strategies for developing a scholarly web presence during a higher degree

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Dr Tama Leaver, Dept. of Internet Studies

Strategies for Developing a Scholarly Web Presence During a Higher Degree

22 September 2015

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Five Questions About You!

1. Who knows what results turn up when you Google (search) your own name?

2. Where online do you read or engage with discussions relevant to your research?

3. Who writes their own blog or website?4. Who has a Facebook profile?5. Who uses Twitter?

… and what do you want to get out of this seminar?

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Outline

1. Why have a Web Presence?• Before you start• Scholarly Context

2. Tools of the Trade• Websites (Blogs, Tumblr)• Facebook• Twitter• Scholarly Networks & Profiles

3. When to Engage?• Academic Conferences & Networking• Publication & Promotion

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[1] Why have a web presence?

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Image courtesy of Paul Watson.

Why have a Web Presence?To exist, to share and to discuss …

• So people can find you.• So people can find your topic (and then you).

• To share and get feedback on your ideas as they develop• To share resources and insights (and have them shared

right back!)

• To be part of your scholarly area• To be part of the larger online postgraduate

community (it’s less lonely with PhD Comics)

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Image courtesy of Paul Watson.

Before you start …• Decide what you want to say or do with your web

presence!

• How ‘professional’ or personal will your web presence be?

• Who are you writing for?• Do you have different tools for different purposes? • How often will you update your web presence?• How often will you check your chosen tools or

platforms?

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Scholarly Context …

Lupton, D. (2014). “Feeling Better Connected”: Academics’ Use of Social Media. Canberra: University of Canberra. Retrieved from http://www.canberra.edu.au/faculties/arts-design/attachments/pdf/n-and-mrc/Feeling-Better-Connected-report-final.pdf

Which tools matter?

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[2] Tools of the trade

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Websites & Blogs: the Practicals ...

What is a blog? (My blog.)

Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/ Wordpress: http://wordpress.com/ Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com

The Academic Blog Portal:http://academicblogs.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

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Blogs: a few examples …

Sky Croeser (Curtin) http://skycroeser.net/ Tim Highfield’s ‘…and then the world’ (QUT)

http://timhighfield.net/

Jason Mittell’s ‘Just TV’ http://justtv.wordpress.com/

Melissa Gregg’s ‘Home Cooked Theory’ http://homecookedtheory.com/

Image by www.lumaxart.com

Readings Blogs (and other websites)

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) Separates the form and content, so updated

content can come to you!

RSS Readers (aka Aggregators)eg Feedly http://cloud.feedly.com/

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Social Networks (aka Facebook)

Decide in advance which social networks are just social and which will include academic networking and sharing!

Use privacy settings and groups (not the whole world, all the time!).

Learn about PAGES and GROUPS – many academic groups and conferences have one!

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Social Networks (aka Facebook)

Don’t forget if you’ve used social networks for professional interaction, some things are best not shared …

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Twitter?

• Micro-blogging? (eg @tamaleaver)

• Quick sharing and commentary• Good in combination with other services (Eg

Blogs)

• Conferences: official twitter profiles, pre-conference discussions and #hastags

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Twitter: Immediate Answers

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Scholarly Profiles & Presences:Google Scholar

Academia.edu

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ORCiD (eg http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4065-4725 )

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Scopus (eg http://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.url?authorId=39963062500 )

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So many other tools …

Social Bookmarking Eg Delicious www.delicious.com

“Professional” Social Networks Eg LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/home

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[3] When to engage?

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Conference hashtags (#ir14)

Conference hashtags = specific way of finding your conference on Twitter.

‘Backchannel’ during conference (or just ‘channel’).

Often now used before and after to build and maintain community around specific conferences.

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Slideshare / Content-Specific Sites

Slideshare.com – like the YouTube of powerpoint slides

EG http://slidesha.re/17R6rw9

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Conferences

Engage via social media before the conference via official hashtags (Twitter) and on dedicated Facebook pages & groups.

During the conference engage in commentary about talks via social media

Share your presentation (eg Slideshare, Prezi, a blog post, etc.)

Afterward: maintain networks established to continue scholarly engagement & networking

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Publications … (preprint sharing)

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Publication Repositories

Submit pre-prints of publications to OPEN ACCESS institutional repositories.

Quickly indexed by search engines, including Google Scholar.

Makes research visible and findable quickly (often long delays between article acceptance and publication).

eSpace librarians sort out copyright issues. Curtin’s eSpace: http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au

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eSpace: Profile & Statistics

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Op Eds, etc: The Conversation

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The Conversation: Building Impact …

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The Conversation: Detailed Statistics, Good Reach & Encourages Republication (Creative Commons licenses)

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Blog posts …

Blog posts …

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Footer text - slideshow title

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Impact & Altmetrics

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Big Impact!

See boyd, danah, and Kate Crawford. “Critical Questions for Big Data.” Information, Communication & Society 15.5 (2012): 662–679. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878

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Publications

Share ideas, discuss early findings via social media Post drafts and pre-prints to build attention and early citations (subject

to the copyright terms of your targeted publication; see Sherpa/Romeo)

Share widely upon publication via social media, scholarly networks (Academia, Researchgate, etc) and scholarly profiles (Google Scholar, ORCiD, etc)

Use blog posts, op eds, reports, other sources to promote, mention and diversify you audience, impact and attention.

Build impact measures beyond traditional citations (but also those!) such as those measured by Altmetrics.

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Hands on follow-up next week …

“GETTING STARTED IN DEVELOPING A WEB PRESENCE (HANDS ON SESSION)”

What tools do you want to set up? Bring a profile photo and a one-paragraph scholarly

biography (ie ‘who am I?’).

Date: Tuesday, 29 September 2015 Time: 10am - 12pm Venue: 402.233

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Questions or Comments?

Or find me later …

www.tamaleaver.net

@tamaleaver

t.leaver@curtin.edu.au