Andrew Gelman and Guido Imbens recently posted a paper entitled "Why Ask Why? Forward Causal Inference and Reverse Causal Questions." It completely made my day, primarily because it succinctly deals with the way people naturally arrive at research questions with the help of some statistical logic. While I liked the models and the logic, what I … Continue reading Causes of Effects…and Effects of Causes
Research
Tech4Dev Conference: Call for abstracts closes Oct. 14
My colleague Dr. Paula Lytle and I will be hosting one of the sessions at next June's Tech4Dev conference, focusing on the policy side of integrating technology into disaster response and preparedness. The Federal Polytechnic Institute in Lausanne is hosting the event; they do a great job and the city of Lausanne is lovely. If … Continue reading Tech4Dev Conference: Call for abstracts closes Oct. 14
The Fulbrighters make the paper in Samoa
We're all pretty excited to be here working with the Samoan government - we made the paper here in Apia, and so far the welcome from our counterparts and Samoan friends has been fantastic! The interviews and photos were from the welcome event the embassy and Charge d'Affaires Peter Ganser organized last week.
Arrived in Samoa
I’ve arrived in Samoa to start my Clinton-Fulbright Fellowship, working with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology on disaster management and response policy. I’ll be blogging on the technical details of what I’m doing starting next week, but just wanted to post a few photos from my journey.
Unpacking P-values: Turning statistical significance into practical significance
I often get questions about the veracity of using statistics to understand conflict and political behavior, especially when using predictive or confirmatory analytic methods. The questions are well founded, since a recent article found that potentially up to 54% of statistical results in the medical field are spurious. This should give social scientists pause, since … Continue reading Unpacking P-values: Turning statistical significance into practical significance
Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship: Quite the welcome
So this week is the orientation week for 23 of my colleagues and me as we prepare to head off and do our Fulbright-Clinton Fellowships. People will be going all over: Burma, Ethiopia, Haiti, Malawi, Samoa, Cote D'Ivoire and Guatemala. What really struck me was the history and the timelessness of the Fulbright program. Former … Continue reading Fulbright-Clinton Fellowship: Quite the welcome
This is not a mHealth Project
I was going through the BBC this morning, and after reading all about the new Pope (who believes that condoms may be morally acceptable but only to stop the spread of disease), I came across this far more interesting article about how public health researchers in Tanzania are retrofitting iPhones to act as field microscopes. So … Continue reading This is not a mHealth Project
2013 Update: Kenya, TechChange and TC109
So 2013 is off to a roaring start. I just relocated to a new place in the Petworth neighborhood in D.C. and learned that all the staff I worked with at the U.S. Institute of Peace back in the day all live within 5 blocks of me. But the big things on the horizon are … Continue reading 2013 Update: Kenya, TechChange and TC109
Crowdsourcing 2013’s Content!
So with the new year starting Tuesday, I will be continuing to blog into 2013. The past year has mostly focused on my interest areas, political science, conflict and technology. But I've also mused on things that are not my "core expertise", such as gun control and domestic politics. Since I'll be finishing coursework this … Continue reading Crowdsourcing 2013’s Content!
How ICCM Got Me Thinking About Experimental Design
We have all probably had a time when we thought to ourselves,"I have to tweet hard since most people won't see/remember one particular tweet." I would generally agree, but there was one tweet that stuck in my mind from the International Conference on Crisis Mapping this past weekend at the World Bank. It got some … Continue reading How ICCM Got Me Thinking About Experimental Design
Charles P. Martin-Shields 