TM: Working with Quotidian Data on this project gives me a bias to believe in the availability of platforms to build and create forums for discussion and produce qual data. The stand out example is the Crowdmap under Ushahidi; it helps students (which we all always are) know more about where to get data, what kinds of data is available to them and on the flip side open up information centres to public. PhD students can use forums like this to get data for themselves and thereafter share their findings in the system thereby generate a self sustaining loop. This is the way forward in my opinion for the benefit of all.
PC: People mentioned 1) siloes within and between the academy and other industries; 2) that finding resources and mentorship for maintaining and producing qualitative data is scarce. The tour of the library and the difficulty in maintaining the archives (despite all the fantastic work they are doing) was revealing… Though part of this is of course infrastructural (i.e. the library floods…)
AO: institutional program administrators are grappling with how to get people to gain more critical thinking skills despite the heavy bureaucracies they have to navigate. But few to no programs facilitating data skills amongst non-tech researchers. Not enough attention paid to data management and archiving amongst non-archivists. There is data expertise available but it has not been developed into curriculum. Heavily disciplined silos within the academy. Outside of the institutions, researchers have trouble finding research resources, mentors, etc. more broadly, not to mention on the data side of things.