Welcome to the Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON)
Advancing the Social Science of the Internet through new empirical research into online networks (and associated e-Research tools).
The World Wide Web (WWW) has changed how humans interact; for some scholars, we now live in the "Age of the Network". As online populations grow and the quantity and quality of interactions improve with new technology, social scientists are developing new approaches for understanding the impact of online networks on social interaction and economic and political participation. The vastness and dynamic nature of the WWW poses research challenges relating to data storage, management and computation. E-Research technologies address these challenges, facilitating collaborative access by distributed researchers to methods and large-scale datasets. The Virtual Observatory for the Study of Online Networks (VOSON) Project is conducting empirical social science research into online networks and developing e-Research tools to facilitate this research.
A handout describing the VOSON Project can be found here (PDF - 556K).
The VOSON System is web-based software incorporating web mining, data visualisation, and traditional empirical social science methods (e.g. social network analysis, SNA). Web services facilitate access and sharing of distributed resources such as datasets, methods and computational cycles.
In the first half of 2008, we expect to release a basic version of the VOSON System platform on sourceforge.
June 2008 - VOSON tutorial successfully held at the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science.
May 2008 - A VOSON tutorial is planned for the Australian Consortium for Social and Political Research Incorporated (ACSPRI) Summer Training Program, Canberra, January 2009.
May 2008 - VOSON System is now hosted at the Australian National Univerisity Supercomputer Facility (ANUSF)! read more...
March 2008 - Robert Ackland is an external advisor to the Oxford Internet Institute on a Joint Information Systems Committee / National Endowment for the Humanities Transatlantic Digitisation Collaboration project titled "The World Wide Web of Humanities". read more...
In March 2008, a beta version of data collection facilities became available within the VOSON System -- users can now create their own voson datasets containing "seed URLs" that the VOSON web crawler will crawl. Existing users of the VOSON System will need to apply to have access to the data collection facilities -- please see the Contacts page.
March 2008 - VOSON featured on International Science Grid website!
In February 2008, the VOSON System became available for general access (i.e. you do not need to apply for a user account). Click on the "guest" link above to find out how to log on to the VOSON System as a guest. Note, however, that guest users of the VOSON System have access to a limited set of capabilities -- guest users can evaluate the software and determine whether they would like to apply for a user account (giving access to the full system). Please note that at present, VOSON System user accounts are only available at no charge to researchers in academia and the non-profit sector. Please see the Contacts page for details on how to apply for a user account.
Learn More About VOSON:
- What's New?
- The latest information on the VOSON project can be found on the What's New? page.
- About VOSON
- The About VOSON page provides details on the research methods and software that underly VOSON.
- Papers/presentations
- VOSON-related papers and presentations are available for download on the Outputs page.
- Contacts
- More information on the people behind VOSON can be found on the Contacts page.