1.
Blogs,Twitter, wikis and other
web-based tools
http://research20atimperial.wordpress.com
Jenny Evans
Maths & Physics Librarian

2.
Tools andTechnologies
found under ‘optional content’
Blogs
Evaluation tools
Multimedia
Networks and networking
Online collaborative tools
RSS
Social bookmarking & reference management
Wikis
Communicating online (online identity)
Managing information
Keeping up-to-date

3.
Inputs
Tom Phillips (2013)

4.
Outputs
Tom Phillips (2013)

5.
An online diary, with entries (known as posts)
written in reverse chronological order. It is
possible to post text as well as embed other
content, such as images or videos or tweets from
your Twitter account. Those reading a blog can
often use the comments feature to interact with
the blog writer, or blogger, and other people
(though some blogs have comments disabled).

6.
Structure of a blog

7.
Also known as a web feed or news feed, an RSS
feed is web content encoded in an xml format. It
enables you to keep up to date with changes to
regularly accessed web resources by delivering
this information directly to your feed reader
(also known as an aggregator). Feed readers can
be browser based, web based or desktop based.

8.
Activity:
Create an account with a Feed Reader
and add some RSS feeds
http://feedly.com/index.html#welcome

9.
Blogging Platforms

10.
Why?
Audience
What to blog about / not blog about
Content
Why not?
Confidential data
Time

11.
Information communication to a wide audience
Improve your writing
Think about communicating to non-specialists and/or
members of the public
Easy to set up
Connect other social media accounts
Build your online presence/profile

12.
Content (from Stephen Curry)

13.
Legal / ethical issues
Embed links rather than content
Hosting
Licensing info about original content
License blog with appropriateCC license
Confidentiality
Complaints procedure
…use your common sense!

14.
Activity – Workshop blog
1. Log in to the workshop blog
www.imperiallibrarylab.co.uk/wordpressresearch/wp-login.php
- your username and password were emailed to you this
morning
2.Write your first blog post – can be impressions so far or try
the ‘flash blogging exercise’ or do both
3. Or set up your ownWordPress.com blog and write your first
post

15.
“an online social networking service and microblogging service
that enables users to send and read “tweets”, which are text-
based messages limited to 140 characters.”
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter [accessed online 1 December 2013]

16.
What is it?

17.
Twitter and Privacy
Privacy policy
Account settings
Location information – off by default
https://support.twitter.com/forums/26810/entries/78525#
Can delete tweets but not edit them
May still be found inTwitter Search for a while

18.
Twitter apps and tools
Twitter for smart phones, tablets and desktop
computers

19.
Activity:
Set up aTwitter Account or a
Hootsuite Account

20.
A wiki is a website that anyone can add content to. It can
be open to all or closed so that only invited members of a
community can use it. Pages can be quickly and easily
edited and created in a web browser.Those contributing to
a wiki can discuss and comment upon each other’s work.
Enables collaboration
Web-based
Reduce email
Keep track of research

21.
Using wikis in research
Electronic lab notebooks
OpenWet Ware
Disseminate data
isee – dissemination of structural biology data
To support teaching
Chemistry@www.ch.imperial.ac.uk
For presentations
Wikipedia and the Molecular Sciences

22.
Which wiki software?
Imperial specific
CentralWiki Service (Confluence)
Sharepoint
Freely available
WikiMatrix

23.
Social bookmarking and your research
Web-based version of browser bookmarks – access
wherever you are
Share with other researchers
Export and import links
Discover new information and research using tags to
browse other peoples bookmarks
Organise, and search your bookmarks using tags
Delicious, Pinboard

24.
http://pinboard.in/u:tomwphillips

25.
Social reference management and your
research
Discover new information and research
Access your references wherever you are
Organise, and search your references/bookmarks using tags
Share your references with others in your research area
Identify other potentially useful references
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, Colwiz, readcube

26.
Chemistry Research group using Mendeley

27.
Evaluation tools
Many tools available – measuring qualitative or quantitative
data or a combination of both
Can be free, paid for or a combination of both
Altmetrics – article level metrics – focus on the impact of a
specific article
There are also tools connecting social media accounts and give
you a score to measure your influence
No tool is perfect nor should not be used in isolation
Things to think about
What do I want to measure?
Why am I measuring?
Which tools am I using?
How and what is the tool / service measuring?

28.
College guidelines / advice
Social media guidelines
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/webguide/socialmedia
Social networking sites and personal internet presence
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/hr/procedures/socialnet
Use of collaborative internet environments
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/collegegovernanc
e/provisions/policies/infosystems/codes/cop16
Web based collaboration guidelines
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/WEBGUIDE/technologyservices/c
ollaboration/webbasedcollaborationguidelinessupplement

29.
Image attributions
Tag cloud from http://www.tagxedo.com/
Anne Helmand http://www.flickr.com/photos/7849372@N04/3582297307/ under CC
BY-NC-SA
Tom Phillips inputs and outputs from: http://blog.tomwphillips.co.uk/2013/02/tools-
and-technologies-for-researchers/
Blogs, Read blogs, RSS,Write blogs,Why, Case Studies, OtherTools images generated
by: http://metaatem.net/words/blogs
Blogging platforms image from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/67499195@N00/3273832615 reused under CC BY-NC 2.0
Content from Stephen Curry (Science blogging workshop)
http://sciencebloggingworkshop.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/stephencurrybloggingw
orkshop-jul12-v2.pdf
Copyright image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/10361931@N06/4839454263/
reused under CC-BY
The role ofTwitter in science publication and communication from :
http://www.katiephd.com/twitter-and-science-publications/
Prevalence ofTwitter and use amongst scholars
http://figshare.com/articles/Prevalence_and_use_of_Twitter_among_scholars/104629
Why useTwitter? And Perceptions on why you might not useTwitter from: :
http://prezi.com/f9ivxz4pkloj/twitter-for-researchers/