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Understanding New Forms of Digital Records (Digital Records)
The Digital Records research node is based at the University of Nottingham.
Enabling social scientists to exploit heterogeneous data
The Digital Records or 'DReSS' Research Node is developing new tools and services that enable qualitative research to exploit heterogeneous forms of data.
DRS - the next generation of CAQDAS tool for qualitative research
DReSS has developed the Digital Replay System (DRS). DRS is a next generation Computer Aided Qualitative Data AnalysiS (CAQDAS) tool.
Like other CAQDAS tools DRS enables the synchronization, replay, and analysis of audio and video recordings. Distinctively, DRS also enables these conventional forms of recording to be combined with ‘system logs’, which record interaction within computational environments.
SMS messages, interaction in virtual environments, GPS data or data from body sensors, for example, may be imported into DRS, synchronized with conventional recordings, and be replayed alongside them. This approach has been exploited by researchers who wish to understand the impact of digital technology on human activities and interaction.
System logs may also be generated from applying computational techniques to conventional recordings (e.g., vision processing to video) to extract novel data. This latter approach has been exploited by researchers seeking to understand the relationship between language and gesture and to unpack 'multi-modal' forms of communication.
Whether generated within computational environments or through the application of computational techniques, the challenge is one of making system logs into 'accountable objects' - that is, objects that social science researchers can make sense of and exploit. DReSS has brought ethnographers, linguists, psychologists and computer scientists together to explore the challenge. The result is a unique and distinctive CAQDAS package that articulates the potential of e-Social Science for qualitative research in the digital age.
DRS is open source and free to download. It works on Macs and PCs.
Contact Digital Records