Workshop presentation at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 5 July 2012.

1. #1
Social media
are not only
about impact

2. #2
Social media
are
interrelated.
Technically,
commercially
and culturally

3. #3
Social media
do not exist in
isolation

4. #4
Social media
constitute a
contested
space

5. #5
Both
interaction
and
broadcast
metaphors
apply

6. #6
Academic
reputations
and
hierarchies
are easily
transferred

7. #7
Practices are
emergent,
contested
and culturally
situated

9. SOURCE, MANAGE
NETWORKING
& SHARE RESOURCES
COLLABORATIVE
DISSEMINATION
WORKING

10. SOURCE, MANAGE NETWORKING
& SHARE RESOURCES & DISCUSSION
RSS Readers
Facebook
Social Bookmarking LinkedIn
Twitter
& Referencing Google+
Facebook Groups
Content Sharing Sites
‘Ning’ Sites
MOOCs
Wikis Blogs
COLLABORATIVE Google Docs
DISSEMINATION
WORKING

11. Toolbox

12. Space

13. Barriers to adopting social media?

14. Time-consuming
Lack of knowledge / awareness / ‘best practices’
Insignificant and frivolous
Egocentric and opinionated, self-publicising
Not trustworthy, unreliable content
Lack of academic rigour
Not formally recognised / rewarded by institution
Lack of institutional / departmental support / incentive
Compromises formal publication / dissemination
Threats to representation (self, institution, research)
Disclosure (research design, findings etc.)
Technophobia – ‘digital natives’ etc.
Low initial rewards
Low regard of contribution – “I’ve nothing to say”
Disclosure of academic naivety
Institutional constraints or regulations
Compromises lecturer / student relationships
Compromises existing personal / recreational use and online identity
Context and potential misinterpretation
Commercialisation (non-institutional / non-academic)
Privacy issues
Ownership, copyright and IP

16. Format Media Mode Genre

17. Granularity

19. Bacteria bind
To cells in lungs; but does it
Matter? I don’t know.
Dissertation Haiku http://dissertationhaiku.wordpress.com/

20. Joel Miller | Microstructure-Property relationships in Ti2448 components produced by Selective Laser Melting: A Love Story (2011)
http://vimeo.com/30299036

21. ores2k | Thinking (2007) http://www.flickr.com/people/ores2k/

22. What?
Type of research work / activities / content etc.
Where?
Social media – platforms and tools
When?
Stages of project / study / tenure
How might this support / compromise formal publication?
How?
Type of format / media etc.
Who (to/with)?
Audience – academic / discipline / public
Stakeholders – participants / partners

23. Blogging: Platforms
Wordpress
Complex, open source, Content Management System (CMS).
Highly customisable (plug-ins)
Developer-hosted and self-hosted options
Blogger
Mid-range blogging platform
Limited customisability
‘Tumblogs’
Simple editing platforms - ‘lifestreaming’ and mobile friendly
e.g. Tumblr Posterous
Blog Technologies
Increasingly multi-media – RSS feeds, links, tags, images and video
Non-textual formats: video blogging, podcasting

24. Blogging: Blog Writing
Historical Cultural Identity
Biography, activism and citizen journalism
Informal, subjective and expressive
Writing Skills
Regularity – writing discipline
Informality – experimentation with different writing forms / styles
Generality – engaging a wider (non-specialist) audience
Contexts
Shape ideas, formulate thoughts, and concepts
Work-in-progress
Contribution to formal publication – thesis, journal article or report
Emphasis on personal perspectives and experiences

25. 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

26. Blogging: The ‘Blogosphere’
The ‘Blogging Community’
Reading, linking to, and commenting on other blogs
Comments and pingbacks
Identifiability – ‘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
disciplinary
New interdisciplines and specialist fields
Blogs as ‘Boundary Objects’ (Efimova, 2009)
Efimova, L. (2009). Passion at work: blogging practices of knowledge workers. Enschede, Netherlands: Novay.

