1.
Doing Research
Online
Srinath Perera, Ph.D
VP Research, WSO2
Member, Apache Foundation
@srinath_perera

2.
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

3.
Why?
• Learn from
others
• Most problems
has occurred to
someone and
already solved
• So you can stand
on the shoulders
of the giants!!

4.
Why?
It can be
a too
much of
a good
Thing
Wikipedia: U.S. Navy photo by
Photographer's Mate Airman Jordon
R. Beesley

5.
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?”

6.
Online Research
• Goal is the truth
• Finding facts, and deriving
conclusions

7.
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

8.
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.

9.
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

10.
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

11.
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

12.
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

13.
Attack Your Opinion
• Take an example
• Look at it critically.
E.g. Socrates
Method
• Run it through a
friend

14.
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

15.
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

16.
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

17.
Sources

18.
Argument is two parts:
Facts and Logic. Know
which one is which

19.
Each Fact need a Source
• Sources come in many forms
– Peer Reviewed Papers
– Newspapers (L1)
– Newspapers (L2)
– Articles
– Blogs
– Social Media

20.
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

21.
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

22.
Sources

23.
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

24.
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