Archival dataset: A longitudinal dataset of five years of public activity in the Scratch online community

Scratch is a programming environment and an online community where young people can create, share, learn, and communicate. In collaboration with the Scratch Team at MIT, we created a longitudinal dataset of public activity in the Scratch online community during its first five years (2007-2012). The dataset comprises 32 tables with information on more than 1 million Scratch users, nearly 2 million Scratch projects, more than 10 million comments, more than 30 million visits to Scratch projects, and more. To help researchers understand this dataset, and to establish the validity of the data, we also include the source code of every version of the software that operated the website, as well as the software used to generate this dataset. We believe this is the largest and most comprehensive downloadable dataset of youth programming artifacts and communication. All data tables included in this dataset are access restricted. Individuals should request access to these data by filling out a form and agreeing to the Scratch Research Data Sharing Agreement. The text of the agreement and instructions for requesting access is in the file named scratch-data-agreement-form.pdf in this repository and available at the following URL: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/file.xhtml?fileId=3102931 Documentation for this dataset can be found at https://communitydata.cc/scratch-data/