The sustainable provision of software for cross-media practices and digital traces research: A co-creation approach for developing an infrastructure model for the digital diary and sorting apps MedTag and MedSort 2.0

这一电子研究和信息技术基础设施项目的基本目标是开发一个良好做法模式，为媒体和通信研究提供软件。为了尽可能地满足媒体和通信研究人员的需求，并建立一个可持续的研究人员社区，应用该软件，并将自己视为致力于推动其发展的未来开发人员，我们将采取共同创造的方法。这一良好做法模式将参照两个收集和分析跨媒体做法及其数字痕迹数据的移动的应用程序和网络工具加以完善：媒体日记软件MedTag和扩展的q排序软件MedSort。这两个应用程序都以原型存在，并已成功部署在各种研究项目中。我们的项目将产生一个可持续的开源基础设施和商业模式，使其有可能确保软件的长期开发和可用性。作为其中的一部分，我们将提高MedTag和MedSort软件的安全性、可选性、可用性和可访问性。我们的目标是让没有先进技术知识的媒体和通信学者以及研究项目的参与者能够轻松使用该软件。共同创造通过向（未来）用户开放更深远的角色和参与程度，推进了软件开发中的其他参与性方法;在我们的案例中，其他研究人员将此软件应用于实地研究。通过共同创造的方法，我们可以建立一个可持续的研究人员社区，使用和开发软件及其基础设施（包括其商业模式），使其深深扎根于社会科学和人文科学的媒体和传播研究领域，整体基础设施也可以逐步向相应领域的其他类型的软件开放。MedTag和MedSort的这种改进和进一步的可持续发展是基于对这种软件的科学要求以及它在媒体和通信领域的未来潜力。这是由目前对媒体实践的实证研究面临的两个挑战所驱动的。这首先是跨媒体的挑战，随之而来的是对研究软件的需求，这种软件能够收集不同类型媒体的媒体实践数据。其次，用户在网络媒体中留下的数字痕迹也是一个挑战，这需要能够收集数据的软件，以适当的方式将这些数字痕迹置于背景中。这些挑战已经部分解决了与应用程序MedTag和MedSort在其目前阶段的原型。然而，这些应用程序及其基础设施需要进一步发展，以充分反映所涉及的挑战并保持可持续性。

The fundamental aim of this e-research and IT infrastructure project is to develop a good practice model for providing software for research on media and communications. To undertake this as closely as possible to the needs of researchers in media and communications and to build up a sustainable community of researchers that applies this software and perceive themselves as future developers committed to its furtherance, we will take a co-creation approach. This good practice model will be refined with reference to two mobile apps and web-based tools for collecting and analysing data on cross-media practices and their digital traces: the media diary software MedTag and the extended q-sort software MedSort. Both applications exist as prototypes and have been deployed successfully in various research projects. Our project will generate a sustainable Open Source infrastructure and business model that makes it possible to secure a long-term development and availability of the software. As part of this, we will increase the security, optionality, usability and accessibility of the MedTag and MedSort software. Our aim is that media and communications scholars without advanced technical knowledge as well as participants in research projects feel comfortable with using this software. Co-creation advances other participatory approaches in software development by opening up a much more far-reaching role and degree of involvement to (future) users; in our case, other researchers applying this software for field research. Through a co-creation approach, we can build up a sustainable community of researchers using and developing the software as well as its infrastructure (including its business model) in a way that it is deeply anchored in the field of media and communication research within social sciences and the humanities, and the overall infrastructure can step by step also be opened up to other kinds of software in the respective area. This refinement and further sustainable development of MedTag and MedSort is based on the scientific demands placed on this kind of software as well as its future potential in the field of media and communications. This is driven by two current challenges in empirical research on media practices. This is first the challenge of cross-media with its subsequent requirement for research software that is able to collect data on media practices across different kinds of media. Second, there is the challenge of the digital traces left by users in online media which calls for software that is able to collect data to contextualise such digital traces in a proper way. These challenges are already partly addressed with the applications MedTag and MedSort in their present stage as prototypes. However, these applications and their infrastructure need further development to fully reflect the challenges involved and to be sustainable.