Applying an XML Warehouse to Social Network Analysis, Lessons from the WebStand Project

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development of an XML-based data warehouse platform designed for social network analysis of web data, emphasizing temporal analysis and sociological insights from mailing list data.

Contribution

It introduces a customizable XML warehouse system tailored for web data analysis, with a focus on social network and temporal analysis of web-based social groups.

Findings

System successfully analyzes social networks of W3C standard setters

Enables sociological studies of web communities over time

Demonstrates effectiveness in processing mailing list data

Abstract

In this paper we present the state of advancement of the French ANR WebStand project. The objective of this project is to construct a customizable XML based warehouse platform to acquire, transform, analyze, store, query and export data from the web, in particular mailing lists, with the final intension of using this data to perform sociological studies focused on social groups of World Wide Web, with a specific emphasis on the temporal aspects of this data. We are currently using this system to analyze the standardization process of the W3C, through its social network of standard setters.