1. UKOLN is supported by: The Role of the Social Web in Scholarly Communication Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, UK http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/alpsp-2009/ This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat) Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Tag for del.icio.us ‘ alpsp-2009 ' Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/briankelly/ Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

2. Contents Social Web and the researcher  Blogs  Micro-blogs  Wikis  Social sharing Challenges  Sustainability (it’ll disappear)  Merit (it’s trivia)  Diversity (it’s not for all) Conclusions and Speculations Introduction

3. Personal Experiences My peer-reviewed and invited papers are listed in University of Bath institutional repository (with full-text where possible)

4. Accessing The Paper Metadata for most recent paper available in repository Access to paper currently embargoed

5. Accessing The Paper Metadata for most recent paper available on publisher’s Web site Access to paper available to subscribing institutions – otherwise ~£30

6. Giving Birth To The Paper Paper written Jan-Apr 2009 Ideas developed following plenary talk at OzeWAI 2009 conference, Jan 2009 For plenary talk: Slides shared on Slideshare

7. Giving Birth To The Paper For plenary talk: Talk videoed (using Flip camera) Video uploaded to Blip.TV Video embedded in blog post, Web page, …

8. Giving Birth To The Paper Blog post about talk: (a) embeds misc. resources and (b) provides forum for discussion

9. Giving Birth To The Paper Two tweets received immediately after talk at OzeWAI 2009 conf Led to: Discussions during conference Contributions to paper, which strengthened arguments

10. The Value of Brevity Cited in post on “Web Accessibility Framework in 3 Words” Response by David Sloan, accessibility researcher, University of Dundee & co-author of several joint papers: “I was sure I had been using a similar phrase in web accessibility talks and tutorials, so I thought I’d look back through my archived presentations to see when I first mentioned something similar. … … it was surprising – and sobering – to see how much in older presentations I would jump into the detail without some context – some simple three word phrases, like Lisa’s, to underpin how to approach web accessibility. Your post on Twitter and JISC proposal writing, is an illustration of how services like Twitter are teaching us how to be more succinct and effective in our communication. ” “I was sure I had been using a similar phrase in web accessibility talks and tutorials, so I thought I’d look back through my archived presentations to see when I first mentioned something similar. … … it was surprising – and sobering – to see how much in older presentations I would jump into the detail without some context – some simple three word phrases, like Lisa’s, to underpin how to approach web accessibility. Your post on Twitter and JISC proposal writing, is an illustration of how services like Twitter are teaching us how to be more succinct and effective in our communication. ”

11. David Sloan (accessibility researcher) Traditional approach: “In academia, this is how the quality of our work is measured – number of publications we achieve, … the quality of the place we publish …” But: “slow process of peer reviewing … it’s wonderful to find & read [blog posts & articles] … research written for web … easier to read than an academic paper” David’s Twitter account created in Oct 2008 and blog launched in Feb 2009

12. After The Paper Is Published Summary on blog allows personal responses to be made

13. After The Paper Is Published Summary on blog provides blog track-backs to other blog posts linking to post

14. ‘Pimp Up’ Your Stuff How does traffic arrive at UK Web Focus blog? As the top post (about Opera Unite) had been tweeted, visits are probably from a Twitter client (rather than the Twitter Web site)

15. Revisiting blog post about the Web Adaptability paper: bit.ly service used Statistics available Tweet written to make RTing easy:

16. “The Power Of Passed Links” The Value Of Twitter Is In “The Power Of Passed Links” Wilson predicts that at current growth rates, Twitter “will surpass Google for many websites in the next year.” And that just as nearly every site on the Web has become addicted to Google juice, they will increasingly try to find ways to get more links from Twitter. Because Twitter equals traffic. … Moreover, he asserts that these Twitter links “convert better” than search links because they are often pre- filtered and come in the form of a recommendation from someone you are following. TechCrunch, June 2009

17. Shared Bookmarks References in talk bookmarked in del.icio.us Enables me to: Embed resources in Web page (via RSS) Explore citations Make contacts

18. Shared Bookmarks Slewth’s RT led to finding her blog & recent papers & then phone chat References in talk bookmarked in del.icio.us Enables me to: Embed resources in Web page (via RSS) Explore citations Make contacts

19. Experiences With Wikipedia

20. What About Vandalisation? Rapper Sword page overwritten with spam on 6 July 2008. Page restored 1 minute later

21. Wikipedia Account created in 2004 initially for social use. Have created work-related pages (Amplified conference & IWMW) and updated other pages (content & typos) Account created in 2004 initially for social use. Have created work-related pages (Amplified conference & IWMW) and updated other pages (content & typos) Experiences gained (& trusted reputation) in social use helped with professional use. Might track record provide additional work benefits?

22. The Social Web Challenges Personal experiences in use of blogs, Twitter, video- & slide-sharing to support writing, receiving feedback & maximising impact of paper described. But what of challenges: It’s not for everyone The services may disappear I’m unconvinced it provides a tangible ROI

23. It’s Not For Everyone Use of Social Web isn’t for everyone: Personal preferences (1): might willingness to use Social Web reflect plant / resource investigators in Belbin model? Personal preferences (2): preferences in reading blogs (stories?) or peer-reviewed paper (models) Personal issues: it takes time to understand & master use of tools Gender, culture, age, … factors? Discipline issues: unsurprising that Web researchers may be more willing to use Web tools … Thoughts: research groups should consider how use of Social Web can be exploited across research teams

24. Sustainability Challenges What happens when: Twitter breaks (again) You discover your old tweets can’t be accessed The xxx service wasn’t financially viable The xxx service is now unfashionable (Orkut?) … Comments: In-house services also don’t last forever; may break; may not be used; … JIS PoWR project advised on Web preservation, including Social Web preservation

25. Sustainability Challenges Need to put sustainability issues in context: Disappearing institutional resources Disappearing institutions Disappearing technologies (mainframes, minis, …) Need for: Risks and opportunities assessment framework Data migration Willingness to accept some losses Biases Subjective factors Intended Purpose Benefits (various stakeholders Risks (various stakeholders Missed Opps. (various stakeholders Costs (various stakeholders Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services, Kelly, B., Museums and the Web 2009

26. Need For Evidence Concerns: It’s still speculative. We (organisations) need more evidence that Social Web provide tangible be befits to scholarly publishing. We (researchers) also need such evidence Issues of Social Web metrics to support research has been discussed by Martin Weller, Open University: Connections versus Outputs Some more thoughts on metrics Relevance of evidence to data is questionable Issues of Social Web metrics to support research has been discussed by Martin Weller, Open University: Connections versus Outputs Some more thoughts on metrics Relevance of evidence to data is questionable

27. Conclusions To conclude: Researchers are staring to use Social Web to support various research activities But not all will or should do so There are (unresolved) issues There are also issues about the sustainability of managed services Further research is needed But it can’t be ignored Who will benefit most in period of uncertainty: those who just do it or those who remain sceptical?

28. 28 Questions Questions are welcome