Digital Researcher 2012

Hello world of digital research! We are Gabriela, Clare, Helen, Maija, Nicky and Emma and we worked together at the 2012 Vitae Digital Research conference. Here's a round-up of some links and tips we found useful today ...

First up, our collaborative Google Document with notes from the workshop session.

Our group also tweeted about what each of us learned and took away from the day. For Maija it "was all about learning new tools and confidence to use them". Nicky and Clare enjoyed learning about new communication tools, not just for their own use but also for their students.

Lots of people liked Twitterfall (recommended by workshop leader Emma), while Helen's top tip of the day was Voicethread.

Gabriela tweeted: "The best tool is the one that you use the most and update constantly. There are no magic recepies, only endless possibilities".

Finally, everyone loved the video clips in Martin Weller's great keynote presentation - Emma's favourite was the bookshop coming to life:



Photos by Clare

Manage your time

Distractions: Don’t open emails first thing in the morning

Emails and SMS’s: Don’t reply to emails ‘instantly’: Send responder ‘Will respond within 24 hours’

Make time for your social life and health and don’t replace it.

Don’t overcommit – Learn to say No!

Set a target and goal for ‘tomorrow’

Separate your research network from your ‘friends and family’

Don’t put off and find reasons to distract yourself.

Be ‘Brutal’ with your network ‘components’ Remember it’s a two way street!

TRUST

1) Trust can create value, reduce costs, reduce complexity, reduce the need for costly control mechanisms.

2) Trust is regarded` as not only the glue that holds organizations together but also the essential lubricant that helps to get things done.

3) Trust is fragile and must be continuously preserved: a client analyses his contractor’s response to a project to measure his reliability.

4) If the contractor behaves in a suspicious way, the client might find it necessary to expand control.

5) ) Trust is developed through an approach based on integrating trusting (problem solving) and mistrusting (competitive) styles of negotiation.

6) Trust gives rise to risk, such as partner’s self-interest seeking behaviour and opportunistic actions.

7) Trust alliance includes cooperation and competition.

8) Building trust based on common stakes lead to the sustainability of the alliances.

Research tools

Online research tools are many and various depending on the area you are investigating.

Google scholar is a useful starting point.

JSTOR and other online journals – which can be searched by google scholar

Other blogs – which you can aggregate using tool such as google reader – you can select blogs that you want to follow here

By following tweets on twitter – these can link you to up to the minute content on your area of interest.

You possibly have to limit who you follow so you don't overload your brain with too much information.

Also Guardian has useful site - datablog which has all its stats on that it uses to create its articles.

Not only is it getting new information which will aid your research, but also managing the information you have got.

Tools such as Zotero, Mendelay and Endnote all help with this.

Sharing your research

Like all good children, researchers need to learn how to share: after all, the transmission of knowledge depends upon making your contributions and insights available for others to absorb and build on. Yet sharing raises many questions and challenges for the digital researcher.

• Who's listening to what you say?

Everyone wants an audience - or more specifically, we want the right audience. But online, it's almost impossible to control who will see what you blog, tweet, post or write. Unless you have stringent privacy settings, blog posts and tweets can be read by anyone in the world.

• How much do you want to say?

Even to your chosen audience, how much of your work do you want to reveal? Some university departments refuse to put their reading lists online in case rival scholars can work out what angle they're teaching. Are you afraid of others stealing your ideas, or do you believe that by talking about your research field you'll find like-minded peers with whom you can collaborate?

• What's in it for me?

Maybe you just want to read others' ideas but are wary of sharing your own. That's OK, but maybe you feel a bit shy about your writing, or that you're not ready for the world to see your initial ideas. Here are some reasons for blogging your research.

- Blogging gets you writing and helps with writer's block
- It helps marshall your thoughts and keep you focused
- It gets you exposure and feedback on your ideas
- It helps connect you to a network of peers

Technology: accessibility v pitfalls

The life of the researcher today is so different to the past with all the social media tools at our disposal- twitter, facebook, linkedin, rss feeds, blogs, bookmarks, aggregators...we got 'em all...and not only that, we've got them on mobile devices so we can use them wherever we are. The iPad fits in your (big) pocket, the iPhone fits in your tiny handbag, even the laptop or netbook fits on your lap on the train. that's so long as it all works.

Put 100 researchers in a few rooms at the British library and they are all going "oops lost my connection"...