Showing posts with label big data. Show all posts
Showing posts with label big data. Show all posts

Friday, 15 April 2016

Social science sites of the week




Get the facts on its contribution to UK manufacturing, employment and trends in production.

Guardian Newspaper  launch campaign against Internet abuse and harassment

They have also released some initial analysis of comments posted and blocked on their website. This reveals  more abusive comments were blocked about articles written by women. As a result the site is leading a discussion on what can improve social relations on the Internet.
Here are some other useful sources measuring the extent and nature of online abuse.
In 2015 the UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development issued a report calling for a world-wide wake up call against cyberviolence targeting women and girls.
In England/ Wales Official figures on negative online experiences are gathered by the Office for National Statistics and published as a supplementary table they record online harassment by gender. In 2014 Demos published an interesting report on the extent and nature of misogyny on Twitter
Reports on cyberstalking and Cyberbullying in the USA can be retrieved from this special feature on the NCRJC website. and WAM has some resources concerning harassment, women and twitter.


Which graduates earn the most? Do family, class and Gender matter?
New from IFS an analysis of 260,000 student tax and loan records which examines variations in earnings over a 10 year period after graduation . It considers whether gender, socioeconomic class, institution and subject studied effect income. A key conclusion is that
p.55 Graduates from higher income households earn more (up to around 60%
more for males and 45% for females) than their peers from lower income households.
There were also shocking  large variations by institution
‘For instance, more than 10% of male graduates from LSE, Oxford and Cambridge were earning in excess of £100,000 a year ten years after graduation in 2012/13, with LSE graduates earning the most. LSE was the only institution with more than 10% of its female graduates earning in excess of £100,000 a year ten years on . Whereas the median male graduate earnings were nearer £45,000


New EU referendum reports this week
This week IFS launch an interactive tool to allow voters to explore the EU budget which countries pay in the most? Who gets the most?
The Electoral Commission designated the two lead campaigners at the EU Referendum – designating ‘The In Campaign Ltd’ to be the lead campaigner for the “Remain” outcome, and ‘Vote Leave Ltd’ for the “Leave” outcome. Its decision , with associated papers can be downloaded from the website.
LSE launches EU referendum videos on its YouTube channel. The 10-week video series (starting 13th April) will feature daily  expert comment from the School’s academics on a wide range of issues relating to the EU referendum on 23 June.


Million pound homes – get the facts!
According to some data releases from the Office for National Statistics. 13,679 was the number of properties sold for £1million or more in England and Wales, in the year ending September 2015. In 1996 it was 270 . Get the full data set   House price statistics for all areas from 1995-2015 and Test your knowledge in the million pound properties quiz!
A report by the LSE and Santander has predicted that by 2030 1 in 4 London homes will be valued at £1milion or more.
In terms of affordability . In 2015 Shelter published a report that from 1969-2014, house prices for first time buyers had increased by 48 times, whereas incomes had risen 29 times. the London Data store has information on  house price ratios to salary in London Boroughs.   Recently the Centre for London also issued a report on Housing and inequality in the capital which shows rising housing costs (both in the rented and mortgage sector)  causing greater wealth disparity.and a move to the suburbs for poorer people. Shelter has also issued a tube map of affordability of rented housing in London stating that of 270 stations only 15 are in affordable renting areas.
Use the BBC tracker tool to find out where you can afford to live

Fairness for Children: a league table of inequality in child well-being in rich countries
The latest report card from UNICEF examines the condition of children in  the EU and wealthy OECD nations. It focuses on the gap between rich and poor in four areas: income, education, health and life satisfaction
Key policy concerns include:
 Protect the incomes of households with the poorest children.
• Improve the educational achievements of disadvantaged learners.
• Promote and support healthy lifestyles for all children.
• Take subjective well-being seriously.
• Place equity at the heart of child well-being agendas. 
See the UK ranking. UNICEF concluded that the gap between rich and poor had narrowed .
Denmark was ranked first in the report's findings. Britain 1. There were concerns in gaps about educational performance, and health eating where the uK was rated lowly.

Another key report published this week relating to Child wellbeing was
CentreForum Commission on children and young people’s mental health. It revealed the problems young people face when trying to access mental health care.

Hansard Society Audit of Political Engagement released.
The 13th annual edition of this key publication  has just been published. It is based on is based on an opinion poll conducted by Ipsos MORI between 11 and 29 December 2015 with a representative quota sample of adults aged 18+ across Great Britain measuring factors associated with interest in and engagement in politics amongst voters. Topics covered include interest in EU and certainty to vote in the referendum, perception of parliament and levels of participation.

Data USA
A great new site which visualizes American government Data. It is developed by Deloitte, Datawheel, and Cesar Hidalgo, Professor at the MIT Media Lab with the aim of making statistical data visible and accessible.
View maps or profiles  by location, occupation and industry and education . The site also has visual stories created by users. See for instance this one on the skills required for an economics degree. Which also has data on gender, racial composition of award holders, geographic concentration in the USA and pay!

Trussell Trust Food Bank data visualization.
The Trussell Trust has worked with data scientists, business model specialists and academics from the University of Hull and the commercial sector to create the UK’s first ever dynamic visualisation tool for crises leading to foodbank use, mapping 18 months of foodbank data against deprivation indices from the 2011 census and other open data. See the mapping hunger report


How to choose a world Leader
This week the United Nations held its first public debates to select a new secretary general. This press release explains the process. Further detail is on the UN website .  UN webTV has recordings.
There is also a twitter feed where you can see questions submitted.
1 for 7 Billion is a global campaign supported by organisations and individuals from all corners of the globe committed to getting the best UN Secretary-General. see its discussion of the process and its 10 urgent reforms.        

