Is It a Day to Be Happy? Check the Index

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/technology/internet/12link.html

An anonymous Facebook study about words used in status updates to determine the "Happy Index."

Even YouTube does research

Found this post in my RSS of all things online video today.

YouTube Grows to Embrace (and Maybe Apply) User Research

They had user groups use an interesting method to generate the data. The users were given magnets with various potential parts of a YouTube website to "build" their ideal page layout.




The actual YouTube post can be found here.

Is Online Privacy a Generational Issue?

Posting over at Wired.com with some numbers and some ideas for possible research or issues to consider in regard to method?

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/10/is-online-privacy-a-generational-issue/

Two-Thirds Oppose Being Tracked on the Internet

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/business/media/30adco.html

Interesting study done by the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley about Internet privacy.

"ABOUT two-thirds of Americans object to online tracking by advertisers — and that number rises once they learn the different ways marketers are following their online movements."

Approaches to studying Free Software: in-class assignment

Methods Assignment

Each pair of students will be assigned one of the four methods discussed in class to apply to research on the Free Software Movement. You don’t have to actually conduct the research but please write a brief proposal that describes how you would approach the topic using your assigned method. We'll work on this in class today and Monday. Please post your proposal on the blog when you are finished.

Your proposal should include the following:

I. A research question that reflects the method that is being used.
II. A description of what your research will entail. Be as specific as possible given the time constraints. (What sites will you analyze, who will you talk to, what laws, court cases, policies will you look into, how will you observe/participate in the movement?)
III. The advantages and disadvantages of your particular method in terms of what you will know once your research is carried out.

Some information to get you started

Free Software Foundation

Why Open Source Misses the Point

Philosophy of the GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)

Salon | The free software story

Salon | 21st: Apache's free-software warriors

Free software movement - Wikipedia