Theme 2

Briefly explain to a first year student what theory is, and what theory is not.   
Well dear first year student, what theory is isn't the simplest question to answer, but it's basically what you base you research on when writing a paper or thesis. To quote a man well-versed in this subject: “ theories are abstract entities that aim to describe, explain, and enhance understanding of the world and, in some cases, to provide predictions of what will happen in the future and to give a basis for intervention and action.” (Gregor, 2006). A good example of such theories are the law of gravity, or E = mc^2. 

Can theory be anything then, you might ask? No, that is not the case, although there's constant discussion on what exactly can be classified as theory, there is some more consensus regarding what isn't. Some (Sutton & Staw, 1995) have tried (rather successfully) to organize the five most common things that tends to be wrongly regarded as theory. These can be summed up as follows: 

• Referenses are not theory
  Despite your best intentions, pointing to others using the same theories as yourself doesn't automatically make your paper a prime example of strong theory. You still need to motivate and explain why you are using these specific theories in your paper, and what you are going to use them for. If you skip that part, your paper will almost certainly fell a bit unmotivated and illogical.
• Data is not theory
  This is important. Just because you have performed many tests, or have found interesting literature and facts, it does't mean you have your theory covered. You still need to explain why you are gathering this data, and what you want to use it for. 
• Lists of variables or constructs are not theory
  Basically the same thing as the data, you need a logical connection, why do you collect the data? 
• Diagrams are not theory
  Yes, they might be flashy and all, but they still don't as theory, it's mainly visualized data. 
• Hypotheses (or predictions) are not theory
  Hypotheses in themselves should not include logical arguments about for instance, empirical relationships. They are not statements about why something is expected to occur, only what is.

Describe the major theory or theories that are used in your selected paper. Which theory type (see Table 2 in Gregor) can the theory or theories be characterized as?

I've chosen the paper "Fitt's law as a research and design tool in human computer interaction" (S. MacKenzie, 1992). I found this a very good example of a paper that really explains, motivates and uses it's theory, and a strong theory at that. The major theory is of course Fitt's Law, which is basically a model of human movement that predicts that the time required to rapidly move to a target area is a function of the distance to the target and the size of the target. I believe it has to be characterized as a number IV theory (Explanation and prediction), because it both can be used to predict certain movements, and also provides a very testable setting. 

Which are the benefits and limitations of using the selected theory or theories?

There are many benefits. For one, Fitt's Law is a very successful and studied model. It provides a strong theoretical basis for many tests, and there is lot's of data, papers, information and adjoining theories. It's also quite easy for the reader to follow along in the argumentation and the references in the article, as they are mainly centred around Fitt's Law. One limitation is of course that you only have one strong line of theory, and are a bit unable to explore others ends.

This week I've been reflecting on the uncertainty of our knowledge. What is knowledge? When you are searching the internet for information, maybe to use for your thesis, it is easy to believe that the information one gets out of other papers and works is "true" knowledge. This is, as Russell shows in his "The Problems of Philosophy" not always the case. I have come to the conclusion that it is important, vital one might say, to question our relationship and our dependency on knowledge when we are pursuing research.

Russells points of view has indeed affected how I perceive my surroundings, and also the things I know, or believe that I know. A great song by Billy Paul goes like "There's two sides to every story; there's a right, there's a wrong, there's the truth" (The song is called Brown Baby). Russell sort of support this, but he also disputes this, meaning that we might never really know the universal truth of things, and when you go that far in your speculations, problems arise.

But I digress, so let us get back to what this means for us engineers. That is a question that surfaced both during the lectures and the seminars, without a good answer being presented. So now, why is this important? I believe that it all comes down to perspective. Perspective on the world, it's different "truths" and the strength to be able to view our knowledge in different ways is key to being an innovative and versatile engineer. Engineers like that are able to adapt and understand the different needs and truths that one might encounter out there in the field, or when producing a master's thesis.

This is why Russell's work is so great, and also why it is and should continue to be, a part in our education.

//Love Larsson

Theme 1

The Journal of  Computer-Mediated Communication is a web-based, peer-reviewed scholarly journal. Its focus is social science research on computer-mediated communication via the Internet, the World Wide Web, and wireless technologies.

From this journal I selected a research paper called "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship" (boyd, Ellison, 2007). The paper is a meta-analysis of the history of Social Network Services (SNS) from the late 90:s to the publishing date for the article (2007). In the article the various different SNSs that became popular during this period of time (such as Facebook, Myspace, Lunarstorm etc) are presented. The different networks individual stories are told, and their rise (and sometimes fall) are analysed. The paper also discuss the topics of privacy on a SNS, and the different user-groups these sites can attract. The contents of this paper has been widely cited (2704 citations according to Google Scholar), and is both relevant and logical. Various sources are cited, there is a clear red line that is followed, the data is both qualitative and quantitative. To sum it all up, the paper is a very useful and substantial presentation of the history of SNSs, and the research done in the field. It's still mainly relevant, though much has happened in the field since 2007, so a new meta-analysis will probably be conducted in a few years. 

Bertrand Russell:

1.  Sense-data is Russell's word for the different input we receive through our senses when we interact with something. For example: the table he uses as an example is an unknown object, that appears (in every meaning of the word) like a table, but it's also appears different depending on which person are interacting with it, and how. The table is experienced differently depending on the persons senses being able to pick up the tables attributes (such as look, smell, touch etc.). This "information of the senses" Russell refers to as sense-data. 
2. Russell is referring to the unique information you can know about an object, without having any specific knowledge of the object itself. He uses the man with the iron mask as an example. We know a lot about him, but we have no knowledge whatsoever of who it actually was. So our information about him is just "propositions", that we can know without any knowledge of the specific man. With "statement" Russell means that when we make a statement, we make some description an object composed by particulars that we are acquainted with. For example, when we make a statement about Julius Caesar, we have no knowledge of the person himself (we did not know him) but we know for example that he was "assassinated on the Ides of March".
3. A definite description is a description of a singular object containing propositions. Russell means that "a so-and-so" is ambiguous description, while the phrase "the so-and-so" refers to a single, specific object. For example "a man that lived 1000-1050 A.D is ambiguous, while "the man with the iron mask lived 1502-1560 A.D is a description of a specific person, not a random one.
4. Russell disagrees with the notion that a "priori" is a type of mental knowledge. He opposes the ideas of Hegel, meaning that we cannot prove that "the universe as a whole forms a single harmonious system". This is because we cannot bind propositions to these unknown things, unless we know all the thing's relations to all the other things in the universe. This we don't, and Russell means that this prevents us from knowing "the characters of those parts of the universe that are remote from our experience"

Good morning world!

Now the blog is up and running! Yeah! :)