social media impact workshop
DESCRIPTION
Workshop presentation at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 5 July 2012.TRANSCRIPT
#1Social media are not only about impact
#2Social media are interrelated. Technically, commercially and culturally
#3Social media do not exist in isolation
#4Social media constitute a contested space
#5Both interaction and broadcast metaphors apply
#6 Academic reputations and hierarchies are easily transferred
#7Practices are emergent, contested and culturally situated
SOURCE, MANAGE& SHARE RESOURCES
COLLABORATIVEWORKING
DISSEMINATION
NETWORKING
SOURCE, MANAGE& SHARE RESOURCES
RSS Readers
COLLABORATIVEWORKING
DISSEMINATION
Blogs
Google Docs
Wikis
‘Ning’ Sites
Social Bookmarking& Referencing
Facebook Groups
NETWORKING& DISCUSSION
MOOCs
Content Sharing Sites
Google+
Toolbox
Space
Barriers to adopting social media?
Time-consumingLack of knowledge / awareness / ‘best practices’Insignificant and frivolousEgocentric and opinionated, self-publicisingNot trustworthy, unreliable contentLack of academic rigourNot formally recognised / rewarded by institution Lack of institutional / departmental support / incentive Compromises formal publication / disseminationThreats to representation (self, institution, research)Disclosure (research design, findings etc.)Technophobia – ‘digital natives’ etc.Low initial rewardsLow regard of contribution – “I’ve nothing to say”Disclosure of academic naivetyInstitutional constraints or regulationsCompromises lecturer / student relationshipsCompromises existing personal / recreational use and online identityContext and potential misinterpretationCommercialisation (non-institutional / non-academic)Privacy issuesOwnership, copyright and IP
Format Media Mode Genre
Granularity
Dissertation Haiku http://dissertationhaiku.wordpress.com/
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What?Type of research work / activities / content etc.
Where?Social media – platforms and tools
When?Stages of project / study / tenureHow might this support / compromise formal publication?
How?Type of format / media etc.
Who (to/with)?Audience – academic / discipline / publicStakeholders – participants / partners
Blogging: Platforms
Wordpress
Complex, open source, Content Management System (CMS). Highly customisable (plug-ins)Developer-hosted and self-hosted options
Blogger
Mid-range blogging platformLimited customisability
‘Tumblogs’
Simple editing platforms - ‘lifestreaming’ and mobile friendly e.g. Tumblr Posterous
Blog Technologies
Increasingly multi-media – RSS feeds, links, tags, images and videoNon-textual formats: video blogging, podcasting
Blogging: Blog Writing
Historical Cultural Identity
Biography, activism and citizen journalismInformal, subjective and expressive
Writing Skills
Regularity – writing disciplineInformality – experimentation with different writing forms / stylesGenerality – engaging a wider (non-specialist) audience
Contexts
Shape ideas, formulate thoughts, and conceptsWork-in-progress Contribution to formal publication – thesis, journal article or reportEmphasis on personal perspectives and experiences
Blogging: Blog Content
Reports on academic events, including workshops, seminars, and conferences (including ‘live-blogging’)
Book and article reviews
Commentary on ‘academic life’ including teaching and research projects
Research methods and methodologies, and academic writing
Using research tools and software
Development of theoretical and conceptual ideas
Training and professional development
Emotional development and well-being related to academic practice
Blogging: The ‘Blogosphere’
The ‘Blogging Community’
Reading, linking to, and commenting on other blogsComments and pingbacksIdentifiability – ‘Imagined audience’
Feedback and Peer Review
Informal, distributed and (potentially) frequent Establish sustainable channels of discussion, feedback and peer support
Boundary Crossing
Extend beyond immediate / local research community – geographically and disciplinaryNew interdisciplines and specialist fields Blogs as ‘Boundary Objects’ (Efimova, 2009)
Efimova, L. (2009). Passion at work: blogging practices of knowledge workers. Enschede, Netherlands: Novay.
Blogging: Process and Reflection
Narrative Structure
Journal style entry provides narrative structure (e.g. research project / doctorate)‘Following’ blogs
Documentation
Reflective processDevelopment of ideas / concepts
Navigation
Chronological (time-based) – by date, month, yearConceptual (theme-based) – by category or tags
Blogging: Licensing
Creative Commons
Set of copyright options enabling the protected copying, distribution and uses of original work by others
Blogging: Group Blogs
Guest posting
Opportunity to experience blogging without resorting to the personal investment and responsibility that an independent, single-author blog represents.
Institutional / departmental blogs
Potential to reach a wider audience with greater impactIncreased responsibility for representationMore restrictive ‘house styles’ and editorial control (content and format)
Blogging: Institutional vs. external platforms
Content / external links etc.Editing procedures and authorisationStyle restrictions – templates etc.Issues of ownership and copyrightSearch engine optimization (SEO)Promotional aspects – potential audienceTechnical supportReliability of platformSustainability of platform – portabilityOperability – ease of use / access
Syndication and Aggregation
The navigation and management of digital environments through the syndication of multiple sites, tools and services.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication)Subscribe to blogs, websites, podcasts etc.
