Side Meeting at the PAA Annual Meeting
Workshop on
Social Media and Demographic Methods
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, D.C.
Wednesday, 30 March 2016; 1:30-5:30pm
With support from the Population Association of America (PAA).
This training workshop is organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Big Data and Population Processes as a side event at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, taking place in Washington, D.C. 31 March-2 April 2016.
Workshop organizers: Emilio Zagheni (University of Washington) and Francesco Billari (Oxford University).
Confirmed facilitators and/or presenters: Nina Cesare (University of Washington), Charles Lanfear (University of Washington), Emmanuel Letouze (DataPop Alliance), Kivan Polimis (University of Washington), Joan Ryan (University of Washington)
Description: Demography has been a data-driven discipline since its birth. Data collection and the development of formal methods have sustained most of the major advances in our understanding of population processes. The global spread of Social Media has generated new opportunities for demographers:
- the increasing quantity of our online traces can be aggregated and mined for population research;
- formal demographic models can be used to understand the dynamics of online populations;
- social media affect people’s activities and life planning in a way that demographers are well prepared to study.
This half-day training workshop will focus on accessing Social Media data and analyzing them with Demographic Methods. The workshop is intended to:
(a) provide an introduction to tools like Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for collecting data from social media (e.g., Twitter);
(b) present examples of demographic methods that can be used to gain insights from these data;
(c) favor communication and interaction among scholars and students interested in the emerging field of digital demography.
Format: There will be a mix of lecture-style presentations, hands-on guided exercises/tutorials, and short talks about ongoing research projects in this area.
Pre-requisites: Participants are expected to bring their own laptops and have basic familiarity with the statistical software R.
Registration: Participants have to register for the workshop as part of their registration for the PAA annual meeting. There are a limited number of places, which will be allocated on a first come first served basis. There is no registration fee.
For information, or if you experience problems with registration, contact Emilio Zagheni (emilioz@uw.edu)
The Detailed program will be posted here soon.
Check this page again later.