Software to aid politics and social science web research

Software to aid politics and social science web research ( half day tutorial)

This computer workshop will deliver an introduction to web-based methods 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 3 hour 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 computer workshop will deliver an introduction to web-based methods 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 3 hour 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.

The workshop aims to provide the tools through which the dynamics of information in this 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 information 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 workshop will present several types of tools 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, the web crawler/analyser SocSciBot and the search engine API interface/analyser program LexiURL Searcher information, 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.

The workshop will provide tutorials on tools and analysis using data collected by the Infoscape Research Lab during Canadian elections, as well as data collected in partnership with workshop participants. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring along lists of URLs relevant to their research interests or pre-register four weeks in advance and to contact the Infoscape Lab about setting up data collection processes on their own sample prior to the workshop.