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- Building a web tracking browser information system: the online panel as a research method in internet studiesPublication . Montargil, Filipe; Di Fátima, Branco; Ruiz, CristianInternet research requires internet-based research methods and tools. Since the commercial adoption and the rapid expansion of internet use in civil society, social scientists have tried to understand the impact and contribution of this technology in the shaping of contemporary human existence. However, academic research has been based mainly in mature and traditional data collection and analysis methods, previously established, like survey research or social network analysis. Some authors suggest that this trend represents a challenge for the social sciences’ ability to champion innovative methodological resources, underlining the need to create also native digital methods. The authors developed, considering this challenge, an online panel of internet users – a method already used in the market research industry to monitor and characterize audiences and consumer behaviour, but not usually explored in social science academic research. Following a case study approach, the current paper presents the information system and technological infrastructure developed to support this online panel.
- Building a web tracking browser information system: the online panel as a research method in internet studiesPublication . Montargil, Filipe; Di Fátima, Branco; Ruiz, CristianInternet research requires internet-based research methods and tools. Since the commercial adoption and the rapid expansion of internet use in civil society, social scientists have tried to understand the impact and contribution of this technology in the shaping of contemporary human existence. However, academic research has been based mainly in mature and traditional data collection and analysis methods, previously established, like survey research or social network analysis. Some authors suggest that this trend represents a challenge for the social sciences’ ability to champion innovative methodological resources, underlining the need to create also native digital methods. The authors developed, considering this challenge, an online panel of internet users – a method already used in the market research industry to monitor and characterize audiences and consumer behaviour, but not usually explored in social science academic research. Following a case study approach, the current presentations discusses the information system and technological infrastructure developed to support this online panel.
- Representations vs actions in online behavior: first results from an academic online panel of internet usersPublication . Montargil, Filipe; Di Fátima, Branco; Ruiz, CristianThis communication discusses the first results of the comparative analysis between representations and actions in online behavior using results from an academic online panel of Internet users. This comparative analysis uses two information sources: answers to questions posed to panel members using methods of sociological inquiry and data gathered through a software application that monitors online behavior. The current version of this application is based in a Google Chrome extension that gathers information from the web browser history, for each participant in the panel, allowing to analyse in detail online behavior. Methods of inquiry are used to explore representations and motivations, for these same panel participants. Differences between representations and actions are discussed since the early years of Sociology and systematically researched in the Social Sciences at least since the 1930s (LaPiere, 1934; Bryman, 2012). The very limitations of short and long-term memory to remember everyday events (Foddy, 1996; Roberts, 1985) lead, among other factors, to differences between what people claim to do and what they effectively do. Our panel is still at an early stage, receiving its first Internet users in December 2018. However, it has already about 300 registered members, in a sample that includes female and male users with different working conditions, marital status and age groups. Developing methods for mapping online behavior is a pressing challenge, especially in our dynamic societies, when we spend more and more time connected.