1) The document discusses how Twitter can be used for open, networked scholarship through many-to-many communication and building communities of practice, but that challenges exist due to its oral nature and collapsed contexts. 2) It recommends navigating Twitter in a way that contributes to scholarship and humanity by building an identity within interest areas, sharing work and crediting others, being patient and friendly in conversations, and believing in the value of contributions. 3) The key is remembering principles like being honest, doing "shoulder checks" of context, not expecting a soapbox, not confusing free speech with privilege, and inhabiting both academic and networked worlds simultaneously.

1. TWITTER AS SCHOLARSHIP
How Not To Get Fired(much)
BONNIE STEWART
@bonstewart
University of Prince Edward Island, Canada
LaTrobe University, October 2016
http://xkcd.com/802/

2. Prince Edward Island?

3. WINTER IS COMING
APRIL 2015. ew.

4. How did I get here?

5. Open networked scholarship

6. ACADEMIC TWITTER
scholarship
what people
had for lunch
TIMESTAMP:
2013

8. Rise of hashtag activism…
TIMESTAMP:
2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown#/media/File:Memorial_to_Michael_Brown.jpg

9. + ‘Callout culture’

10. + backlash & rise of alt/right
https://mobile.twitter.com/cartoon_neuron/status/618385493227642880

11. + increasing institutionalization of
social media
= increased perception of
professional RISK

12. There are a lot of shuttered
academic Twitter accounts.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/3753886017/

13. This lens of risk isn’t wrong… but
it’s not the whole picture.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/the4mahers/6802850117/

14. So… HOW I LEARNED TO STOP
WORRYING & LOVE THE TWITTERZ

15. Understanding the intersections between
networked & academic premises is the
KEY to value & safe(ish) use
https://www.flickr.com/photos/28537647@N06/2887726958/

16. The work of two 20th century
thinkers helped me understand
Twitter as 21st century scholarship
…and think about how to use it.

17. 1. Boyer: Networked practices as
SCHOLARSHIP
¤ Scholarship of discovery
¤ Scholarship of integration
¤ Scholarship of application
¤ Scholarship of teaching
!
(Boyer, 1990)

18. Academia & social media are both
reputational economies
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8113246@N02/7932198032

19. We are trained & acculturated to
SIGNALS of scholarly excellence
https://www.flickr.com/photos/126451798@N05/15076855933/

20. Those within the academy become
very skilled at judging the stuff of
reputations. Where has the person’s
work been published, what claims
of priority in discovery have
they established, how often have they
been cited, how and where reviewed,
what prizes won, what institutional ties
earned, what organizations led?
(Willinsky, 2010)

21. Enter…knowledge abundance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/piper/19904408
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jaredzimmerman/15728149611/

22. The gates are open
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vince2012/14557320666/

23. Structure of abundance = networks
https://plus.google.com/+DaveGray/posts/CQRVeKEsUvFpid=5751686447270321954&oid=117373186752666867801

24. Networked publics:
many-to-many signals
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/it/thumb/d/d8/Do_Not_Adjust_Your_Set.jpg/280px-Do_Not_Adjust_Your_Set.jpg

25. …Like a party line with
multiple private/public options
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94342662@N00/3869483214/

26. capacity to
contribute to
“The
Conversation”
scale of visibility
common
interests &
disciplines
shared ties
Network signals do similar work…
more openly
Factors contributing
to perceived
influence & value in
academic Twitter –
Stewart, 2015

27. MY STORY:
My local cohort, Ph.D year 2
Me, studying networks
& education V, 6hrs away,
studying music ed
Z, working 1hr away,
studying leadership in ed

28. Twitter = a cohort without borders
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bswise/4457290211/

29. Many-to-many signals =
global communities of practice
& mentorship

30. Benefits as thinker:
just-in-time choral conversation

31. Benefits as learner: support & care

32. Benefits as writer: crowdsourcing

33. Benefits as teacher:
opportunities to connect students
to real audiences

34. Benefits as scholar:
connection to leaders

35. + expansion of audience
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tattoodjay/4129779298/

36. + opportunity. Thanks to many-to-
many communications on Twitter.

37. Academic Twitter = a scholarship
of abundance
https://www.flickr.com/photos/92998734@N03/8466586880/

38. (sometimes change is good.)

39. Great. But what about when open,
networked signals don’t feel good?
And don’t feel like scholarship?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edenpictures/14399024753

40. 2. Ong: The CULTURE of an
environment is shaped by its
communications medium

41. Oral Tradition
¤ Participatory
¤ Situational
¤ Social
¤ Formulaic
¤ Agonistic
¤ Rhetorical

42. …sound kinda like Twitter?

43. Literate Tradition
¤ Interiorized
¤ Abstracted
¤ Innovative
¤ Precise
¤ Analytic
¤ Indexical
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterpress_printing#/media/File:The_Caxton_Celebration_-
_William_Caxton_showing_specimens_of_his_printing_to_King_Edward_IV_and_his_Queen.jpg

44. Academia is the instantiation of what Ong calls ‘high literacy.’
…sound kinda like academia?

45. Ong’s secondary orality +
secondary literacy
“The network message from one person to another / others
is very rapid and can in effect be in the present…
textualized verbal exchange registers psychologically as
having the temporal immediacy of oral exchange.”
(Ong, 1996)

46. Speech-based
expectations
Call-out Culture = Collapsed
Publics
Print-based
interpretations

47. The ORALITY of Twitter – which
demands ongoing participation,
performativity beyond rank,
casual sociality, & a different type
of conflict – creates challenges.

48. Challenge: context collapse
(Wesch, 2009; boyd, 2011)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dress_code

49. Challenge: virality

50. http://www.flickr.com/photos/21031300@N02/4076687726/
Challenge: permanence

51. Challenge: the ‘comments section’

52. Challenge: differential identity
reception & targeting

53. Challenge: predatory labour
masked as “exposure”

54. (Okay, *that* one’s a lot
like academia)

55. How can we navigate Twitter in a way
that contributes to our scholarship &
humanity, rather than risking either?
*assuming Twitter continues to exist*

56. http://www.flickr.com/photos/tmesis/21126825/
Remember, the internet is
people. Who read signals.

57. To start signaling, build an identity

58. You need to work on your identity
before it will work for you.

59. Figure out who you want to
signal to.

60. ¤ #phdchat
¤ #edchat
¤ #ECRchat
¤ #ScholarSunday
¤ #GetYourManuscriptOut
¤ #acwri
¤ #SaturdaySchool
¤ #highered
¤ #digped
¤ #WithaPhD
¤ #science
Connect: #s help you find
people with shared interests
#

61. Share. Your work AND that
of others. Cite & credit people.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanr/142455033/

62. Be patient. Be friendly. Be part of
the conversation.

63. Believe in the value of your
contribution.

64. Twitter can help your scholarship
become many-to-many
scholarship
https://www.flickr.com/photos/122135325@N06/15117809516/in/dateposted/

65. But to succeed AND not get fired,
it helps to remember:
BE HONEST

66. Always do a ‘shoulder check.’
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ooocha/2632434274/sizes/z/in/photostream/

67. Institutions are made of people too

68. Don’t expect a soapbox

69. Don’t confuse your free speech
with your privilege

70. Don’t aim to be HUGE

71. Don’t push to tie open networked
scholarship TO academic
reward systems

72. https://www.flickr.com/photos/51764518@N02/9763729373/

73. You can inhabit both worlds
– the academic & the networked
– at the same time, to the
benefit of both.

74. What signals will you send?
THANK YOU
@bonstewart
bstewart@upei.ca