Work

Mastodoner: A Command-line Tool and Python Library for Public Data Collection from Mastodon

Year: 2024

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: This paper introduces Mastodoner, a command-line tool and Python library aimed at simplifying access to public data on Mastodon, a prominent player in the Fediverse --- a decentralized network of interconnected social media platforms. Mastodoner addresses the challenges posed by Mastodon's decentralized nature by providing a unified interface for data collection, instance discovery, and secure data sharing. Through examples and demonstrations, this paper illustrates Mastodoner's capabilities in facilitating researchers' access to and analysis of public Mastodon data, thus advancing research in decentralized social media analytics. The tool and documentation are available at: https://github.com/harisbinzia/mastodoner.

Source: ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM)

DOI: 10.1145/3627673.3679217

Authors: Haris Bin Zia, Ignacio Castro, Gareth Tyson

Institutions: Queen Mary University of London, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

Language: English

Topic: Web Data Mining and Analysis

Subfield: Information Systems

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Awards: REPHRAIN: Research centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence online, AP4L: Adaptive PETs to Protect & emPower People during Life Transitions