Imgur and Reddit begin scientific research collaboration

Scientists gain access to data from several major sites such as news site Reddit and image host Imgur. To provide that data, the websites have started a collaboration called the Digital Ecologies Research Partnership.

Five sites participate in the Digital Ecologies Research Partnership, or Derp for short. These are Imgur, Reddit, Fark, StackExchange and Twitch. They make data available to universities such as Harvard, MIT and McGill, which conduct research into the social aspects of the sites, among other things. Other universities are also free to join Derp.

With Derp, the participating websites try to solve two pain points within the academic field. Firstly, with the partnership they want to offer a single point of contact for researchers who want to study the sites, so that they do not have to knock on the door of each site separately for data. In addition, this point should also make it easier to carry out the same research at the various sites simultaneously.

The companies behind Derp emphasize that scientists are only facilitated if they take the privacy of users into account and ‘handle the information collected responsibly’. In addition, the results must be made public and freely disseminated. Finally, sites like Imgur and Reddit can each add privacy rules.

Incidentally, it is not the case that the data from, for example, Imgur and Reddit are only accessible via Derp. In most cases, the data can also be obtained by means of the APIs. “We just believe there is a better way to conduct research, in a way that respects privacy and the responsible handling of data,” Imgur’s Tim Hwang told The Guardian.