Institutional Future of Social Media

Dr Ian BostonUniversity of Cambridge

Social Media ?

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Institutional Context

• We are people not buildings

• Too late?

• Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, GenY

Outsource

• “Does Kmart ask MySpace to tell it what its customers buying patterns are?”

• “Is LinkedIn the way to build great researcher teams?”

Harvard Catalyst

http://catalyst.harvard.edu/home.html

Institutional Memory

Analysis and Actions

Realistic Scale

Data Gathering

• Official Sources, SIS, HR, Finance

• Collaboration trails

• Starving for raw data

Outsource by default

• Nature abhors a vacuum

• Order or Desire

Its Our Domain

• Surprisingly deep

• Borrow, beg, buy

• Head start

The task ahead

• Encourage Connections

• Data gathering

• Academic Apps

Encourage Connections

Publications

ProfilesGroups

Colleagues

Collaboration

Sharing

Data Gathering

Publications

ProfilesGroups

Colleagues

Collaboration

Sharing

Activity Data

Sakai Apps Framework

Academic Apps

Publications

ProfilesGroups

Colleagues

Collaboration

Sharing

Activity Data

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Gadget Container

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User Activity

Improving Experience

Event Records

Offline Analysis

Enhanced Data

Important Maxims

• Unbiased Observations.

• Original data.

• Analysis without expectations

• Uncertainty.

Example: Identifying Interests

User authors content

Content created event, is picked up by a processor, analyses and categorises the content based on word used, generating links to similar content.

U s e r s e e s r e l a t e d content, which authors are connected, which are not, offered to expand network of collaborators.

Content Created Event

Example: Identifying Behaviour

Usage And Activity

throughout the system

Normal ExpectationStudent A

Student has been identified as having erratic engagement with peers and the course. Mentors,

alerted that there may be an underlying cause.

5 years hence

• TL&R tools built to support the needs of the members of all institutions.

• Increasing availability of data sets within institutions to further the understanding of TL&R.

• Less resource spent on the mundane, more on the unique.

Thank you - Questions ?