Using social media to communicate at conferences allows more space and time for attendees to join discussions and network. But are these conversational tweets of any use once the drinks reception begins? Nicole Beale and Lisa Harris hope that archiving and visualizing the data will spark new research routes.

The blog provides a summary of the latest progress of the SMiLE project , the recent activity in recruiting a number of MSc students who assisting in bridging the ‘tweeting divide', managing online communities in the context of live events and exploring the opportunities and challenges posed to researchers by data visualisations.

See the teams blog (blog no 2) “But who is going to read 12,000 tweets?!” How researchers can collect and share relevant social media content at conferences" here .

Please also see the team's previous blog (blog no 1): "If you don’t have social media, you are no one: How social media enriches conferences for some but risks isolating others" here .

The Team's Next Steps

The team is interested in hearing from you!
The team plans to create visualisations of the archive that will provide alternative ways to explore the data, such as timeline based interfaces and interactive search applications

In particular, we will be investigating how the use of social media post-event can facilitate discussion around new research, and in building ties between institutions and individuals working in the area of computational archaeology.

Please contact Lisa Harris if you would be interested in making a specific contribution to this.

If you don't have social media, you are no one: How social media enriches conferences for some but risks isolating others