Uberlink Newsletter - March 2016

VOSON 2.0 for all subscribers!

The Classic interface has been a mainstay of VOSON ever since its origins as a research project at The Australian National University and it has been the standard interface for the Free Tier VOSON subscription. Since its introduction in 2013, ‘VOSON 2.0’ has surpassed the Classic interface in ease-of-use, as designed.

So far, VOSON 2.0 has been available for both Professional and Premium Tier subscriptions and now we want to extend the invitation to use it for the Free Tier subscribers!

The main reason why we are moving on from our Classic interface is because having to maintain two codebases for VOSON’s user interface commits resources we would prefer to spend on new product lines, such as our Analytics Services (see below).

We will be switching all subscribers over to the VOSON 2.0 interface on 31 May, 2016. If you have any questions regarding the transition to VOSON 2.0, please check VOSON 2.0 FAQs or participate in Uberlink's online forum.

Retirement of VOSON Data Provider for NodeXL

For several years, and since the publication of the book on NodeXL, users of this network analysis tool have been able to access hyperlink networks generated from VOSON from within NodeXL.

Unfortunately, changes in the underlying user model of NodeXL have required us to end VOSON access from within NodeXL, effective 31 August, 2016. From that date forward, hyperlink networks cannot be created or displayed directly from within NodeXL.

However networks generated from VOSON can still be used in NodeXL! VOSON users have always been able to export networks from their VOSON account and load them into NodeXL, if that is their preferred tool.

Twitter Analytics Service: investigating networks from Twitter

Uberlink is happy to provide the Twitter Analytics Service, which allows you to investigate networks formed from Twitter users.

New to Uberlink is the ability to access real-time streaming data from Twitter’s Enterprise API platform, GNIP. This allows us to provide you with social networks formed from every single tweet that is made over a certain time period. This is a marked improvement over (for example) Twitter’s own free access, which will return only up to 1% of all tweets (with limitations on the kinds of queries that can be made). We provide three social networks: mention networks, reply networks, and retweet networks.

For more information, please visit our Twitter Analytics Service page. You can request a price quote by sending an email to info@uberlink.com

Hyperlink Analytics Service: conducting large scale web crawls

The Hyperlink Analytics Service allows users to conduct extra-large-scale web crawls (over 500 seed sites), which are unfeasible using the standard VOSON subscription. Uberlink manages the crawl on your behalf, creating in the process the network datasets which are then available to you in your VOSON account.

We provide two crawl iterations, in case you want to change your seeds based on what you find. You may adjust your seed sites within one month after receiving the first crawl iteration results, and add any new seed sites (up to the maximum you have specified in your quote).

For more information, please have a look at our Hyperlink Analytics Servic e web page. You can request a quote from info@uberlink.com while letting us know the estimated number of seed sites you are considering for your crawl.

Using VOSON to explore the online ecosystem of an activist movement

Researchers from the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University, New York University and the University of North Texas have prepared a report titled "Beyond the hashtags: #Ferguson, #Blacklivesmatter, and the online struggle for offline justice".

In that study, the authors examine the use of online media tools by an activist movement: Black lives matter. As part of the research methods, VOSON was used to collect data and conduct hyperlink analysis.

Uberlink's survey: measuring VOSON software user's experience

Because we want VOSON to be the best analytical tool for web relational data, we will be running a short survey among subscribers.

We look forward to hearing your opinion, experience and comments in different aspects of the VOSON software. Your valuable feedback will help us to identify and prioritise areas of improvement.

We will contact you soon and thanks in advance for your help in this!

PS: incentives will be provided :)