2017 |
Reips, Ulf; Garaizar, Pablo Social Lab: An “Open Source Facebook" Book Chapter Sloan, In Quan-Haase & A L (Ed.): Handbook of Social Media Research Methods, pp. 475-485, London: Sage, 2017. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: big data, Facebook, Internet science, Internet-based research, iscience, open source, social bots, Social Lab, Social media, social networks @inbook{Reips2017, title = {Social Lab: An “Open Source Facebook"}, author = {Ulf Reips and Pablo Garaizar}, editor = {In A. Quan-Haase & L. Sloan}, url = {http://home/learninglabdeust/public_html.uni-konstanz.de/iscience/reips/pubs/papers/chapters/2016ReipsGaraizar.pdf}, year = {2017}, date = {2017-05-24}, booktitle = {Handbook of Social Media Research Methods}, pages = {475-485}, publisher = {London: Sage}, abstract = {The overlap between our every day activities and our behaviours on the Internet is ever increasing. With the advent of social media the social and behavioural sciences are faced with new opportunities and challenges for research into social behaviour. The vast majority of social media are owned by private companies. Despite public application programming interfaces (APIs) being offered by some of these social media, research in proprietary networks is severely limited. Considering the limitations to social media research, we have developed Social Lab, an open source clone of Facebook with most of its features (messaging, sharing, befriending, wall posts, pictures, searching, profiles, privacy settings, etc.). In addition, Social Lab enables researchers to create “social bots” – automated programmable profiles controlled through simple scripts – to facilitate the study of social phenomena. In the present chapter we introduce Social Lab using an example around privacy management in social media, show how to configure social bots in Social Lab, and explain how it can be used in research. The source code of Social Lab is freely available to the scientific community, so any research group can have its own Social Lab to conduct their Internetbased research.}, keywords = {big data, Facebook, Internet science, Internet-based research, iscience, open source, social bots, Social Lab, Social media, social networks}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {inbook} } The overlap between our every day activities and our behaviours on the Internet is ever increasing. With the advent of social media the social and behavioural sciences are faced with new opportunities and challenges for research into social behaviour. The vast majority of social media are owned by private companies. Despite public application programming interfaces (APIs) being offered by some of these social media, research in proprietary networks is severely limited. Considering the limitations to social media research, we have developed Social Lab, an open source clone of Facebook with most of its features (messaging, sharing, befriending, wall posts, pictures, searching, profiles, privacy settings, etc.). In addition, Social Lab enables researchers to create “social bots” – automated programmable profiles controlled through simple scripts – to facilitate the study of social phenomena. In the present chapter we introduce Social Lab using an example around privacy management in social media, show how to configure social bots in Social Lab, and explain how it can be used in research. The source code of Social Lab is freely available to the scientific community, so any research group can have its own Social Lab to conduct their Internetbased research. |
2014 |
Garaizar, Pablo; Reips, Ulf Visual DMDX: A web-based authoring tool for DMDX, a Windows display program with millisecond accuracy Journal Article Behavior Research Methods, 47 (3), pp. 620-631, 2014, ISSN: 1554-3528. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: DMDX, HTML5, Internet-based research, JSON @article{Garaizar2014b, title = {Visual DMDX: A web-based authoring tool for DMDX, a Windows display program with millisecond accuracy}, author = {Pablo Garaizar and Ulf Reips }, url = {https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758%2Fs13428-014-0493-8}, doi = {10.3758/s13428-014-0493-8}, issn = { 1554-3528}, year = {2014}, date = {2014-06-10}, journal = {Behavior Research Methods}, volume = {47}, number = {3}, pages = {620-631}, abstract = {DMDX is a software package for the experimental control and timing of stimulus display for Microsoft Windows systems. DMDX is reliable, flexible, millisecond accurate, and can be downloaded free of charge; therefore it has become very popular among experimental researchers. However, setting up a DMDX-based experiment is burdensome because of its command-based interface. Further, DMDX relies on RTF files in which parts of the stimuli, design, and procedure of an experiment are defined in a complicated (DMASTR-compatible) syntax. Other experiment software, such as E-Prime, Psychopy, and WEXTOR, became successful as a result of integrated visual authoring tools. Such an intuitive interface was lacking for DMDX. We therefore created and present here Visual DMDX (http://visualdmdx.com/), a HTML5-based web interface to set up experiments and export them to DMDX item files format in RTF. Visual DMDX offers most of the features available from the rich DMDX/DMASTR syntax, and it is a useful tool to support researchers who are new to DMDX. Both old and modern versions of DMDX syntax are supported. Further, with Visual DMDX, we go beyond DMDX by having added export to JSON (a versatile web format), easy backup, and a preview option for experiments. In two examples, one experiment each on lexical decision making and affective priming, we explain in a step-by-step fashion how to create experiments using Visual DMDX. We release Visual DMDX under an open-source license to foster collaboration in its continuous improvement. }, keywords = {DMDX, HTML5, Internet-based research, JSON}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } DMDX is a software package for the experimental control and timing of stimulus display for Microsoft Windows systems. DMDX is reliable, flexible, millisecond accurate, and can be downloaded free of charge; therefore it has become very popular among experimental researchers. However, setting up a DMDX-based experiment is burdensome because of its command-based interface. Further, DMDX relies on RTF files in which parts of the stimuli, design, and procedure of an experiment are defined in a complicated (DMASTR-compatible) syntax. Other experiment software, such as E-Prime, Psychopy, and WEXTOR, became successful as a result of integrated visual authoring tools. Such an intuitive interface was lacking for DMDX. We therefore created and present here Visual DMDX (http://visualdmdx.com/), a HTML5-based web interface to set up experiments and export them to DMDX item files format in RTF. Visual DMDX offers most of the features available from the rich DMDX/DMASTR syntax, and it is a useful tool to support researchers who are new to DMDX. Both old and modern versions of DMDX syntax are supported. Further, with Visual DMDX, we go beyond DMDX by having added export to JSON (a versatile web format), easy backup, and a preview option for experiments. In two examples, one experiment each on lexical decision making and affective priming, we explain in a step-by-step fashion how to create experiments using Visual DMDX. We release Visual DMDX under an open-source license to foster collaboration in its continuous improvement. |
