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System-Level Experimentation: Social Computing and Analytics for Theory Building and Evaluation

Authors:
Tom McDermott
Dennis Folds
Molly Nadolski

Keywords: sociotechnical systems; complex adaptive systems; data modeling; conceptual modeling; experimentation

Abstract:
This paper introduces the concept of shared data experimentation platforms as a means to transform access to and sharing of social science research data. Such platforms are becoming a central component of biomedical research, and are expanding into other fields. We discuss a framework for the development of data analytic experimentation platforms in the social sciences. Social situations are inherently complex adaptive systems that a difficult to generalize without explicitly documenting both the phenomena and related context. We introduce the concept of a “campaign of experiments” that focuses on purposeful exploration of social phenomena in order to evaluate generalizable, reproducible, and repeatable theory. We also propose sociotechnical systems analysis methods to define the appropriate conceptual models of social situations, which can then be used to structure the experimentation data in a form that promotes reuse and replication. We discuss challenges and opportunities associated with an experimentation platform concept, and methodologies that can support development of such platforms.

Pages: 55 to 60

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2016

Publication date: November 13, 2016

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2519-8351

ISBN: 978-1-61208-519-7

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from November 13, 2016 to November 17, 2016