Assignments - IME451

INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT

WEEK TWO:

MEETING SCHEDULE - JANUARY 16, 2009 LAB 103 MERRILL HALL 1:30pm

Discuss research methods, and initial research ideas

Research Topics:

Here is a good definition of research suggested by the Claremont Graduate University Website

"Research means a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge."

Research attempts to answer questions, so a good place to start is to think about questions you might have about business and the World Wide Web, or generic questions about the Web which could be related to business. For example: I started a research project by asking the question "How much of the Web is devoted to business websites?" It is not unusual for a research project to start in one direction, and end up in another!

There are several general categories of research. Here are some to help you get started.

1. A Literature Review Project. A literature review is a comprehensive review of the state of scholarly research on a given topic. For example one might conduct a literature review of articles on 'Virtual Worlds' or 'Second Life'. Here is an example of a literature review article on Virtual Worlds.

2. Empirical Research. This is research that uses data drawn from direct observation or experience. For example if we were to select a random sample of Web sites and observe them and draw conclusions from our observations, we would be conducting empirical research. Here is an example of an empirical research project.

3. Case Study Research. This type of research project might look at a specific instance of a business and study it in depth. For example, in the 420 class we read about a banking institution in Second Life that had become insolvent. A case study research project would conduct an in-depth analysis of this enterprise to determine the impact it had on the virtual society. It would analyze how this event came to happen and draw general business lessons from the case. Note that this is consistent with the definition above, since we seek to discover 'Generalizable Knowledge'.

WEEK ONE:

MEETING SCHEDULE - JANUARY 9, 2009 217G MERRILL HALL 2:00pm

Discuss research methods, and initial research ideas

Research Topics:

1. Read or review the article "Web Science Emerges"

2. As you read the article, note any questions you may have regarding any of the topics discussed.  These can form a basis for discussion of research projects for the spring term.