Types of RSS / Feed ReadersDesktop-basedBrowser-based Web-based
Tagging / Bookmarking / Folksonomies
Personal BookmarkingPersonal organisation / management of web-based contentSearchable – Tag List / CloudFurther Organisation Tools – Bundle Tags / Multiple Sites
Group / Collaborative Bookmarking Participatory and democratic knowledge base Social BookmarkingUse as search engine – keyword / userSearch other users bookmarksSubscriptions, networks RSS feeds etc.
Tagging (in)consistency – intra-personal and inter-personal
Examples: Delicious Pinboard
Tagging also used in blogging, and content sharing sites (e.g. Flickr YouTube and Slideshare)
Microcontent – ‘tweets’ (maximum 140 characters)Individual and organisational accountsRetweeting, direct messaging, replyingLists and favouritesThird party Twitter clients and services – interfaces, groups, content support, tracking and visualisation etc. Interconnectivity with other social media – e.g. Delicious
Academic Practice
Knowledge / resource sharing – posting, accessing and ‘retweeting’ linksNotification – new blog posts, publications and bookmarks, events, call for papers, announcements and cancellations etc.‘Crowdsourcing’ – asking questions, making enquiriesReal-time social networking and discussionReal-time search engine‘Hashtag’ communities and networksEvents and conferences – the ‘backchannel’ and remote conferencing
Content Sharing Sites
Sharing of academic content in different formats / mediaDissemination of work to a wider audience
Tagging and annotation of contentPlaylists, favourites and comments
Content can be embedded on external sites (e.g. blogs)
Presentations e.g. SlidesharePapers / Reports e.g. ScribdNetworking Sites e.g. LinkedIn AcademiaImages e.g. FlickrVideo e.g. YouTube Vimeo
Community Sites
‘Ning’-type Sites
Multifunctional platformsSpecialist or community-based themes
ProfilingDiscussion (forums)Blog postingShared repository
Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs)
Course-base structureMultiple platformsUse of RSS, tagging etc. to connect distributed contributions
Social Bibliography / Reference & Citation
Personal and social management of academic papers and referencesSynchronisation between browser, desktop and web based programmes‘One-click’ referencing of web-based academic content and bibliographic librariesCollaboration through group-based and networking activities
Examples: CiteULike Zotero Mendeley
Text Editing Tools
Wikis
Text-based collaborative platform e.g. Mediawiki Wikispaces
Google Docs.
Suite of office toolsSynchronous editing for multiple users
Social Text Annotation
Fine-grained social and collaborative annotation of textse.g. Commentpress
Research Impact
Research Councils UK
“ “the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy
Individual ProfessionalDevelopment
ResearchProject
Events &Conferences
Research Group /
Department
What?Type of research work / activities / content etc.
Where?Social media – platforms and tools
When?Stages of project / study / tenureHow might this support / compromise formal publication?
How?Type of format / media etc.
Who (to/with)?Audience – academic / discipline / publicStakeholders – participants / partners
http://newresearchtrajectories.net/
Events, Seminars and Conferences
Supporting academic events before, during and afterProjects (e.g. launch events) and departments (open days etc.) NetworkingPre-conference and post-conference Conference MaterialContent (abstracts, biographies etc.)Information (venue etc.) PresentationsRepurposing (Slideshare etc.)External audiences and contextsPresentation notes and slidecasts
Events, Seminars and Conferences
Recording / DocumentationLive streams – embedded into websites / social media e.g. UstreamLive broadcast / post-event resourceVideo / audio / presentations etc. – on mainstream and social media platforms Webinars / web conferencing e.g. Eluminate Big Blue Button Live-blogging – informal documentationPost-event blogging – reports and reflections HashtagsTwitter – live tweetsDisplay - Twitter walls /streams e.g. TwitterfallThe Twitter ‘backchannel’ Aggregating across platforms Twitter, blog posts, photos (e.g. Flickr)Aggregating tweets e.g. Storify
Web Analytics
Visitor numbers – specific pages / postsDemographic informatione.g. Google Analytics
Social network visualisation and analysis
Emerging fieldAnalysis of patterns - what people are reading, bookmarking, sharing, discussing, and citing onlinee.g. Altmetrics
http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/view/DigitalScholar_9781849666275/book-ba-9781849666275.xml
Martin Weller
The Digital Scholar: How Technology Is Transforming Scholarly Practice
Bloomsbury Academic(2011)
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/
http://alternativeto.net/
Thanks!
Andy Coverdale
Blog: http://www.phdblog.netTwitter: @andycoverdale