From: "Frank Conlon" <conlon@U.WASHINGTON.EDU>
To: <H-ASIA@H-NET.MSU.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2011 12:30 AM
Subject: H-ASIA: RESOURCE The Electronic Anthropologist: on sources of
information, strategies, techniques and timing of online research [A
Farewell Gift]
> H-ASIA
> January 23, 2011
>
> WWW Resource The Electronic Anthropologist: on sources of information,
> strategies, techniques and timing of online research [A Farewell Gift]
> ************************************************************************
> Ed. note: Here is further notice of the pending retirement of Dr. T.
> Matthew Ciolek, and a chance to revisit an area in which he has made so
> many contributions to scholars and scholarship. His observations are
> grounded in a quarter-century of taking the pulse of the internet. He
> has put us all in his debt. FFC
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> From: Reviews of Internet resources for Asian Studies
> <asia-www-monitor@anu.edu.au>
>
> The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: Jan 2011, Vol. 18, No. 1 (320)
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 21 Jan 2011
>
> The Electronic Anthropologist: on sources of information, strategies,
> techniques and timing of online research [A Farewell Gift]
>
> www.ciolek.com - Asia Pacific Research Online, Canberra, Australia.
>
> Supplied-note:
> "With 5,869 reviews of the Asian Studies internet resources
> successfully dispatched, the time has come to say goodbyes -
>
> (1) So, thank you, all my 9,260 wonderful online- and off-line
> collaborators, colleagues and friends.
>
> (2) It was your steadfast love of information that has sparked and
> guided my electronic labours.
>
> (3) Now I take my egret-plumed hat off, and lower it to the
> flagstones with a mighty sweep.
>
> (4) I bow to You All most deeply. I promise to answer (alas,
> inevitably with a delay) all your private messages that have reached
> me in these last days. I bow to You again and present a compact,
> 43KB, parting gift (below). Have fun with it, if/when so inclined.
>
> (5) Now, My Unforgettable Monitorians, au revoir: I am signing off
> for good - tmc."
>
> Self-description:
> "Information of relevance and value to social scientists is scattered
> - as individual items as well as clusters and collections - across
> three vast and vastly different habitats of knowledge. The first of
> them is formed by the overlapping networks of interconnected,
> data-swapping computers. There the information is stored as
> electronic bits. The second habitat is a great planetary labyrinth of
> interacting and competing museums, archives, and libraries. This is
> the physical world where information is stored as tangible objects -
> books, manuscripts, microfilms, artifacts - and kept on shelves, or
> in vaults. Finally, there is the boundless archipelago of groups and
> clusters of people themselves. Researchers, experts, archivists,
> journalists, court-clerks, shamans, interested laymen, students,
> librarians, managers, and so forth form the third habitat of
> knowledge. There the information is stored in biological form, either
> etched in the memories of people, or created by them afresh.
> This article is concerned with research uses of the first of those
> three informational environments, that is, with quests for digital
> pointers and digital contents that are available via the Internet. It
> represents an abridged extract from an extensive 2009 work [approx.
> 145KB] entitled 'The logistics of effective online information
> seeking,' a research paper with a number of technical appendices, now
> available online at
> http://www.ciolek.com/PAPERS/logistics-of-online-information-seeking.html
> address.
>
> [The article evaluates] methods of electronic investigation that
> people can undertake within the domain of the Internet. Therefore,
> the questions posed by this paper are not 'what are the best ways to
> obtain information online?', or 'what are the best sources of
> electronic information?', but rather - 'under what methodological
> circumstances is our online research most likely to succeed?' So it
> is not an enumeration of tools and opportunities, but rather a
> meta-assessment of these."
>
> Site contents:
> 1. Introduction
> (# The habitats of scholarly information, # Earlier studies of
> information-seeking practices);
>
> 2. Internet, The Electronic Environment of Information
> ["Two things about the Internet, the electronic environment of
> information, are immediately apparent to any observer: its dire lack
> of organization and its enormous physical size. The Internet is a
> highly unpredictable and confused place, and the materials it carries
> are of very uneven quality."];
>
> 3. The Logistics of Online Information Seeking
> (# The First Logistical Element: Research Strategy [Confirm, Link,
> Deliver, Chase, Form, Match, Explore, Mull], # The Second Logistical
> Element: Online Resources [Databases, Search engines, Online
> directories, Repositories, "Flowing" websites, "Frozen" websites,
> Collaborative environments, Gatherings, Feeds], # The Third
> Logistical Element: Work Schedules [Urgent, Standard, Long-term], #
> The Fourth Logistical Element: Data-Gathering Techniques [Ask, Query,
> Search, Browse, Track, Comb, Monitor, Collect input, Trigger input,
> Invite input]);
>
> 4. Six Constraints of Information Seeking
> ["None of the above four logistical aspects of online research - the
> strategies, online resources, work schedules, and data-gathering
> techniques - ever occurs alone. On the contrary - they always work in
> concert, as a dynamic system. Together they form six unique
> combinations, in some of which these variables seem to 'work together
> especially well', that is, when they appear to be supportive of each
> other, and appear (in the experience of this author) to be
> productive."];
>
> 5. Conclusions
> ["[W]hile at the surface level the Internet appears to be defined
> mostly by our interactions with the disembodied, cold-headed
> technology, ultimately the full research value of the Net is best
> realised through multifaceted intellectual relationships that we can
> form with other human beings that are contactable online. Seen from
> this point of view, the modern Internet becomes a virtual bridge
> which links the three habitats of information. Firstly, the Internet
> almost instantaneously connects the researcher with the online
> containers of digital information he or she seeks. Secondly, it spans
> the gap between a researcher and the pointers to the masses of
> analogue data preserved in libraries, archives, historical monuments,
> and museums. Thirdly, the Net is a superb tool for the closure of the
> gap between a researcher and the wealth of skills and wisdom of his
> or her colleagues, no matter who they are, and where they work."];
>
> 6. Acknowledgments;
>
> 7. Bibliography [43 specialist publications from the years 1995-2008,
> including online research notes of that mysterious, motley and
> seminal man himself, Francesco Vianello, aka Fjalar Ravia
> (1952-2009)].
>
> URL http://www.ciolek.com/PAPERS/e-anthropologist.html
>
> Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the
> time of this abstract]
>
> Link reported by: T. Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek--at--coombs.anu.edu.au)
>
> * Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online
> guide]:
> Study
> * Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]:
> Academic
> * Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting -
> marginal]:
> rating not available
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Src: The Asian Studies WWW Monitor ISSN 1329-9778
> URL http://coombs.anu.edu.au/asia-www-monitor.html
> URL http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/asia-www-monitor
> The e-journal [established 21 Apr 1994 - closed down 21 Jan 2011]
> has provided free abstracts and reviews of new/updated online resources
> of interest to Asian Studies.
> At the day of its closure, the email edition of this Journal had over
> 9,260 subscribers.
> The AS WWW Monitor did not necessarily endorse contents,
> or policies of the Internet resources it dealt with.
>
> Any questions related to the past or future of the e-journal are to be
> directed
> exclusively to the following email address: web.cap@anu.edu.au
>
> - regards -
>
> Dr T. Matthew Ciolek mattew.ciolek--at--anu.edu.au
> ANU College of Asia and the Pacific,
> The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
> also, Asia Pacific Research Online at www.ciolek.com
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