Doing Research Online

Srinath Perera, Ph.DVP Research, WSO2

Member, Apache Foundation@srinath_perera

Internet• Considered a

major achievement of the human race, which brought us to information age

• Put’s the world knowledge at the end of your fingertips

Why?• Learn from

others• Most

problems has occurred to someone and already solved

• So you can stand on the shoulders of the giants!!

Why?It can be a too

much of a good Thing

Wikipedia: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Jordon

R. Beesley

It could be • As simple as step by step

instructions to pair your phone with the car

• Controversial as “who is the best candidate for the president?”

• Confusing as “search for your symptoms”

• Complicated as “how best to market your product?”

Online Research• Goal is the truth• Finding facts, and

deriving conclusions

Four Parts• Get a feel for the Topic/ Search ( find

data, facts, and arguments) • Selects and refine facts you want to

base on • Make an argument • Write it Down

Get a Feel for the Topic

• Search (e.g. Google) • Authorities: Find few people who

writes, thinks about the same topics

• Look for few who disagrees • Read to get a high level idea • Talk to a friendly expert if you

know one, but fact check him/her too.

Search• Start with General keywords • Narrow down by adding more

details • Need to filter results (e.g.

promotional content), look for well known people and sources (e.g. Forbe’s, HBR, Wired)

• I found good content often come from blogs

• Good link’s sometime are down few pages

Tools of Trade• Initially Aim to

understand high level

• Take Notes ( with reference to sources)

• Use Mind Maps (e.g. Xmind, FreeMind)

• Use tables ( with features as rows and options as columns) to summarize the data

Follow a Topic• If interest is continuous, then

follow the topic!!• Setup Google alerts• Find sites that dedicated to the

topics• Find and follow experts (e.g. Blog,

tweets, LinkedIn. • Join groups, mailing lists • Attend a conference, Meetup

groups

Form an Opinion• To think

critically, you must have an opinion ( we call this the working hypothesis)

• Only trick is you need to be able to question and change it

Attack Your Opinion• Take an

example• Look at it

critically. E.g. Socrates Method

• Run it through a friend

How to Make a Claim?• Using logical arguments • Start with facts, and drive

conclusions • A => B, B=>C, then A=> C• When you write down this formally,

we call it a proof. When we write it down informally, we call it a argument

Know Your Logic • A=> B does not mean B=>A• Example ( existence of one) is not a

proof in general case • Proof by Authority is not proof

Use Common Sense • End of the day, it is the use of

common sense • Often it a matter of thinking how I

arrive at a given conclusion • However, what often leads us astray

is the facts

Sources

Argument is two parts: Facts and

Logic. Know which one is which

Each Fact need a Source• Sources come in many forms – Peer Reviewed Papers– Newspapers (L1)– Newspapers (L2)– Articles – Blogs – Social Media

Question Your Sources?• Sources come in many forms • Peer Reviewed Papers – have others confirmed

the finding?• Newspapers (L1) – has multiple sources has

confirmed it? Has the subject given chance to respond

• Newspapers (L2) - ??• Articles/ Blogs – is author an authority? Does

other authorities agree • Social Media – not a good source, only a link to

a source

Into the Shoes of Your Sources• What are their incentives? • What could be conflicts of

interests?• It is impossible to find an

unbiased opinion, but when there is bias, you need to look for multiple opinions

Sources

Write it Down• Write the logic in 2-3 pages• Follow and verify the argument • Make the difference between

conclusion and your opinions explicit

• Report any potential conflicts of interests

Four Parts• Get a feel for the Topic/ Search ( find

data, facts, and arguments) • Selects and refine facts you want to

base on • Make an argument • Write it Down