For this Leibniz Media Lecture, we welcome Dr. Simon Kruschinski from GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. In his presentation, Dr. Kruschinski will introduce the Research Infrastructure for Data from Large Online Platforms (RIDLOP). RIDLOP enables secure access to, and long-term reuse of, data from large online platforms for social science research. The Hamburg Section of the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) is hosting this Leibniz Media Lecture.
Moderator: Dr. Jan-Hinrik Schmidt
The presentation “RIDLOP: Eine Forschungsinfrastruktur für Daten großer Online-Plattformen” [RIDLOP: A Research Infrastructure for Data from Large Online Platforms] be held in German.
About the Lecture
Online platforms shape nearly every aspect of life. The behavioral data generated through their use is valuable for researching democracy, health, and the economy. However, access to this data has been limited and dependent on the platform. GESIS is developing the Research Infrastructure for Data from Large Online Platforms (RIDLOP) to systematically collect platform data and securely make it available for reuse. RIDLOP relies on three approaches:
- Submissions by researchers,
- Data donations from platform users, and
- Provision by platforms, e.g., under the Digital Services Act.
This sensitive data can be securely archived and reused through a combination of an archive and a Trusted Research Environment. This results in systematic, comparable, and long-term usable data resources. The presentation will introduce RIDLOP with interactive tool demonstrations.
About the Speaker
Dr. Simon Kruschinski is a senior researcher specializing in platform data and computational social science at GESIS in Cologne. He is also the head of a DFG research project. At GESIS, he develops services and infrastructure that make digital behavioral data accessible and analyzable for the social science community, particularly within the framework of the Digital Services Act. Dr. Kruschinski’s research examines how digital platforms, algorithms, and artificial intelligence influence the communication strategies of political and media figures, and the impact this has on citizens, societies, and democracies.
