This BLOG as a blank paper and a koine' bY LG

What is or should be this BLOG?

I see this blog as a blank paper where people write the paper entitled ``research methods, posing questions and finding answers'' with their stories.

I see this blog as the koine', the meeting point where researchers share their view about research and learn and teach research processes talking with the others.

The idea is that we do not want answer to 'specific' questions, but we are eager for questions and suggestions. We are looking for a common language in different fields and we would like to find analogies or differences among affine technological fields.

The main question is :

why people should go to this 'coffee-shop'?

Where is the coffee?

The coffee, the reason to go, is the desire of learning that move any resaerchers.

Learning what? Learning the different approaches to research.

Learning how? Learning by sharig their experience and reading stories.

Learning why? Learning is the base of investigation and research.

Some literature on research methods

This is a collection of papers, links and web-sites on research methods
gathetered by prof. Conradi.

Letizia

An interesting paper by LJ

While studying for my own research in software engineering education I found
this paper:

I regard this
as a generous contribution of a person who wants to share his
past and his learning activities in research.
Letizia

Being a researcher by DA

Hi everybody, my name is DA; I am a researcher in systems theory and only recently began looking at biology for inspiration on possible directions for my research. I am glad to post my contribution to the blog, following a convincing invitation by Laura, who started this whole thing out.
A couple of tricks which were useful for me.
First of all; why did I choose research ? there are many reasons of course, the main is that I like to be free while I am working, following the ideas that may pop up on a daily basis. No pressure needed, neither from a boss nor from a funding agency... Talking about freedom never forget that research may be interesting but it is still a job; if problems follow you at home do something about it, this is not good.
How do I choose my topics ? For as obvious as it may sound, one way is to start with a natural mathematical question.. if questions are natural very often there is a rich theory behind them for you to dig out; choose unexplored territories, this leads to much higher production rates.
The other way, usually much harder, but still very important, is to start from real world applications; if you do so be prepared to learn a lot, and to study a lot, very often problems will lead you in completely unexpected directions, potentially very far from your expertise area.
Last, but not least, work in parallel on more than one question and leave your phd students free to develop their own interests. This is in the long run much more effective.
Have fun !!!

Chatting over this blog by L and F

l: Did you read my blog on research methods?
f: yes
l: who told you?
f: you send me an mail about it
l: from me??????
f: yes
f: spam?
l: maybe you are in some mailing list i was not aware of?
f: i don't know
l: The problem is that no one has contributed up to now
f: But.. why you are doing this?
l: I enjoy doing it
l: but my blog is serious
f: I agree.. but why??????
l: why what?
f: Is a sort of helping group? some 70's style group?
extended to male and female together?
f: Why do you expect that people would write stories?
l: Don't you think it's important to understand research methods?
l: And that sharing experiences would be a way?
f: I would separate personal experiences with research methods
l: the problem is to understand why nobody is writing
f: here is my explanation:
f: about research methods across different fields, inter-disciplinary, i think that only people studying epistemology is really interested...
f: and for them is their job (research topic) and they are not interested in your superficial work...
l: sorry.. but what if I ask you: why don't you write down a story for me? what is your first reaction to my question?
f: first, I am not interested in letting others know my businness
f: second, I do not have time..
l: this is the most common answer..
f: it is not really a matter of time, but of being interested in writing
l: what if others would write: will you enjoy reading their stories?
f: the web is full of blogs..
l: not on research...
f: but if I have time to kill i would prefer to read something not on research...
l: this is a nice answer...
l: better than: i do not need to learn anything from others..
l: I have been to that conference in the Bahamas and I talked about the blog with many colleagues..
l: the most common answer was: I do not have time to kill
l: or: for me writing is so difficult: it takes years to write down an e-mail...
l: or: why are you doing it?
f: I agree
l: or: I think you have a lot of time if you lose it doing this...
f: that's bad..
f: researchers love to do research not to talk about how they do research
f: let people in epistemology or blablabla-people do this task
f: this is my personal idea, and you can ignore it and put it together other criticism of cinical people
f: why don't you start a new blog on some more personal topics and you enjoy yourself with a personal diary...as anyone else...
l: This distinction that you make about 'doing research' and 'talking about research' is something that i do not get ..
l: who is better than the researchers to talk about what they do...
f: I don't agree,
who does research like to talk about results. not about anything else
f: to do research is a serious and full-time task
l: and what's about Phd students? don't you think they need some tools?
f: students learn by observing from others.. or by improving their skill if any
l: but who they observe, if everybody is close in his room?
f: they have discussions with the tutor or with colleagues or in conferences...
f: during lunch-time or coffee break...they do not need a blog...
l: anyway.. i would reflect about the discussion and your point and maybe i would write down a story..