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It is a commonplace that innovation in the digital economy is now driven by data. Business organizations, media companies, and government, for example all create economic and societal value from the digital traces left by the user population. At the same time the data captured also contains information that personally identifies consumers, citizens and patients as individuals. The purpose of this paper is to place this new form of data work in the context of previous approaches to information work; to identify the differences between information and data work and the resulting challenges for data professionals.

Informed by a review of previous approaches to information work, the paper argues that the shift in value from information to data as an economic asset and a societal good entails a new form of human-oriented data work. One that is more sensitive to the contextual conditions and consequences of the capture, processing and use of data than has been the case hitherto. The implications of this for a shift in emphasis from the data scientist to the data professional is addressed, as are emerging issues of governance and ethics.

The main consequence for data professionals is to ensure that processes are in place not only to enable the creation of valued products and services from data, but also to mitigate the risks related to their development. The paper argues that ensuring this involves taking a contextual view that locates data processing within the user, governance, legal, and ethical conditions related to data work. The consequences for the governance of data, and the education of data professionals are addressed.

The value of the paper rests in its development of an analytical and methodologically driven framework, that places new forms of data work in the context of their conditions and consequences. The framework builds on prior approaches to information work, current approaches to data work, and addresses the governance, and educational challenges arising from organizations’ emphasis on data-driven innovation in a digital economy.

The purpose of this research is to identify the organization, functions, and forms of talk that occur as groups collectively review, interpret, and organise information sought and retrieved as part of a learning activity.

Participants in the study were undergraduate students conducting a series of group investigations into the topic of information management. A content analysis of the discourse generated during the presentation‐planning stage of the group investigations was conducted.

Findings relate to the discovery of a focus formulation step; speakers' use of structuring, informing, eliciting, and summarizing sequences; and speakers' use of exploratory, coordinating, disputational, and cumulative forms of talk. Variations in the use of the functions and forms of talk across the steps of the task and across the groups are discussed.

Issues relating to the reliability and validity of the content analysis are discussed; along with the implications of the study for the support of dialogic interaction during collaborative information seeking and use.

The originality of the paper rests in analyzing collaboration in information seeking and use as a discourse; and in hypothesizing as to the nature of educationally‐valued interaction when speakers collaborate on the seeking and use of information in learning settings.

This article aims to develop a framework that considers digital archiving as a form of networked information production, in which the different stages of producing a digital archive are modularized and distributed across different actors. The framework is applied and developed within the context of designing a digital archive for the electronic artwork Rider Spoke. More specifically the framework is applied and developed within the context of designing a subject scheme that provides its users with consistent yet relevant access to the content of the archive.

A total of 74 postgraduate students from the Information School at the University of Sheffield were invited to tag four videos from the Riders Have Spoken archive as a voluntary exercise. Students were evenly distributed across the four videos and each participant was invited to generate up to ten tags; with each tag or annotation representing a point of interest in the content of the video for viewer. The time was also noted. In total, 46 students completed the exercise and this generated 356 user tags. As a collection these tags and annotations represent the terms and vocabulary on which a subsequent content analysis was conducted and a subject language developed.

The development of a subject scheme for a particular single electronic artwork with seven facets, sub-facets, and illustrative examples is presented. The design of the scheme and its relations to prior work in classification is discussed.

Implications of the research for the design of a digital archive and the methods used to construct them are discussed

The originality of the article lies in its characterization of digital archiving as a form of networked information production; and the application of the framework to the design of a faceted scheme enabling subject access to the digital archive of an electronic artwork called Rider Spoke.

After reviewing the literature upon the subject, the author observes :—It is apparent that the determination of sulphur dioxide in most foods, in the amounts in which it is usually present as a preservative, does not present any special difficulties. When simple titration methods, either direct or after distillation, cannot be applied, distillation into bromine, iodine, or hydrogen peroxide solution, followed by gravimetric determination as barium sulphate, will always give accurate results, provided that certain precautions are taken. The most important points are (i) to ensure that the whole of the sulphur dioxide has been separated from combination with aldehydes, sugars, etc., and has been driven over into the distillate, (ii) to prevent oxidation of sulphur dioxide during distillation, and (iii) to correct the results for volatile sulphur compounds oxidized to sulphuric acid in the distillate.

The purpose of this paper is to consider some possible reasons for the relatively high rate in Wales of children looked after by local authorities.

Selected potential explanations for Wales having higher rates were tested against aggregate data from published 2021 Government statistics. Wales was compared with England and English regions for area deprivation, local authority spending, placements at home and kinship foster care. Descriptive statistics were produced, and linear regression was used where appropriate.

Wales has higher overall children looked-after rates and a bigger recent increase in these than any English region. Deprivation in Wales was higher than in most English regions. However, a smaller percentage of Welsh variation in local authority looked-after rates was explained by deprivation than was the case for England. Spending on preventative services has increased in recent years in Wales whilst decreasing in England, and there was not a clear relationship between spending on preventative services and the looked-after rate. Wales had a higher rate of care orders placed at home and more children per head of population in kinship foster care than any English region. Some of the explanations that have been suggested for Wales’s particularly high looked-after rates seem to be supported by the evidence from aggregate data and others do not. Practice variation is likely to also be an important part of the picture.

This is an original comparison of Wales, England and English regions using aggregate data. More fine-grained analysis is needed using individual-level data, multivariate analysis and qualitative methods.

Students studying exclusively online face the challenge of gauging their progress in relation to that of their disparate peers. The purpose of this paper is to describe the creation of a student progress “dashboard” in an online Masters programme, and the perceived effectiveness of the tool for engaging students.

Tableau® visualisation software was used to create a dashboard displaying cohort comparison data comprising metrics relating to the continuous assessment components of the Masters programme. An anonymous questionnaire gauged students’ perceptions of the dashboard.

Feedback from students (n=137) suggests the dashboard improved their motivation, incentivising change in study behaviours, and sense of belonging to an online community of learners. It also acted as a conversation catalyst between staff and students, whereby students more readily engaged in dialogue with their personal tutor.

Distance learners are more likely to feel isolated and can become demotivated, which contributes to typically higher levels of withdrawal from online programmes vs those delivered on-campus. Tutors may consider communicating progress data as dashboards to enable online students to monitor their academic progress alongside that of their peers, as a motivational tool in an otherwise disparate group of learners, and to reduce feelings of isolation by reminding distance learners that they are part of a larger online community.

This paper shares student and tutor perspectives on the use of dashboards to increase online students’ motivation, and examines whether the benefits of a peer-comparison dashboard are reserved for high-achieving students.