27. Blogging: Process and Reflection
Narrative Structure
Journal style entry provides narrative structure (e.g. research project /
doctorate)
‘Following’ blogs
Documentation
Reflective process
Development of ideas / concepts
Navigation
Chronological (time-based) – by date, month, year
Conceptual (theme-based) – by category or tags

28. Blogging: Licensing
Creative Commons
Set of copyright options enabling the protected copying, distribution and uses
of original work by others

29. 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 impact
Increased responsibility for representation
More restrictive ‘house styles’ and editorial control (content and format)

30. Blogging: Institutional vs. external platforms
Content / external links etc.
Editing procedures and authorisation
Style restrictions – templates etc.
Issues of ownership and copyright
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Promotional aspects – potential audience
Technical support
Reliability of platform
Sustainability of platform – portability
Operability – ease of use / access

31. 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 Readers
Desktop-based
Browser-based
Web-based

32. Tagging / Bookmarking / Folksonomies
Personal Bookmarking
Personal organisation / management of web-based content
Searchable – Tag List / Cloud
Further Organisation Tools – Bundle Tags / Multiple Sites
Group / Collaborative Bookmarking
Participatory and democratic knowledge base
Social Bookmarking
Use as search engine – keyword / user
Search other users bookmarks
Subscriptions, 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)

33. Twitter
Microcontent – ‘tweets’ (maximum 140 characters)
Individual and organisational accounts
Retweeting, direct messaging, replying
Lists and favourites
Third 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’ links
Notification – new blog posts, publications and bookmarks, events, call for
papers, announcements and cancellations etc.
‘Crowdsourcing’ – asking questions, making enquiries
Real-time social networking and discussion
Real-time search engine
‘Hashtag’ communities and networks
Events and conferences – the ‘backchannel’ and remote conferencing

34. Content Sharing Sites
Sharing of academic content in different formats / media
Dissemination of work to a wider audience
Tagging and annotation of content
Playlists, favourites and comments
Content can be embedded on external sites (e.g. blogs)
Presentations e.g. Slideshare
Papers / Reports e.g. Scribd
Networking Sites e.g. LinkedIn Academia
Images e.g. Flickr
Video e.g. YouTube Vimeo

35. Community Sites
‘Ning’-type Sites
Multifunctional platforms
Specialist or community-based themes
Profiling
Discussion (forums)
Blog posting
Shared repository
Massive Open Online Course (MOOCs)
Course-base structure
Multiple platforms
Use of RSS, tagging etc. to connect distributed contributions

36. Social Bibliography / Reference & Citation
Personal and social management of academic papers and references
Synchronisation between browser, desktop and web based programmes
‘One-click’ referencing of web-based academic content and bibliographic
libraries
Collaboration through group-based and networking activities
Examples: CiteULike Zotero Mendeley

37. Text Editing Tools
Wikis
Text-based collaborative platform
e.g. Mediawiki Wikispaces
Google Docs.
Suite of office tools
Synchronous editing for multiple users
Social Text Annotation
Fine-grained social and collaborative annotation of texts
e.g. Commentpress

38. Research Impact
“ the demonstrable
contribution that
excellent research
makes to society
and the economy
“
Research Councils UK

39. Individual Research
Professional Group /
Development Department
Research Events &
Project Conferences

40. What?
Type of research work / activities / content etc.
Where?
Social media – platforms and tools
When?
Stages of project / study / tenure
How might this support / compromise formal publication?
How?
Type of format / media etc.
Who (to/with)?
Audience – academic / discipline / public
Stakeholders – participants / partners

41. http://newresearchtrajectories.net/

42. Events, Seminars and Conferences
Supporting academic events before, during and after
Projects (e.g. launch events) and departments (open days etc.)
Networking
Pre-conference and post-conference
Conference Material
Content (abstracts, biographies etc.)
Information (venue etc.)
Presentations
Repurposing (Slideshare etc.)
External audiences and contexts
Presentation notes and slidecasts

43. Events, Seminars and Conferences
Recording / Documentation
Live streams – embedded into websites / social media e.g. Ustream
Live broadcast / post-event resource
Video / audio / presentations etc. – on mainstream and social media
platforms
Webinars / web conferencing e.g. Eluminate Big Blue Button
Live-blogging – informal documentation
Post-event blogging – reports and reflections
Hashtags
Twitter – live tweets
Display - Twitter walls /streams e.g. Twitterfall
The Twitter ‘backchannel’
Aggregating across platforms Twitter, blog posts, photos (e.g. Flickr)
Aggregating tweets e.g. Storify

44. Web Analytics
Visitor numbers – specific pages / posts
Demographic information
e.g. Google Analytics
Social network visualisation and analysis
Emerging field
Analysis of patterns - what people are reading, bookmarking, sharing,
discussing, and citing online
e.g. Altmetrics

45. Martin Weller
The Digital Scholar: How
Technology Is Transforming
Scholarly Practice
Bloomsbury Academic
(2011)
http://www.bloomsburyacademic.com/view/DigitalScholar_9781849666275/book-ba-9781849666275.xml

46. http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/

47. http://alternativeto.net/

48. Thanks!
Andy Coverdale
Blog: http://www.phdblog.net
Twitter: @andycoverdale