Web-based Tools for Developing and Accessing Sociological Theory

用于开发和访问社会学理论的基于网络的工具

• 批准号: 1123040
• 负责人: Barry Markovsky
• 金额: $ 19.18万
• 依托单位: University South Carolina Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-10-01 至 2014-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1123040&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Web; based; Tools; Developing; Accessing

SES - 1123040Barry Markovsky (P.I.)Jose Vidal (co-P.I.)University of South CarolinaWeb-based Tools for Developing and Accessing Sociological TheoryAbstractThis project involves designing, implementing and testing a web-based system for developing, improving and disseminating sociological theories across all areas of the discipline. The proposed "Wikitheoria" will provide a range of services via a set of user-friendly tools, and a set of incentives to foster broad participation. At the heart of the system is the concept of "modular theorizing," i.e., small, explicit, inter-connectable theories that can be assembled in different ways for different purposes. On the management side, the system will receive and store original submissions, analyze logical and semantic structures of submitted materials, organize, index and hyperlink text to maximize ease of use, display and disseminate content, offer recommendations for improvements, and evaluate usage patterns. From the user's perspective the system will provide tools to help learn the interface, search intelligently for content in specific areas, identify relevant materials from other substantive areas, collectively evaluate and enhance submitted materials, cross-fertilize between sub-disciplines, identify researchable claims, evaluate relevant findings from prior research, theoretically inform empirical applications, promote use by non-sociologists, supplement teaching, and more. The system will facilitate the development of improved theories using proven incentives and knowledge aggregation methods. The web interface and underlying processes will capitalize on what has already been learned from the successes of other knowledge systems such as Wikipedia and StackOverflow, and the lack of success of others such as Google Knol and Yahoo! Answers. The modularized program will be developed on the Google App Engine, a free hosting platform that allows application development and deployment on the Google cloud of servers. The PIs use Google account services and other web functions with which users are likely to be familiar already or else can acquire with ease.By offering an infrastructure tool that encourages theoretically-driven research, Wikitheoria will simultaneously advance substantive knowledge and offer resources for those seeking to apply that knowledge. The system will be relatively easy to use, and will inform scholars and practitioners within and outside of sociology. The system's blind evaluation system and openness to contributors eliminates any possible impact of participants' demographic characteristics. Professional network, rank, status in the discipline, race, gender, and geographic location play no part in determining the relevance of any contribution. The project also offers some unique opportunities for students and instructors to participate in the system such as contributing theoretical material, using content in class, and posting to discussion groups.

SES-1123040 Barry Markovsky（P.I.）Jose Vidal（co-P.I.）本项目涉及设计、实施和测试一个基于网络的系统，用于开发、改进和传播跨学科的社会学理论。拟议的"维基理论"将通过一套用户友好的工具提供一系列服务，并提供一套鼓励广泛参与的激励措施。该系统的核心是"模块化理论"的概念，即，小的，明确的，相互连接的理论，可以以不同的方式为不同的目的组装。在管理方面，该系统将接收和储存提交的原始材料，分析提交材料的逻辑和语义结构，组织、索引和超链接文本，以最大限度地方便使用，显示和传播内容，提出改进建议，并评估使用模式。从用户的角度来看，该系统将提供工具，以帮助学习界面，智能搜索特定领域的内容，识别其他实质性领域的相关材料，集体评估和增强提交的材料，子学科之间的交叉，识别可研究的主张，评估先前研究的相关发现，理论上告知经验应用，促进非社会学家的使用，补充教学，和更多.该系统将利用已证明有效的激励措施和知识汇总方法，促进改进理论的发展。Web界面和底层流程将利用已经从其他知识系统（如维基百科和StackOverflow）的成功中吸取的经验，以及其他知识系统（如Google Knol和Yahoo!答案该模块化程序将在Google App Engine上开发，这是一个免费的托管平台，允许在Google云服务器上开发和部署应用程序。PI使用Google帐户服务和其他用户可能已经熟悉或可以轻松获得的网络功能。通过提供鼓励理论驱动研究的基础设施工具，Wikitheoria将同时推进实质性知识并为那些寻求应用这些知识的人提供资源。该系统将相对易于使用，并将告知社会学内外的学者和从业人员。该系统的盲目评价系统和对投稿人的开放性消除了参与者人口特征的任何可能影响。专业网络、级别、学科地位、种族、性别和地理位置在决定任何贡献的相关性方面都不起作用。该项目还为学生和教师提供了一些参与系统的独特机会，如贡献理论材料，在课堂上使用内容，并张贴到讨论组。