Creating a “trading zone” around Twitter archives

Case Study: Paris Attacks

FIAT/IFTA, 13 October 2016

Zeynep Pehlivan (Ina) Valérie Schafer (ISCC, CNRS/Paris-Sorbonne/UPMC)

Introduction

Slate.frhttp://www.slate.fr/story/109925/reseaux-sociaux-attentats-paris

Main issues ● to document the archiving of the Web and of Twitter during the events● to question the conditions and possibilities of elaborating corpora● to bring out the first elements which can emerge from these massive

data

Archive-ItCharlie Hebdo collectionhttps://archive-it.org/collections/5190

Legal Deposit Web @Ina

● Law 2006 shares Web deposit responsibilities between mandated institutions :

collects sites related to audiovisual communications (radio, tv channels, blogs etc.)

collects all other sites

Archive Twitter @ina

● Crawling by using Twitter API (data)● Since February 2014● 11 000 users (timelines)● 400 hashtags● 400 millions of tweets● Recontextualization(s)

Rest API : timelines● Total : 50 millions● Average per day: 48 000

Streaming API: hashtags● Total : 300 millions● Average per day : 270 000

Restrictions

● Streaming API : 400 hashtags, 5000 users● 1% of tweets published at time t● REST API : 3200 old tweets per user● Search API : 15 minute window of 180 for user and

450 for app

Additional Sources● Linkfluence

● #JeSuisCharlie, #CharlieHebdo

● Nick Ruest, 2015-01-12● #JeSuisCharlie, #JeSuisAhmed,

#JeSuisJuif,#CharlieHebdo

● Nick Ruest, 2015-12-14● #paris, #Bataclan, #parisattacks, #porteouverte

Ruest, Nick, 2015, "#paris #Bataclan #parisattacks #porteouverte tweets", hdl:10864/11312, Scholars Portal Dataverse, V2Ruest, Nick, 2015, "#JeSuisCharlie, #JeSuisAhmed, #JeSuisJuif, #CharlieHebdo tweets", hdl:10864/10830, Scholars Portal Dataverse, V9

Recontextualization● Canonical version?

● Twitter page?● Data● Authenticity, integrity

● Second Screen● TV Sync● Indexing

● Search / data mining● Data coverage● Generic or specific tools● Open data?

Interface

Opening the black boxes of Web archiving

3 interviews with- Jefferson Bailey & Sylvie Rollason-Cass (Archive-It team) on March 2016https://asap.hypotheses.org/125

- Annick Le Follic (BnF) on March 21, 2016https://asap.hypotheses.org/168

- Thomas Drugeon (Ina) on March 21, 2016https://asap.hypotheses.org/173

An emergency collect: why, when, what for, … ?

Which methods and tools ?

Which issues and limits?

Differences between both events?

Openness and closure

Governance, human and material resources

How to collect and document “the now” and “the flow”

After observation, manipulation

•Some difficulties : discovering the tools before focusing on specific questions•Data deluge and dispersion•Methodological false moves as newbies

#jesuisahmed

Understanding #jesuisahmed-Circulation, rhythms-Uses and significance-Origin and dissemination-Links with the muslim community

Methodological cautions: same images with different URLS / very different results in French and English, etc.

Some scientific issuesLong-term perspective / Non french-centric overview (Arquivo.pt, etc.)A phenomena of third generation ? (cf: Dominique Boullier, http://shs3g.hypotheses.org/114)

What does an hashtag, a retweet, etc. mean ? →boyd, danah, Scott Golder, and Gilad Lotan. 2010. “Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter.” HICSS-43. IEEE: Kauai, HI, January 6.

Close and distant reading (--> F. Moretti)

“Although Moretti in the main uses the distant reading approach to the study of large amounts of digital data, I will argue that none of these two approaches are per se inscribed or inherent in the digital material. By this I mean that simply because collections of digital material are in many cases big data, which opens the possibility of asking and answering new types of research questions, this does not necessarily mean that they have to be approached as Big Data”. (p. 11)

“The question is not if scholarly studies within the Humanities want to “go digital”, but rather how”. (p. 9)

Brügger N., Humanities, Digital Humanities, Media Studies, Internet Studies: An inaugural Lecture, Aarhus, CFI, 2015.

Creating a trading zone: Conclusion« The metaphor of a trading zone is being applied to collaborations in S & T. The basis of the metaphor is anthropological studies of how different cultures are able to exchange goods, despite differences in language and culture »https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_zones

Thank youQuestions?