Tutorial computer workshop: Software to aid politics and social science web research

Organizers

Mike Thelwall (Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group, University of Wolverhampton, UK)
Langlois, Ganaele; Elmer, Greg; McKelvey, Fenwick (Infoscape Research Lab, Ryerson University, Canada)

This three-hour computer workshop aims to provide the tools through which the dynamics of information in the new user-generated communicational environment can be examined, and thereby identify new power dynamics that shape online political communication. The Infoscape Research Lab at Ryerson University is dedicated to developing tools to follow, store and analyze Web 2.0 data in an open-source and collaborative environment and the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group maintains a set of free software to aid social science web research.

This computer workshop will first deliver an introduction to web-based methods developed by the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group for quantitative analysis of political discussions and the large scale collection and analysis of data on the impact and spread of ideas and discussions. The workshop will cover the use of free online blog search, discussion search and trend detection tools. It will also include an introduction to SocSciBot, a free web crawler for social scientists interested in analyzing the text or links in groups of web sites. It will also include an introduction to LexiURL Searcher, a free program that allows large scale analysis of the spread and impact of ideas online. The workshop will include a 30-minute introduction to the software.

This workshop will then present several types of tools developed by the Infoscape Research Lab to undertake Web 2.0 data collection, storing and analysis:

- Scrapers, API interfaces and web crawlers: tools that collect data from various platforms, including a Blog RSS Scraper, Facebook Scrapers to track Facebook content and membership, a Twitter Scraper and a YouTube Scraper.
- Analytical tools that help identify relevant samples, including a Blog Link Ripper, a Technorati Inlink Ripper, and a Blogometer tool to identify the most hyperlinked news stories and posts in the blogosphere.
- Open-source dynamic visualization tools that help disseminate research findings online, including the Blogbuzz visualization, a Top Five Facebook Group visualization, a Top Five YouTube Videos visualization and a Blog Quotes visualization.

Requirements
The workshop aims to provide tutorials on tools and analysis using data collected by the workshop organizers, as well as data collected in partnership with workshop participants. Participants interested in the methods developed by the Statistical Cybermetrics Research Group are strongly encouraged to bring along lists of URLs relevant to their research interests. Participants interested in the Web 2.0 tools developed by the Infoscape Research Lab are invited to contact the Lab by June 1st, 2009 in order to set up data collection processes prior to the workshop.  

Contact
Mike Thelwall
University of Wolverhampton
M.Thelwall-at-wlv.ac.uk
http://cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/

Ganaele Langlois
Infoscape Research Lab
Ryerson University
ganalanglois-at-gmail.com
www.infoscapelab.ca