Research Using Big UK Domain Data Josh Cowls Oxford Internet Institute

Another project output: an edited book  Title: The Web as History: Using Web Archives to Understand the Past and the Present  Editors: Niels Brugger and Ralph Schroeder  Invited chapters on research findings using UK Domain Data and other web archive datasets  Forthcoming late 2015, UCL Press (with open access)

Research using UK Domain Data  The Growth of the UK Web – Taha Yasseri and Scott A. Hale  Exploring the evolution of the BBC’s online presence – Jonathan Bright and Josh Cowls  15 Years of British Universities on the Web – Eric T. Meyer and Taha Yasseri  Cultures of the UK Web – Josh Cowls

The Growth of the UK Web  Chapter by Taha Yasseri and Scott A. Hale  Dataset of node and link data from the.uk domain from 1996 – 2010  Analysis focussed on four largest second-level domains of the UK web:. co,. org,. gov and. ac Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA.

The Growth of the UK Web Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA. Overall size of second level domains Logarithmic, absolute Linear, relative

The Growth of the UK Web Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA. Linking between second level domains  Size of arc relates to volume of links  Colours relate to host subdomain (e.g. green = links from.co)  Arc size adjusted for size of target subdomain

Exploring the Evolution of the BBC’s Online Presence  Chapter by Jonathan Bright and Josh Cowls  Dataset of nodes and links from the bbc.co.uk domain from 1996 – 2010  Analysis focusses on outbound links from BBC News articles to other parts of the web

Exploring the Evolution of the BBC’s Online Presence  Chapter by Jonathan Bright and Josh Cowls  Dataset of nodes and links from the bbc.co.uk domain from 1996 – 2010  Analysis focusses on outbound links from BBC News articles to other parts of the web

Exploring the Evolution of the BBC’s Online Presence  Independent variables to be tested include GDP, HDI, distance from UK, Commonwealth membership of linked-to countries from BBC articles  Regression analysis will allow us to ask: which variables drive international coverage on the BBC site?

Fifteen years of British universities on the Web  Chapter by Eric T. Meyer and Taha Yasseri  Dataset of nodes and links from the.uk domain from 1996 – 2010  121 UK universities identified using league table rankings  Investigating effect on interlinking of three variables:  Affiliation (e.g. Russell Group, 1994 Group etc)  League table ranking (across three different years)  Geographic location Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA.

Fifteen years of British universities on the Web Colours represent different group affiliations (Russell Group, 1994 Group, Cathedrals Group, Million+, University Alliance) Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA.

Fifteen years of British universities on the Web Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA. Ten measures of centrality for league table rankings in 2005 & 2010 Strongest association detected: in-strength rankings and 2010 league table ranking

Fifteen years of British universities on the Web Research first appeared in Hale, Yasseri, Cowls, Meyer, Schroeder and Margetts, ‘Mapping the UK Webspace: fifteen years of British universities on the web’, presented at WebSci ‘14, Indiana USA. Strength of links between UK universities in 2000, 2005 and 2010, mapped by normalised density of hyperlinks Normalised hyperlink density between universities compared to geographical distance

Cultures of the UK web  Chapter by Josh Cowls, drawing on research yielded from ten BUDDAH research projects  Aim to present findings from each topic area (e.g., disability standards on the UK web, Ministry of Defence recruitment and online poetry networks) and outline methodological and epistemological approaches and challenges (e.g. top-down versus bottom-up research strategies)

Conclusion: web archives for research  Huge range of potential areas of exploration and exploration, but challenges clearly remain  Sense of taking web (archives) for what it is (they are) – use of web phenomena like hyperlinks, sub-domains  Where possible, draw in offline data as independent variables for comparative/regression analysis  Optimistic outlook: thorough, rigorous set of meaningful findings using web archives as primary data