Wolfgang Reinhardt
University of Paderborn
Visualizing the dynamics of
communication in Communities of
Practice on Twitter

Practice
What are
Communities of
?
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
In a nutshell, Communities of Practice
are groups of people of different
sizes who share a common concern
or have a common passion.

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
CoPs often emerge in the context of
existing organisations or
professional networks, in which
people are already involved in
common professional practices.

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
CoPs elaborate current (or develop
new) practices, through
communication, debates and
exploration of internal and external
knowledge.

What is
Twitter
?
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

http://www.motor-talk.de/attachment/620692/Golf%20in%20Einzelteilen.jpg • 140 characters • Followers
• from mobile, client or web interface • Direct messages
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
• Direct messages • #Hashtags
• @Mentions (Replies) and Retweets • Open API

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
CoPs in Twitter form by the common
usage of a hashtag that is part of
the message.

research
Question
?
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
How can we track and visualize the
dynamics of written communication in
Communities of Practice in Twitter?

www.flickr.com/photos/zedzap/3332003118/
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
sneak Peek
#telss09

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

EDMedia 2009
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gbatistini/3778521713/
Outlook
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
Conclusion

!
analysis application
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
visualization of content and
dynamics in the network
still some work to do
semantical analysis, RDF
Artefact-Actor-Networks

Wolfgang Reinhardt
@wollepb
© Wolfgang Reinhardt, University of Paderborn, @wollepb
Hendrik Drachsler
@HDrachsler
Steve Wheeler
@timbuckteeth
#icl09

Thank you
Want to know more?
http://twitter.com/wollepb
http://isitjustme.de
http://artefact-actor-networks.net
Wolfgang Reinhardt
University of Paderborn
Institute of Computer Science
Working Group Didactics of Informatics
http://ddi.upb.de