be transformed by
Big Data. So many questions
that weve wanted to ask but
havent been able to. But Im
also worried that more
computationally minded
researchers will think that
theyre answering social
science questions simply by
finding patterns in Big Data.
Its the same worry that I
have when graph theorists
think that they understand
people because they can
model a narrow kind of
information flow given the
perfect conditions.
If were going to actually

attack Big Data, the best
solution would be to combine
forces between social
scientists and computational

scientists. In some places,
this is happening. But there
are also huge issues at play
that need to be accounted for
and addressed. First, every
discipline has its arrogance
and far too many scholars
think that they know
everything. We desperately
need a little humility here.
Second, we need to think
about the differences in
publication, collaboration, and
validation across fields. Social
scientists arent going to get
tenure on ACM or IEEE
publications. Hell, theyre
often dismissed for anything
thats not single author.
Computational scientists
often see no point in the
extended review cycles that
go into journal publications to
help produce solid articles.
And dont get me started on
the messy reviewing process
involved on both sides.
We need to find a way for

people to start working
together and continue to get
validated in their work. I
actually think that the funding
agencies are going to play a
huge role in this, not just in
demanding cross-disciplinary
collaboration, but in setting
the stage for how research
will be published. Given
departmental obsessions with
funding these days, they
have a lot of sway over
shaping the future here.
Theres also another path

that needs to be used: cross-
bred students. Scott Golder,
our fearless critic, is a good
example of this. He was
trained in computational ways
before going to Cornell to
pursue a PhD in sociology.

This is one way of doing it.
Another is to start cross-
breeding students early on.
Computer scientists: teach
courses for social scientists
on how to think about Big
Data from a computational
perspective. Social scientists:
allow computer scientists into
your core courses or teach
core courses for them to
understand the fundamentals
of social science methodology
and social theory. And
universities: provide
incentives for your faculty to
teach students outside of
their departments and for
departments to encourage
their students to take classes
in other departments.
Its great that we have Big

Data but we need to develop
the intellectual apparatus to
actually analyze it. Each of us
has a piece to the puzzle, but
stitching it together is going
to take a lot of reworking of
old habits. It can be done
and it is important. The key is
to let go of our grudges and
territoriality without letting go
of our analytic rigor and
depth.
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0Sci %2
patterns in Big Data is not
enc 0Gol
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e% der
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%2Shall we call this the entl
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0wh [http://any
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April 18th, 2010 at 9:53
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s%2
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0%ent-36992] ntitl
22h ed
I feel like actual social
ow %2
scientists doing statistical
%2work often dont like 0%
observational
0soc studies22S
which is what you usually
ial% calin
get in Big Data world
20sc g%
but rather, are all into
ienti
randomized or natural 20S
sts
experiments as theocial best
%2methodology, if you%2can
get
0are it. Matthew Salganik,
0Sci
for example, thinks the
%2 enc
point of the web for social
0usi
science research is e% to
ngallow really good 20w
%2experiments. As funith as it
is
0lar to run some Big Data
%2
observational studies, I
ge 0Ha
think theres some
%2wisdom there. I always doo
0sca
feel I learn more from p%
le%
reading an ethnography 22
or
20c survey, where at least
%2
the researcher gets to
omp 0wh
formulate the queries.
utati ere
As for interdisciplinary
on. %2
people, eventually the
%2best people doing this 0hewill
2%be social science phds%2in
20social science 0acc
%2departments who have
ount
strong computational
0He s%2
skills. The fact that
%2computer scientists are
0for
involved at all is an%2

