Engaging Citizens in Research and Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges Afforded by Social Media

Engaging citizens in research and innovation

Opportunities and challenges afforded by social media

John Breslin, NUI Galway

Me

•  Lecturer in electronics •  Researcher at DERI •  Founder of boards.ie •  Mad scientist engineer

research innovation media society European role science

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designed providers spongebob squarepants can you really read this small writing?

Word cloud generated from http://eisri-summit.eu/background-paper/

From word of mouth…

…to word of tweet

No, I’m too busy reading my Facebook

Haha, I get it, he’s a banana, and he’s saying it’s “apeeling”

Citizens: Can we please have your attention for this important scientific announcement?

The paradox of the Web*

You now have a megaphone

(Just like everyone else)

* Bernardo Huberman, HP Social Labs

No longer a race to be first, but a battle to get the most attention

Be. Interesting.

Easier said than done, eh?

“A new solid-state propulsion system has been devised using the sigma…”

“Get me out of here”

Rockets! Space! Action!

Don’t want to dumb down the message, just make it relevant

Getting attention for the scientific message

•  Have you tried asking questions of the public, rather than regurgitating article titles? – Without using a question that may bias the

response – Provoking but not being rhetorical

•  Pique the interest of @influencers – Get them to tell their fans / followers / friends

•  Target #topics

“How well was science taught in your high school?” #scienceweek @wiredscience @nytimesscience

IDENTIFY HUBS AND INFLUENCERS Who can best spread your message to the public?

“Doctor Jim is so cool” “Is it m

e or is he looking a little washed out?”

Anecdote: tweeting out slides from a talk I gave earlier this year

•  Put slides on SlideShare* •  I had referenced various funding institutions,

non-profit organisations, etc. in my slides: – And made sure to tell them about it on Twitter!

•  500 views in a few hours •  3000 views after a week

* http://slidesha.re/europreneurs

TARGET KEYWORDS, #HASHTAGS For events or topical stories

#hashtags for big scientific events

And explain what the #hashtag is periodically…

…for those not in the know…

#sciencemedia is for EISRI BTW!

BE A FACE, NOT A LOGO Sometimes, it’s good to be personal

But don’t go too far!

“I actually came for the climate change discussion, but all I got was someone on about their lousy barbeque”

Automate your message for sending out at peak times

But make sure the right message goes out…

•  From: Quora Weekly Digest <digest-noreply@quora.com>

•  To: john.breslin@nuigalway.ie •  Subject: What is it like to have your mother

die? - Quora

•  Message-ID: <1361359522.0682987696506104@mf101>

•  Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2013 05:25:22 -0600 (CST)

USE EXAMPLES TO SHOW WHY RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IS MONEY WELL SPENT

@johnbreslin or john@bresl.in