The document discusses using large datasets from the Internet Archive to conduct social science research on emerging organizational forms. It presents examples of previous research leveraging archive data on topics like natural disasters, political activity, and social movements. The author proposes analyzing hyperlink, news coverage, Twitter, and website data on the Occupy Wall Street movement to test hypotheses about its emerging networked structure over time. Results are presented showing the growth of the movement's online presence and core clusters within its organizational network.

1. BIG
DATA
AND
SOCIAL
SCIENCE
THEORY
Leveraging
Large
Scale
Data
to
Discover
New
Pa4erns
in
Society
Monday,
April
7,
2014
CybermoCons
@
Korea
Yeungnam
University
Ma4hew
Weber
Rutgers
University
School
of
CommunicaCon
&
InformaCon

2. 2
Opportunity:
The
Internet
Archive
contains
the
largest
single
record
of
the
history
of
the
World
Wide
Web
from
1995
to
the
present—a
wealth
of
untapped
research
data.
Challenge:
There
is
a
significant
lack
of
research-­‐ready
databases
and
tools
available
to
the
scholarly
community

3. © Internet Archive 2013

4. ©
Internet
Archive
2013

5. 5

6. 6

7. 7

8. 8

9. 9

10. 10
Opportunity:
The
ArchiveHub
project
aims
to
support
the
creaCon
and
disseminaCon
of
general
guidelines
&
tools
for
conducCng
theoreCcally
and
methodologically
rigorous
longitudinal
research
using
archival
Web
data

11. 11

12. 12

13. 13

14. 14
Dataset
Research
PotenAal
Dates
Captures
Unique
URLs
Hurricane
Katrina
Online
networks
and
organizaConal
resilience
(Chewning,
Lai
and
Doerfel,
2012;
Perry,
Taylor
and
Doerfel,
2003)
in
the
wake
of
disasters;
informaCon
disseminaCon
2003
–
2012
1,694,236
663,740
Superstorm
Sandy
2003
–
2012
41,703,112
20,013,455
US
Senate
Study
the
growth
of
poliCcal
acCvity
in
online
environments
(Adamic
&
Glance,
2005;
Bruns,
2007;
Chang
&
Park,
2012);
polarizaCon
&
media
discourse
109th
–
112th
Congresses
26,965,770
8,674,397
US
House
51,840,777
12,410,014
Occupy
Wall
Street
Previous
research
on
NGOs
in
the
online
environment
(Bach
&
Stark,
2004;
Shumate,
2003,
2012;
Shumate,
Fulk,
&
Monge,
2005);
use
of
hyperlink
data
to
study
the
formaCon
and
role
of
alliances
between
SMOs
2010
–
2012
247,928,272
11,3259,655
US
Media
Previous
studies
of
news
media
organizaCons
(Greer
&
Mensing,
2006;
Weber,
2012;
Weber
&
Monge,
In
Press);
focus
on
evoluConary
pa4erns
2008
–
2012
1,315,132,555
539,184,823

15. 15
http://archivehub.rutgers.edu

16. 16

17. Tracing
the
Emergence
of
OrganizaConal
Forms
17
Environment:
OrganizaCons
compete
for
scare
resources;
during
rapid
periods
of
disrupCon,
new
entrants
seek
“protected”
niches
(Weber
&
Monge
2014)
PopulaAon:
In
digital
spaces,
online
connecCons
provide
communicaCve
representaCons
of
informaCon
flows
(Weber
&
Monge,
2012)
FormaCon
of
Ces
(e.g.
hyperlinks)
can
posiCvely
impact
long-­‐term
likelihood
of
organizaCon
survival
(Weber,
2012)
OrganizaAon:
OrganizaCons
adapt
internally,
reconfiguring
team
structures
and
developing
new
rouCnes
for
knowledge
sharing
(Ellison,
Gibbs
&
Weber,
In
Press;
Weber
&
Kim,
Under
Review)

18. 18

19. Big Data… Big Theory?
• Networks
are
central
to
social
movements
in
that
links
between
nodes
can
be
influenCal
in
collecCve
acCon
• Examples
of
nodes
includes
parCcipants,
organizaCons,
media
and
communicaCons
technologies
• Social
networks
and
social
movements
(Diani,
2003)
• The
interacCon
between
actors,
and
between
actors
and
hashtags,
collecCvely
represent
a
networked
form
of
organizaCon
• Network
form
of
organizaCon
(Powell,
1990)

20. Over time, dyadic communication will become prevalent in
an emerging networked organization.H1:
As a social movement develops as an emerging network
form of organization, the organizational structure will be
increasingly clustered.
H2:

21. Data
• TriangulaCon
of
data
insulates
against
false
readings
from
large-­‐scale
data
(see
Lazer,
Kennedy,
King
and
Vespignani,
2014)
• Internet
Archive:
– 14
websites;
4,504
hyperlink
dyads
over
a
2-­‐month
period.
• Lexis
Nexis:
– Search
conducted
to
assess
U.S.
newspaper
coverage
of
OWS
from
the
early
stages
of
the
movement
in
September
2011
through
Sept.
2012
– Search
OWS
keywords,
e.g.
“Occupy
Wall
Street,”
“Occupy
Oakland”
• Twi4er
– Gnip
PowerTrack
• Search
by
keywords;
captures
a
larger
volume
of
Twi4er
data
than
other
opCons
– Sample
includes
October
17,
2011,
through
January
5,
2012.
IniCal
study
focused
on
the
criCcal
two-­‐month
period
from
November
1
through
December
31,
2011,
– 750,816
tweets
across
the
two-­‐month
period.
21

23. OWS News Coverage

24. OWS
on
the
Web
• 335
seed
organizaCons
based
on
records
from
#OccupyResearch
• Data
extracted
for
2011
&
2012,
based
on
“both
matching”
24
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Millions
Captures
per
Month

25. Maximal
Cores
(k
Coreness)
25
Aug.
2011
Jan.
2012

26. 26
-­‐
10,000.00
20,000.00
30,000.00
40,000.00
50,000.00
60,000.00
70,000.00
80,000.00
Edges
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
VerAces

27. 27
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.07
0.08
Density

28. 28
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Clusters

29. 29

30. ImplicaCons
• Big
Data:
– Guiding
data
collecCon
with
theoreCcally
grounded
quesCons
avoids
the
“needle-­‐in-­‐the-­‐haystack”
problem
– Leverage
advances
in
compuCng
with
exisCng
theories
to
develop
robust
studies
of
social
science
phenomenon
• Big
Theory:
– Expanding
prior
theories
on
networked
organizaConal
forms
and
form
emergence
(evoluConary)
– Building
toward
a
macro
theory
of
organizaConal
form
emergence
based
on
resource
availability
and
networks
30

31. • Want
data?
– Email
me!
ma4hew.weber@rutgers.edu
– ArchiveHub:
h4p://archivehub.rutgers.edu
• Collaborators
– Kris
Carpenter
&
Vinay
Goel,
Internet
Archive
– David
Lazer,
Northeastern
University
31
Research
supported
by
NSF
Award
#1244727
and
the
NetSCI
Lab
@
Rutgers