0be
accident of history during
gins 0%
this transitional period.
%2Give it 10-20 years.
22h
0wit ow
What all this big-data-for-
h%social-science stuff %2 is, is
20a 0soc
quantitative methodology
%2 ial%of
for social science. Lots
social
0del science disciplines
20sc
have methodology
ightf ienti
subfields for this sort of
ul% sts
thing political science
20q
has political %2
uote
methodology, economics0are
%2has econometrics, %2 and
so
0fro on. Its a potentially
0usi
very useful methodology,
m%potentially ground-
ng
20G
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eorg
problems, but at the 0larend
e%of the day just a ge
methodology in service
20H %2 of
answer questions, that
oma 0sca
requires cognizance of the
ns%
right questions to use le%
3Aproperly. 20c
%2 omp
As for interdisciplinary
0Th utati
institutions, it is indeed
e%very hard. Compounding on.
matters,
20m it can be hard
%2
enough just to find both
etho 2%
good social science and
ds%
computation at the20 same
20of
university; you were %2 lucky
%2 0He is
to be at Berkeley, which
one of the exceptions.
0soc %2But
that still doesnt solve the
] 0be
problems with institutional
gins
incentives and the like. I
%2
always imagined industrial
research labs might0wit be
one of the few places h%to
effectively support 20a this
sort of research
%2
0del
Barry ightf
Brown
ul%
April 18th,
2010 at20q8:58
pm uote
[http://www.zephori %2
a.org/thoughts/archi 0fro
ves/2010/04/17/big- m%
data-opportunities- 20G
for-computational- eorg
and-social- e%
sciences.html#comm 20H
ent-37286] oma
At one knuckle point here

ns%
you have Sociology vs.
3A
Economics, which Ive
%2
always thought would be
0Th
an almighty battleground
e%
but is surprisingly quiet.
20m
Some of us are interested
in socio-logics, the etho
why of
whatever we do sods% you
can go about changing
20of
and influencing those
%2
behaviours. But a lot of
people arent since 0soc
they
] an
see that as ultimately
impossible task (why did
you buy a stupid iPad vs.
How many ipads sold this
month) so they focus on
the aggregate and higher
level patterns.
Im pessimistic about the
chances for bringing these
approaches together not
just because they have
different answers to that
question, but because
they have a different view
of what scale is. Everyone
talks about mixed
methods but nobody does
it and if they do its a
right old muddle.
I remember an argument
between two friends:
ultimately everything is
quant. how can you say
that, ultimately everything
is qual!
jkd
[http://jac
ob.kramer-
duffield.co
m]
April 19th, 2010 at 12:42
pm
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37468]
Seconded.
tricia wang
[http://ww
w.triciawa
ng.com]
April 20th, 2010 at 2:12
am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37639]
This is a really great
article to compliment your
post dana looks at 3
different interdisciplinary
areas of research and one
of those areas is
ethnography in the IT
industry!
http://bit.ly/d5vakd
[http://bit.ly/d5vakd]
Barry, A., Born, G., and
Weszkalnys, G. Logics of
interdisciplinarity.
Economy and Society 37,
1 (2008), 20-49.
This paper interrogates
influential contemporary
accounts of
interdisciplinarity, in which
it is portrayed as offering
new ways of rendering
science accountable to
society and/or of forging
closer relations between
scientific research and
innovation. The basis of
the paper is an eighteen-
month empirical study of
three interdisciplinary
fields that cross the
boundaries between the
natural sciences or
engineering, on the one
hand, and the social
sciences or arts, on the
other.
marcus
[http://na]
April 20th,
2010 at
10:11 am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37724]
nice article. thanks. has
be pondering if
quantitative and
qualitative will ever co-
exist. sort of like debating
the existence of god in
society. everyone sees
the same things, yet each
has a very different
perspective of what they
are seeing. hope you are
well.
e. pyatt
April 20th,
2010 at 3:49
pm
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37798]
Another good article. Ive
seen similar problems in
linguistic research by non-
linguists (from biologists
in particular) and
linguists trying to answer
archaeological problems
(usually badly), so I
sympathize.
There may be promising
approaches in in
combining information
from Big Data and
ethnography, but the
researcher has to
understand the
methodologies BOTH
disciplines so as to not
create a too simplistic
model (e.g. more daily
contact = closer
relationtionship).
I agree with commenters

