The MicroPasts Project

PLoS biology, 2014

2016

For the first time in its five year history the #Microposts workshop features a designated Social Science track. This paper introduces this new track by situating it within the overall workshop objectives. It highlights the importance of interdisciplinary studies in the attempt to make sense of Web user activities in general, and in the generation and consumption of Microposts in particular. This paper pro- vides examples of related work in the field, such as Com- putational Social Science, reviews previous contributions to the #Microposts by the Social Science research community, and introduces the two papers presented in the track.

"While Imagining America’s members recognize the potential of community-campus partnerships as sites for building and sustaining democratic culture, such potential is not widely recognized by the public. This seminar aims to engage participants in critical discourse about how communications strategies and tools can be effective in making this potential visible to broad audiences. The seminar’s goal is to develop strategies and action plans for communicating stories about community-based art and scholarship, as well as for using communications to coalesce all those (nationally and globally) using humanities, arts, and design to enhance democratic culture. In a virtual exchange prior to the conference, seminar participants will be asked to share and analyze the tools they are using, excited about, struggling with, or developing. Such tools might include websites, databases, maps, blogs, webinars, social media, e-portfolios, platforms for open-source collaboration software, and more. For example: Animating Democracy’s new Drupal website provides artists, educators, community partners, and funders with user profiles, resources on making the case for the social impact of the arts, and case studies and trend papers. American Commonwealth Partnership’s blog and social media platform facilitate conversation about the public purposes of higher education and encourage youth participation. University of North Carolina-Greensboro’s database of community partnerships improves communication about and reporting on engagement projects. Roadside Theater’s forthcoming Drupal website will give users access to a visualized database of multimedia resources (licensed for free reuse by Creative Commons) about “Art in a Democracy” in order to curate and publish new methodologies, plays, courses, and more. American Democracy Project’s eCitizenship initiative encourages campuses to incorporate social media into civic engagement work to understand how technology shapes citizenship behaviors. Through storytelling, participants will share personal experiences of a communications strategy that either successfully or unsuccessfully brought a coalition together around a shared vision, mission, values, and goals. Participants will leverage the knowledge in the group to troubleshoot challenges with design, development, and implementation – especially with regard to the use of communications and technology that exemplify democratic values like reciprocity, transparency, participation, and dialogue."

For the first time in its five year history the #Microposts workshop features a designated Social Science track. This paper introduces this new track by situating it within the overall workshop objectives. It highlights the importance of interdisciplinary studies in the attempt to make sense of Web user activities in general, and in the generation and consumption of Microposts in particular. This paper pro- vides examples of related work in the field, such as Com- putational Social Science, reviews previous contributions to the #Microposts by the Social Science research community, and introduces the two papers presented in the track.

2012

Building a platform for knowledge creation and engagement is a big task for librarians especially when incorporating social or new media. But, with the advent of new tools and open source technology, the librarians at Nanyang Technological University are able to sow the seeds in the library's technology infrastructure. The initiative leads in the construction of a campus wide platform, adopting WordPress architecture to strategically align with its online information service. Subject guides are now able to reinvent the traditional reference services into a new way of seamless outreach and digital engagement. Seeds of engagement are sowed as the project team provides a platform of flexibility and interoperability for content creation.

Quinnell, R. 2014. ELNs, OpenScience, Publish[at]source: enhancing research through socio-digital collaboratories or "how to blog your thesis". Seminar for Honours and Postgraduate students in School of Biological Sciences. 15th September, 2014. The University of Sydney.

2010

Archaeology International, 2014