Using archival versions of apps to understand emerging digital ecosystems.
Archival versions of apps present a unique opportunity to study how apps functioned at different points in time, how they evolved individually, and how their roles in wider digital ecosystems can be useful to understand the increasing dominance of platforms as organizers of the internet. In this pap...
| Publicado en: | Big Data & Society Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 1 - 17 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Sage Publications Inc.
Dec2025
|
| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=191630868&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 191630868 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 20539517 KG5N jtl: Big Data & Society issn: 20539517 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 12 iid: 4 pid: 344 pub: Sage Publications Inc. artinfo: ui: 191630868 10.1177/20539517251382825 ppf: 1 ppct: 16 formats: tig: atl: Using archival versions of apps to understand emerging digital ecosystems. aug: au: Burroughs, James Mathew, Ashwin Oreglia, Elisa affil: Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, London, UK su: Hyperlinks Software versioning Digital technology Digital platforms Interdisciplinary research Online banking Data visualization software sug: subj: Hyperlinks Software versioning Digital technology Digital platforms Interdisciplinary research Online banking Data visualization software keyword: App analysis app historiography Chinese internets digital ecosystems Kazakhstan visualisation ab: Archival versions of apps present a unique opportunity to study how apps functioned at different points in time, how they evolved individually, and how their roles in wider digital ecosystems can be useful to understand the increasing dominance of platforms as organizers of the internet. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to studying apps' histories by analysing the URLs embedded in their code, and a tool, Janus, to automate the collection and analysis of apps, and output visualisations of their hard-coded links. By pruning these URLs at different levels, these visualisations can show an app's map of connectivity at various levels of detail (domain, subdomain and full URL) across time. We propose Janus as a locus of multidisciplinary research, to triangulate findings especially from qualitative researchers, but also to identify new lines of inquiry for different disciplines. We test Janus and its potential for multidisciplinary research on historical versions of the Kazakhstani 'super-app' Kaspi and of other local financial apps. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|