Finally find a remedy for your hayfever!
Digital archive of Druggist and Chemist
A fascinating digital journal archive project completed by the Wellcome Library and available on the Internet Archive.  The Chemist and Druggist is weekly journal of the pharmacy trade, the online issues cover over 150 years from the 1850s. As well as  constituting a fascinating  resource on the history of medicine and pharmacy; Social historians can browse original advertisements for patent medicines, medical products and more.  See this example from May 1889 which features on the front page an advertisement for Royal embrocation- I was not sure if this was for the horse or the rider to rub in!  Read more about the digitisation project on their blog.

Friday, 12 February 2016

Social science sites of the week



Celebrating LGBT History month

To celebrate LGBT History month take a look at recommended academic resources on our blog. Items will be added throughout February

Take a look at the Gay t-Shirt archive!
Wearing Gay History
a digital archive of American LGBT t-shirts. created by Doctoral student Eric Gonzaba who digitized the entire t-shirt collection of the Chris Gonzalez Library and Archives in Indiana
T-shirts have been used to express gay identity, politics and pride as well as fashion. There are current 6 exhibitions including gay pride
alternatively browse the t-shirt map!


What does your vice – chancellor earn?
How do does pay and perks compare at the UK top universities? Find out in the annual report from UCU union Transparency at the top? This was published as part of its campaign for greater transparency in UK university executive pay. It also includes expenditure on air flights, hotel accommodation and expenses.

How does your pay compare? Use their Rate for the Job calculator to compare your wages with people in other institutions performing a similar role
Look at out Scoop.it page to read more recent reports on Higher education, teaching and learning


Also published this week
NMC Horizon Report 2016 Higher Education Edition

is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Download the full text from the website. What trends does it predict for the future use of technology in higher education. What are the challenges? Bring your own device and learning analytics are seen to be some of the key areas in the coming year. The report is based in the USA but is applicable elsewhere each section has links to supporting reading and some case studies.

Draft Investigatory Powers Bill- parliamentary report launched
Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill has just published a report with 86 recommendations on improving the clarity of the bill. The website has access to written and oral evidence presented.
View the full text of the Bill and associated documents on the Home Office website
Also released this week the Intelligence and Security Committee report on the Bill.
The Open Rights Group Wiki has a good timeline of key events in the run up to the bill with links to UK government documents.

Guardian viewpoint published 2nd November 2015

Open Rights Group response to the select committee report.

Don’t Spy on us Coalition response.

Article 19

Internet Service Providers.

We are starting to develop a data and society scoop.it page covering data policy, access, control, potential uses of big data . discover more


Economists on Twitter.
The great working paper site RepEc has just launched its own directory of economists who tweet. This currently lists over 150 who fulfil a criteria of inclusion given on the website. It you have not visited RepEC recently it now indexes over 2 million economics, finance working papers many leading to abstracts and full text. The site also links to EconAcademics.org which aggregates postings from key economics blogs and is hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.


USA 2016 elections: New York Times Resource

Good use of technology from the New York Times its Election 2016 bot can send users live news updates. You can also submit questions to the newsroom by using the command /asknytelection.” Nieman Labs has a review of how this feature works. The New York Times is also experimenting with Virtual reality film from the campaigns. See the smiling Donald Trump!

Also using new technology

New United Nations app
UNU Jargon Buster glossary app for smartphones, with about 450 A-to-Z entries . Find out what the many abbreviations abbreviations mean including programmes and organisations . They are also helpfully cross referenced cross-referenced with the Sustainable Development Goals
If you are looking for help with research on the United Nations try the helpful guides produced by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library . They are great for getting help on tracing UN documents and reports. A good example is this beginners guide to tracing UN documents.

Euro health consumer index 2015
This annual report from Health Consumer Powerhouse analyses European health systems and assesses them on 48 indicators, looking into areas such as patient rights and information, access to care, treatment outcomes and range and reach of services. The main conclusion of this report is that European healthcare is steadily improving, despite worries about financial crisis austerity measures, aging population and migrants.

For worldwide data on health systems and access try the WHO website. They have a Global Health Observatory . Browse the data there is a section for Health Systems.

For the UK , and analysis of NHS performance, a great starting point is the Kings Fund website . They publish quarterly monitoring reports. Also issued by them this week public opinion on the performance of the NHS. How satisfied are patients?

Oman Digital Library
Access hundreds of online resources digitised from the Oman Library Middle East Institute. Most manuscripts and books date from 1700 to 1921. They include Arabic documents as well as travellers accounts and colonial books from the Middle East offering insight into the cultural life and political history of the region.

A snapshot of examples include:
· Report on the Russian army and its campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878
Greene, F. V. (Francis Vinton 1908
Kitāb-i Maẓhar al-ajāʼib
Authors: ʻAṭṭār, Farīd al-Dīn Language: Farsi 1316 [1937]
The Persian crisis of December, 1911
Authors: Browne, Edward Granville, 1862-1926 [1912]

Culture under threat map – antiquities threatened by conflict 2016

The Antiquities Coalition has produced an interactive map to provide a visual mapping of sites and regions under threat by recent violence in the Middle East/ North Africa. The focus is upon countries who are members of the Arab League. The maps has been produced using the ArcGIS mapping system from Esri . There is a focus on sites ‘deliberately targeted by Daesh and indication of UNESCO world heritage sites and major museums. The ‘terrorist groups have been defined using data from the National Counterterrorism Center. The site has definitions and data sources.

Colouring books from the worlds most famous museums and libraries

In February 2016 a major campaign was launched on social media #ColorOurCollections–made available free colouring books, letting you colour artwork from the collections of art museums and galleries then share them
See some fun examples from the Bodleian Library
Smithsonian Library
New York Public Library
And the amazing colouring book of Patents – with an eye protector for chickens and many kinds of robots!