This document discusses the Digital Methods Summer School held in Amsterdam in 2012. It provides an overview of several digital research tools and methods that can be used together in a chain to answer research questions. Examples of tools mentioned are link rippers to collect URLs, compare lists to analyze data, Google scraper to query search engines, and Gephi for visualizing network data. The goal is to demonstrate how a "medley" or variety of digital tools can be combined to conduct social and cultural research online.

1. digital methods
tool medley
Digital Methods Summer School 2012, Amsterdam, 25 June - 6 July
anne helmond
www.digitalmethods.net
Tomás Saraceno, galaxies forming along filaments, Venice Biennial 2009

2. medley?
1. a diverse assortment or mixture
2. a musical composition made up of a series of songs or
short pieces
<a medley of snack foods available on the buffet table>

3. new methods and tools for
social and cultural research

4. digital methods initiative tool database:
tools.digitalmethods.net

5. digital methods initiative tool database:
tools.digitalmethods.net

6. cablegate
research question -> operationalization &
method: often a chain of tools

7. The Response of the Source
Question: Do the sources acknowledge cablegate?
1.Get all links for US embassy websites:
http://www.usembassy.gov/
2.Compile list of embassies mentioned in cables:
http://wikileaks.ch/cablegate.html
3.Compare lists
4.Query mentioned embassies for:
1. wikileaks
2. "Julian Assange"
3. Assange
4. cablegate
5.Get number of cables per embassy
6.Visualize output

8. aim: get links

9. tool: link ripper

10. result: links!

11. repeat & paste in spreadsheet

12. tool: compare lists

13. aim: get #nr mentions

14. tool: googlescraper (Lippmannian Device)

15. result: tagclouds

16. aim: get most leaked embassy
tool: Google Docs build on leakfeed API

17. further analysis

18. digital methods
search as research
the nationality of rights types
Research project by the Digital Methods Initiative Summer School 09

19. research question
Can the search engine be repurposed to
show which rights are specific per country?

20. .nl (Dutch), .be (Dutch, French),
.com/.co.uk/.com.au/(English),
.it (Italian), .ro (Romanian),
.md (Moldavian), .ca (French, English),
.fr (French), .de/.at/.lu (German),
.fi (Finnish), .se (Swedish), .ee (Estonian),
.ru (Russian)

21. Google.se with query “rattigheter” (13.07.09)
Google.fi with query “oikeudet” (13.07.09)
Google.ee with query “oigused” (15.07.09)
Google.lv with query “tiesibas” (16.07.09)
Google.co.uk with query “rights” (13.07.09)
Google.nl with query “rechten” (13.07.09)
Google.fr with query “droits” (14.07.09)
Google.pt with query “direitos” (14.07.09)
Google.es with query “derechos” (13.07.09)

22. the nationalities of issues

25. mapping the dutch blogosphere
tool: issuecrawler

26. tool: issuecrawler

27. result: map IssueCrawler -> Gephi

28. the historical dutch blogosphere

29. tool: harvester

30. result: links!
the historical dutch blogosphere

31. NL Blogosphere
deceased blogs
tool: linkripper
tool: URL responder
(= Get HTTP response status codes from Censorship Explorer)

32. tool: wikipedia bot edits scraper

33. tool: dorling map generator

34. tool: censorship explorer

35. tool: censorship explorer &
tool: dorling map generator
https://mappingiranonline.digitalmethods.net/

36. tool: twitterscraper

37. tool: tracker tracker

38. Tracker Tracker -> Gephi

39. kthxbai! kthnxbai!
anne@digitalmethods.net
www.digitalmethods.net
anne@digitalmethods.net
tool wizzard: erik borra
tool wizzard: erik borra