Benefits of social media for researchers

Inge de Waard

Using Web2.0 or not?

Just pose yourself one question:

Where do I want to be in 5 years

What is our future?

(image from Tensafefrogs)

The future is to become more human. And to become more human, we must learn more rapidly, understand more fully.

Social media technology brings us closer to how a human works, AND it enhances our human state.

Innovations can bring us closer to our own human potential

(image from javier.reyesGomez)

Facebook’s and twitter’s success is not coincidental, it works because it expands our own humanness:

This characteristic fits all contemporary innovations.

So … what is human?

We sit around campfires

We tell stories: narration has always given us a deeper understanding. Storytelling will take us all along a learning journey.

And most importantly, when night falls, we DREAM. We let go of the world we know and we look towards the stars to share our wildest dreams.

We share.

We connect: networking is what we have always done, we need to

We share common interests, with others. Mentorship was always around and in this Web2.0 age neo-mentorship is gaining stamina once again. We follow our mentors, engage with them and learn (read/write web).

We know knowledge comes from connecting: we bond and therefore we are.

Personal characteristics will position us in a group.

Learning is inherently human: from in the whomb we learn

Our learning mind does not need to be told what to do, we learn no matter what. Sugata Mitra discovered with his hole in the wall project, where small children taught themselves English and genetics from a stand-alone computer.

We socialize and learn from each other (peer-to-peer).

As humans, we talk, we share, we connect and we learn

Researchers are human, so do we do the same in our professional life?

The world is changing Cold war: East West

Colonial times: North South

Current: global migration: we are all nomads

Learning on the move was always happening

Griot or jali: these musicians were walking history books, preserving their ancient stories and traditions through song.

• This image, which was originally posted to Flickr, was uploaded to Commons using Flickr upload bot on 19:10, 21 August 2007 (UTC) by T L Miles (talk).

Grand tour …

Grand tour: famous in 18th century Europe (only for those who could afford it)

All regions, all ages… what is yours?

We move towards a knowledge era

Web2.0 is nothing special, it simplyincreases our human potential as nomads in the real world AND in cyberspace

In the Knowledge Age: eLearning is coming of age: everything is in the cloud

The earth is becoming the village we want it to be, no longer limited with geo-graphical boundaries…thanks to cloud computing.

One problem: The village is learning faster then we do…

Researchers need to get into social media & the cloud

Is this the right time to dive into Social Media and Web2.0?

Some researchers are skeptical or feel an aversion to change but … shift happens

Generation Y is here

Web(2.0) was made for science and learning

Tim Berners-Lee created the idea of the World Wide Web in 1983

together with Robert Cailliau the WWW was turned into an instrument for

scientific information exchange

Closed => Open science

Copyright and intellectual property => science commons - interested: podcast of John Wilbanks from Science Commons, interviewed by MIT Libraries News.

Science is changing• Quantitative• Qualitative• Critical science and mixed research

• Ivory towers open access

Pushed by political and research agenda • Berlin Declaration 2003• Regional push for brain exchange: Bologna declaration 2000

This is (y)our era: push the research agenda & let yourself be heard

• Read/write web => Web2.0• First time in history all of us global citizens can create,

and share content • => First time we can connect across regions, to those

areas that face similar challenges, to share or work on solutions

Content production is on the rise

The world is becoming our teacher

One person no longer knows it all… they probably never did.

We must organize to stay on top

So where are you? And who are you?Is your research out there? Can your research be found? Can your profile be found? Who finds it? Is your digital identity relevant to your professional expertise?

We need to share and connect

• People we trust will lead us to the most relevant content (AND semantic web is coming, where our content will lead people towards us)

Social Media = Connections

lifelong learning + latest knowledge + (global) network= science = benefits of Social Media

You and F2F colleagues

You within network of institutional partners

You within your global digital peer network

Why should we connect? To …

• Stay on top of our field• Create career opportunities• Exchange ideas with peer experts• Envision the future steps in the field• Start formal collaborations• To get Better….

Who do we connect to?

• Subject matter experts

• People you trust

• People who share your field of expertise

Where do we connect?

On the Web, using social media

When do we connect?

24/7

We need to make ourselves digitally and networkingly literate

• We need to know how to connect AND interact with others

• For top researchers, learning happens on a daily basis, by following peer teachers…of which we are one

Image is made with Wordle.com

An example of openness:Neglected Diseases in Open Science

http://fora.tv/2010/07/29/Mike_Gretes_Neglected_Disease_RD

First a warning!

Web2.0 will help you,but be aware as well!

• Gossip! • Some things are shareable, others stuff is only for our

intimate friends: the Web STICKS (read this online book)

• (facebook friends e.g., video’s from teachers on youtube)

And the personal laws still apply: Dunbar’s number drives us socially

Unfriending social network sites (e.g. Facebook) is needed for focusing reasons, we sometimes need to regroup ‘friends’ for increased comprehension.

Dunbar showed us that we – as humans – have a limited social capacity.

Okay, let’s do it!

There are massively many tools out there

But each tool belongs to a tool family that can be used depending on the networking or collaboration goal you want to achieve

And… once you start with using tools, you will have your own story on why to use it

Six simple steps to start connecting and learning

• Step 1: clarify your personal goal for professional development

• Step 2: create your own journal => feedreader (google reader).

• Step 3: write a short profile about yourself in language that will connect to your peer expert group

• Step 4: understand copyright, intellectual property and disclaimer implications

• Step 5: understand the mechanism of logging in = username + password

• Step 6: dive into social media, one tool at the time

All you need

Social Media is subscribing

AND remembering username & password

Use tag(s) to be able to retrieve relevant info.

Or getting an openID (= one ID fits all)

Blog: reflect on your research and share it

Blogger, wordpress, …

Posterous (great integration, all communication only via e-mail)

Be part of or build a social network

Facebook, Ning, Grouply, …

Discuss and exchange knowledge

Discussion groups: google groups, e-mail list servers

Q/A between peers and quick knowledge updates

Microblogging: twitter, foursquare, …

(searchable via search.twitter.com, using hashtags = #)

Get experts ‘beamed in’

DimDim, skype,…

Start open classrooms

Wiziq, Elluminate, adobe connect…

Add and share content

Video: ForaTv, ustream, blip.tv, YouTube…

Pictures: Flickr, picasa, …

http://blip.tv/file/2869621/

Share bookmarksDelicious, Xmarks, …

Share your papers and publications

Academia, Scribd, …

Share your presentations

Slideshare, authorstream, Prezi…

And get things organized with: RSS

Add a feed reader for easy (easier) content follow-up

Syndication, picks up social media content and spreads it throughout the internet where it can be found by anyone looking for that information.

See how it works (commoncraft). Some feed readers:

Bloglines

Google reader

feedreader

iTunes!

Contact

E-mail: idewaard@itg.be

Blog: ignatiawebs.blogspot.com (click the ‘mobile’ tag)

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