Twarc and Hydrater
Twarc is an open source Python tool used for the preservation and archiving of tweets and other Twitter data. It was developed by the Research Institute for the Future of Work, and was used by digital researchers and archivists to capture twitter data in real-time. It is mostly used to collect, track, and analyze tweets. Using API access, Twarc allows users to search for tweets matching specific keywords, data, or user accounts so that relevant data can be collected on the social movement or event that is being studied.
Hydrater: Hydrater comes from its ability to “hydrate” a list of tweet IDs by fetching the full content of those tweets. Hydrater works specifically to archive tweets from various time periods. This tool collects and stores tweets in an easily accessible format. For example, if a user has already collected data based on a specific criteria, Hydrater uses Batch Processing to collect any other associated data quickly and effiently.
These two tools are very important to Documenting the Now. Hydrater is all the tweet and making posts were as Twarc searches for and collects the information. Without these two tools this website wouldn’t function or be directed towards the right target audience.