Collaborative Research BCC-SBE: Using Archival Resources to Conduct Data-Intensive Internet Research

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Project Description: The BCC-SBE Collaborative Research Project, "Using Archival Resources to Conduct Data-Intensive Internet Research," has three goals: (1) to build a community of scholars focused on tackling next-generation questions of Internet research through the use of archival digital data; (2) to create sample databases and develop a prototype research tool, HistoryTracker, using data from the Internet Archive, a library of Web pages from the World Wide Web; and (3) to maintain an active community of scholars using the cutting-edge community platform HUBzero. Co-PIs Weber, Lazer and Carpenter will lead a community building initiative to coalesce scholars around these three goals. In the long-run, this work will support ongoing interactions among community participants, including the collection of feedback, sharing research, and dissemination of databases collected through the course of this research and beyond. Convenient, efficient access to archival Internet data has the potential to open up countless new avenues of social science research. In addition, evidence from this research project will inform the creation and dissemination of general guidelines for conducting theoretically and methodologically rigorous longitudinal research using archival Web data.Broader Significance/Nontechnical: The Internet Archive is the single largest repository of archive Web data in existence, yet there is a significant lack of research-ready databases and tools available to the scholarly community. Funding of the BCC-SBE Collaborative Research Project, "Using Archival Resources to Conduct Data-Intensive Internet Research," will inform the creation and dissemination of general guidelines for conducting theoretically and methodologically rigorous longitudinal research using archival Web data. Co-PIs Weber, Lazer and Carpenter will work to bring together a community of scholars focused on research utilizing archival digital data. Subsequently, the principal investigators will lead the development of initial tools and sample databases for conducting ongoing research examining numerous issues pertaining to the development of the World Wide Web, and the behavior of individuals and organizations on the Internet.