Tools and Services
The AIO is developing frameworks to improve access to digital platform data without the need for deep technical knowledge and sophisticated computational techniques. Our current toolkit features new methods that can be integrated into qualitative and quantitative research designs, making research more rigorous and data-driven.
Data donation is a new, ethically-grounded method that works directly with research participants. The idea is that research participants consent to donate their data from social media platforms, their phone screens, or browser windows. This data, securely stored and accessed via a set of tools, allows researchers to explore the kinds of information their respondents are exposed to, study how individual behaviours affect platform usage, and examine how online content shapes opinions.
Data donation is a powerful method that can be used for empirical analysis in a wide range of disciplines. While it focuses on individual experiences, it can potentially be deployed as part of large-scale studies for data collection and context-specific research within separate demographic groups or diverse populations.
The AIO offers three tools for data donation. They can be chosen and used separately or combined where appropriate, depending on your research design. Click below to learn more about each of them and read our case studies:
AIReD
The AIReD is an interactive web based application designed to provide access to platform data available via APIs. The Dashboard provides tools to perform social media analysis and allows users to interact with topic modelling results and word embeddings that are generated by the ‘live’ machine learning pipelines.
NewsTalk
NewsTalk is an aggregator of reader commentary on the majority of Australian news web sites. It also harvests Reddit threads linking Australian news stories, providing additional coverage of Australian news commentary even when publishers don't support on-site reader comments.
Data Donation
Browser Extensions
The Browser Extension approach offers a way to capture data from websites and platforms via browser plugin software. The system can be designed to collect, store, enrich, and visualise a range of data types.
API-Based Data Collection Tools
APIs (Application Programming Interface) allow software applications to connect to each other and share data and other information. They are widely used in many contexts and rely on the data holder to specify the protocol for what can shared. Access to APIs is limited for many major digital platforms or services. AIO currently has 3 API-based collection tools available for researchers to explore on request (ethics approval may be required).
AusReddit
AusReddit is a collection of posts and comments from Australian-related subreddits. It aims to provide researchers with access to a rich data source that can give rich insights into Australia's societal issues.