who point out that you
tend to get different types
of information from
different methodologies,
and the connection points
are not always obvious. I
think Big Data could be
worth pursuing IF
everyone understands
what theyre doing (not
saying I do by the way). I
agree that assuming this
will give us quick and
simple answers can be
dangerous.
zephoria
[http://dan
ah.org]
April 20th,
2010 at 9:49 pm
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37858]
CS grad student: Learn
social science
methodologies from social
scientists. Develop a taste
for the different
methodological
approaches, what
questions can be
addressed through what
means, etc. Find a social
scientist advisor who can
help acculturate you.
Jed Hallam
[http://roc
k-star-
pr.com/]
April 21st, 2010 at 5:08
am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37942]
Hey Danah,
This is a brilliant post
thank you! I started
writing up a comment
basically talking about
how Big Data is effecting
social media analysis and
tried to put a social media
spin on things and it
ended up being horrifically
long so I published it as a
post instead (here ->
http://rock-star-
pr.com/big-data-and-
social-media-analysis/
[http://rock-star-
pr.com/big-data-
and-social-media-
analysis/] ).
Thanks again!
Cornelius
[http://yna
da.com/]
April 21st,
2010 at 9:06 am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-37972]
Thanks for a very
insightful and timely post,
danah. I think many of
the issues you raise about
the suggestiveness of
data and its
representation will stay
with us for many years to
come. I also think they
will spill out beyond
compsci/socsci and
beyond scholarship in
general. Im referring to
the applications of
social/human data
modeling in things like
profiling, context-sensitive
ads and semantic web
technologies that infer
without understanding
context. People will
mistrust these
technologies even if they
become very reliable over
time, and there will be a
significant need for critical
debate and mediation
between those who build
them and the public at
large, which is something
social scientists and
humanities scholars who
are tech literate can
hopefully help with.
One thought came up
when reading your piece
and thinking about
numerous other pieces on
Big Data Ive read over
time (e.g. Chris
Andersons article on The
end of theory:
http://www.wired.com/sci
ence/discoveries/magazin
e/16-07/pb_theory
[http://www.wired.c
om/science/discoveri
es/magazine/16-
07/pb_theory] ). Big
Data ultimately strikes me
as an incredibly male
idea. Quantitative data is
incredibly suggestive, esp.
when visualized. There is
the idea that it shows or
proves something that
precludes other
interpretations and it
conveniently provides
rhetorical ammunition to
get almost anything
across (when misused).
Being data literate is
essential.
eliot
[http://ww
w.eliotbate
s.com]
April 23rd, 2010 at 12:41
am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-38464]
Danah, thanks for this
blog posting, it dovetails
in an uncanny way with
Tim OReilleys recent
keynote at the MySQL CE
2010 conference
http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=WqLB99dA48k
[http://www.youtub
e.com/watch?
v=WqLB99dA48k]
about The Cloud and
the corporate use of data
in order to facilitate
consumer convenience
(while accumulating an
unprecedented amount of
data that can be analyzed
and monetized). It seems
that many of the
problems you note by
scholars without a social
science background who
make erroneous
assumptions using Big
Data boil down to nothing
more that logical flaws
(intentional fallacies,
proof by assertion, etc.)
Perhaps a couple
semesters of formal
logical training would
assist, in addition to more
social science
background!
Ben
Shneiderma
n
[http://ww
w.cs.umd.edu/~ben]
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:18 am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-41606]
Go danah! Bravo for this
thoughtful post.
Combining quantitative &
qualitative methods to
from credible case studies
is the challenge as
Science 2.0 researchers
press forward to
understand the science of
the made world. Big data
is a great opportunity, but
ethnographic methods are
needed to make the
results meaningful.
Boris
Shakhnovich
[http://ww
w.iamscien
tist.com]
October 23rd, 2010 at
11:21 am
[http://www.zephori
ves/2010/04/17/big-
data-opportunities-
for-computational-
and-social-
sciences.html#comm
ent-656986]
I think that the future of
science is really in inter-
disciplinary research that
can be used to create
collaborations between
folks that produce data
and those that analyzie it.
For example, check out
the latest in collaborative
grants and RFAs posted
by organizations here:
http://www.iamscientist.c
om/rfas
[http://www.iamscie
ntist.com/rfas]

Danah Boyd - Apophenia Big Data - Opportunities For Computational and Social Sciences

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15/11/2017 danah boyd | apophenia Big Data: Opportunities for Computational and Social Sciences

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