This paper is a journey through the methodological and empirical stages of an academic research dealing with big data. I intend to explore some of the possible ethical and technical problems and solutions associated with event data within concrete political and geographic boundary specifications. At the same time, I'll provide the preliminary outcomes of this process: on the one side, a methodological compass and, on the other, an empirical example of its application. The first is a detailed codebook for protest event analysis (PEA) in authoritarian and post-authoritarian polities; and the second is a map, produced through Social Network Analysis (SNA), of the Collective Action Networks that emerged in the Middle East and North Africa during the last years, paving the way to the Arab Revolutions.
