Ideas? extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group
Greetings all! I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas? I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable. I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group. Cheerio Tracey -- *Tracey P. Lauriault* Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6 1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault
If it is private you have no options other than manually.. unless you can write some script in Mozilla which would do the repetitive steps for you. No API will give you anything whose permissions are not public. In fact, even when getting the data from GNIP is not possible. You would need to be quite creative by using a script that access that data from a browser that you have opened. On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault <tlauriau@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all!
I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas?
I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable.
I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group.
Cheerio Tracey
-- *Tracey P. Lauriault*
Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6
1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Statistical Programmer * violetacarrion.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facebook : groups/statausersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statausersgroup/> */raschmeasurement/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement/> * groups/systatusersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/systatusersgroup/> * groups/statsprogresearchdata/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statsprogresearchdata/>
Hello, you can scrape the post but take care of being blocked by Facebook, if it is a massive quantity of data, if you dont have programming skills you can use kimono or OutWit pro for this task. Also be aware of the legal issues related to analyse private data, you can have the administrators authorization but I dont know if the members of the group agree to analyse their post. Best regards El 16/11/2015 21:21, "Violeta Carrion" <vdcarrion@gmail.com> escribió:
If it is private you have no options other than manually.. unless you can write some script in Mozilla which would do the repetitive steps for you. No API will give you anything whose permissions are not public. In fact, even when getting the data from GNIP is not possible.
You would need to be quite creative by using a script that access that data from a browser that you have opened.
On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault <tlauriau@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all!
I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas?
I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable.
I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group.
Cheerio Tracey
-- *Tracey P. Lauriault*
Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6
1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Statistical Programmer * violetacarrion.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facebook : groups/statausersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statausersgroup/> */raschmeasurement/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement/> * groups/systatusersgroup/ < https://www.facebook.com/groups/systatusersgroup/> * groups/statsprogresearchdata/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statsprogresearchdata/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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If you are handy with python, I'm happy to share some scripts I used to scrape posts & comments out of a private FB group, but you'll need to tweak them slightly to your needs. If interested, shoot me a note and I'll dig up the code. - Alex On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:32 PM, Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado <jorgelsalcedo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, you can scrape the post but take care of being blocked by Facebook, if it is a massive quantity of data, if you dont have programming skills you can use kimono or OutWit pro for this task. Also be aware of the legal issues related to analyse private data, you can have the administrators authorization but I dont know if the members of the group agree to analyse their post. Best regards El 16/11/2015 21:21, "Violeta Carrion" <vdcarrion@gmail.com> escribió:
If it is private you have no options other than manually.. unless you can write some script in Mozilla which would do the repetitive steps for you. No API will give you anything whose permissions are not public. In fact, even when getting the data from GNIP is not possible.
You would need to be quite creative by using a script that access that data from a browser that you have opened.
On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault <tlauriau@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all!
I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas?
I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable.
I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group.
Cheerio Tracey
-- *Tracey P. Lauriault*
Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6
1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Statistical Programmer * violetacarrion.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facebook : groups/statausersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statausersgroup/> */raschmeasurement/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement/> * groups/systatusersgroup/ < https://www.facebook.com/groups/systatusersgroup/> * groups/statsprogresearchdata/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statsprogresearchdata/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- // Alexander Halavais, Sociologist, Semiologist, and Saboteur Extraordinaire // Associate Professor of Social Technologies, Arizona State University // http://alex.halavais.net/bio @halavais
Right. Since it is a private group, I’m encourage getting consent of all members, not just the administrators. Plus, the fact that FB makes a private group hard to scrape should set off some research ethics alarms…. -- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor and PhD Program Director, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org
On Nov 16, 2015, at 2:32 PM, Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado <jorgelsalcedo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, you can scrape the post but take care of being blocked by Facebook, if it is a massive quantity of data, if you dont have programming skills you can use kimono or OutWit pro for this task. Also be aware of the legal issues related to analyse private data, you can have the administrators authorization but I dont know if the members of the group agree to analyse their post. Best regards El 16/11/2015 21:21, "Violeta Carrion" <vdcarrion@gmail.com> escribió:
If it is private you have no options other than manually.. unless you can write some script in Mozilla which would do the repetitive steps for you. No API will give you anything whose permissions are not public. In fact, even when getting the data from GNIP is not possible.
You would need to be quite creative by using a script that access that data from a browser that you have opened.
On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault <tlauriau@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all!
I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas?
I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable.
I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group.
Cheerio Tracey
-- *Tracey P. Lauriault*
Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6
1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Statistical Programmer * violetacarrion.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facebook : groups/statausersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statausersgroup/> */raschmeasurement/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement/> * groups/systatusersgroup/ < https://www.facebook.com/groups/systatusersgroup/> * groups/statsprogresearchdata/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statsprogresearchdata/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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This post raises a good ethics debate. If I'm a member of a private group on Facebook, I don't think the admins have the authority to give someone permission to scrap data in my name. And honestly, I'd be pretty offended if they did, I might still want to object to that. In essence, my own personal view it that's it's unethical to scrap data off a private group unless every single member gives permission for me to do so. Best regards. Rasha Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Past Chair Journalism and Mass Communication The American University in Cairo www.rashaabdulla.com Twitter: @RashaAbdulla <http://twitter.com/rashaabdulla> On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM, Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm@uwm.edu> wrote:
Right. Since it is a private group, I’m encourage getting consent of all members, not just the administrators. Plus, the fact that FB makes a private group hard to scrape should set off some research ethics alarms….
-- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor and PhD Program Director, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org
On Nov 16, 2015, at 2:32 PM, Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado < jorgelsalcedo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, you can scrape the post but take care of being blocked by Facebook, if it is a massive quantity of data, if you dont have programming skills you can use kimono or OutWit pro for this task. Also be aware of the legal issues related to analyse private data, you can have the administrators authorization but I dont know if the members of the group agree to analyse their post. Best regards El 16/11/2015 21:21, "Violeta Carrion" <vdcarrion@gmail.com> escribió:
If it is private you have no options other than manually.. unless you can write some script in Mozilla which would do the repetitive steps for you. No API will give you anything whose permissions are not public. In fact, even when getting the data from GNIP is not possible.
You would need to be quite creative by using a script that access that data from a browser that you have opened.
On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault < tlauriau@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all!
I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas?
I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable.
I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group.
Cheerio Tracey
-- *Tracey P. Lauriault*
Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6
1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Statistical Programmer * violetacarrion.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Facebook : groups/statausersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statausersgroup/> */raschmeasurement/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement/> * groups/systatusersgroup/ < https://www.facebook.com/groups/systatusersgroup/> * groups/statsprogresearchdata/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statsprogresearchdata/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
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_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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Its also worth looking at the terms of the group itself. Private groups that concern sensitive issues e.g. health often post their own privacy terms. On 20/11/2015 18:02, "Air-L on behalf of Dr. Rasha Abdulla" <air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org on behalf of rasha@aucegypt.edu> wrote:
This post raises a good ethics debate. If I'm a member of a private group on Facebook, I don't think the admins have the authority to give someone permission to scrap data in my name. And honestly, I'd be pretty offended if they did, I might still want to object to that. In essence, my own personal view it that's it's unethical to scrap data off a private group unless every single member gives permission for me to do so.
Best regards. Rasha
Rasha A. Abdulla, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Past Chair Journalism and Mass Communication The American University in Cairo www.rashaabdulla.com Twitter: @RashaAbdulla <http://twitter.com/rashaabdulla>
On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 12:01 AM, Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm@uwm.edu> wrote:
Right. Since it is a private group, I’m encourage getting consent of all members, not just the administrators. Plus, the fact that FB makes a private group hard to scrape should set off some research ethics alarms….
-- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor and PhD Program Director, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org
On Nov 16, 2015, at 2:32 PM, Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado < jorgelsalcedo@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello, you can scrape the post but take care of being blocked by Facebook, if it is a massive quantity of data, if you dont have programming skills you can use kimono or OutWit pro for this task. Also be aware of the legal issues related to analyse private data, you can have the administrators authorization but I dont know if the members of the group agree to analyse their post. Best regards El 16/11/2015 21:21, "Violeta Carrion" <vdcarrion@gmail.com> escribió:
If it is private you have no options other than manually.. unless you can write some script in Mozilla which would do the repetitive steps for you. No API will give you anything whose permissions are not public. In fact, even when getting the data from GNIP is not possible.
You would need to be quite creative by using a script that access that data from a browser that you have opened.
On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 1:07 PM, Tracey P. Lauriault < tlauriau@gmail.com> wrote:
Greetings all!
I have a colleague with the following query? Any ideas?
I need to find the easiest possible way of extracting posts and responses from a private Facebook group. I am a member of this group and I have permission from the administrators to access the posts for the purposes of my research. I’ll likely be using NVivo to help qualitatively analyze the posts. But, since I want to extract about a year’s worth of posts and responses, and it’s a fairly busy group, to do this manually is unmanageable.
I’m wondering if there’s software out there to help me do this or if there’s a third-party I might be able to hire to help me with this work. The problem seems to stem from the fact it’s a private vs. a public Facebook group.
Cheerio Tracey
-- *Tracey P. Lauriault*
Assistant Professor Critical Media Studies and Big Data Communication Studies School of Journalism and Communication Suite 4110, River Building Carleton University 1125 Colonel By Drive Ottawa (ON) K1S 5B6
1-613-520-2600 x7443 Tracey.Lauriault@Carleton.ca @TraceyLauriault Skype: Tracey.P.Lauriault _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
-- Statistical Programmer * violetacarrion.com
Facebook : groups/statausersgroup/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statausersgroup/> */raschmeasurement/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/raschmeasurement/> * groups/systatusersgroup/ < https://www.facebook.com/groups/systatusersgroup/> * groups/statsprogresearchdata/ <https://www.facebook.com/groups/statsprogresearchdata/> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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_______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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participants (7)
-
Alex Halavais -
Dr. Rasha Abdulla -
Jorge Luis Salcedo Maldonado -
Michael T Zimmer -
Mina Vasalou -
Tracey P. Lauriault -
Violeta Carrion