2013 |
Garaizar, Pablo; Reips, Ulf Build your own social network laboratory with Social Lab: A tool for research in social media Journal Article Behavior Research Methods, 46 (2), pp. 430-438, 2013, ISSN: 1554-3528. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Internet science, Internet-based research, Open-source software, Social engineering, Social media @article{Garaizar2013b, title = {Build your own social network laboratory with Social Lab: A tool for research in social media}, author = {Pablo Garaizar and Ulf Reips }, url = {http://paginaspersonales.deusto.es/garaizar/papers/BRM2014-PG-UDR.pdf}, doi = {10.3758/s13428-013-0385-3}, issn = {1554-3528}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-09-06}, journal = {Behavior Research Methods}, volume = {46}, number = {2}, pages = {430-438}, abstract = {Social networking has surpassed e-mail and instant messaging as the dominant form of online communication (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu, 2010). Currently, all large social networks are proprietary, making it difficult to impossible for researchers to make changes to such networks for the purpose of study design and access to user-generated data from the networks. To address this issue, the authors have developed and present Social Lab, an Internet-based free and open-source social network software system available from http://home/learninglabdeust/public_html.sociallab.es. Having full availability of navigation and communication data in Social Lab allows researchers to investigate behavior in social media on an individual and group level. Automated artificial users (“bots”) are available to the researcher to simulate and stimulate social networking situations. These bots respond dynamically to situations as they unfold. The bots can easily be configured with scripts and can be used to experimentally manipulate social networking situations in Social Lab. Examples for setting up, configuring, and using Social Lab as a tool for research in social media are provided. }, keywords = {Internet science, Internet-based research, Open-source software, Social engineering, Social media}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {article} } Social networking has surpassed e-mail and instant messaging as the dominant form of online communication (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu, 2010). Currently, all large social networks are proprietary, making it difficult to impossible for researchers to make changes to such networks for the purpose of study design and access to user-generated data from the networks. To address this issue, the authors have developed and present Social Lab, an Internet-based free and open-source social network software system available from http://home/learninglabdeust/public_html.sociallab.es. Having full availability of navigation and communication data in Social Lab allows researchers to investigate behavior in social media on an individual and group level. Automated artificial users (“bots”) are available to the researcher to simulate and stimulate social networking situations. These bots respond dynamically to situations as they unfold. The bots can easily be configured with scripts and can be used to experimentally manipulate social networking situations in Social Lab. Examples for setting up, configuring, and using Social Lab as a tool for research in social media are provided. |
Garaizar, Pablo; Reips, Ulf Social Lab: A social engineering wargame Conference Build your own social network laboratory with Social Lab: A tool for research in social media, 46 (2), Behavior Research Methods, 2013. Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Internet science, Internet-based research, Open-source software, Social engineering, Social media, Social networking sites @conference{Garaizar2013d, title = {Social Lab: A social engineering wargame}, author = {Pablo Garaizar and Ulf Reips}, url = {http://paginaspersonales.deusto.es/garaizar/papers/BRM2014-PG-UDR.pdf}, doi = {10.3758/s13428-013-0385-3}, year = {2013}, date = {2013-09-06}, booktitle = {Build your own social network laboratory with Social Lab: A tool for research in social media}, volume = {46}, number = {2}, pages = {430-438}, publisher = {Behavior Research Methods}, abstract = {Social networking has surpassed e-mail and instant messaging as the dominant form of online communication (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu, 2010). Currently, all large social networks are proprietary, making it difficult to impossible for researchers to make changes to such networks for the purpose of study design and access to user-generated data from the networks. To address this issue, the authors have developed and present Social Lab, an Internet-based free and open-source social network software system available from http://home/learninglabdeust/public_html.sociallab.es. Having full availability of navigation and communication data in Social Lab allows researchers to investigate behavior in social media on an individual and group level. Automated artificial users (“bots”) are available to the researcher to simulate and stimulate social networking situations. These bots respond dynamically to situations as they unfold. The bots can easily be configured with scripts and can be used to experimentally manipulate social networking situations in Social Lab. Examples for setting up, configuring, and using Social Lab as a tool for research in social media are provided.}, keywords = {Internet science, Internet-based research, Open-source software, Social engineering, Social media, Social networking sites}, pubstate = {published}, tppubtype = {conference} } Social networking has surpassed e-mail and instant messaging as the dominant form of online communication (Meeker, Devitt, & Wu, 2010). Currently, all large social networks are proprietary, making it difficult to impossible for researchers to make changes to such networks for the purpose of study design and access to user-generated data from the networks. To address this issue, the authors have developed and present Social Lab, an Internet-based free and open-source social network software system available from http://home/learninglabdeust/public_html.sociallab.es. Having full availability of navigation and communication data in Social Lab allows researchers to investigate behavior in social media on an individual and group level. Automated artificial users (“bots”) are available to the researcher to simulate and stimulate social networking situations. These bots respond dynamically to situations as they unfold. The bots can easily be configured with scripts and can be used to experimentally manipulate social networking situations in Social Lab. Examples for setting up, configuring, and using Social Lab as a tool for research in social media are provided. |