Posted on by Itumeleng

Twitter and conferences: things to consider

As the winter FINALLY loosens its grip in the Northern hemisphere (sorry for you, poor Southerners…), I welcome the warm weather and start planning my conference season. Attending conferences is an integral part of the graduate school experience, and with this honour comes great responsibility. As with many aspects of modern living, the use of social media apps like Twitter at conferences has increased dramatically in the past few years and these have provided the chance to interact more frequently with other scientists. As an avid Twitter user, I have found it very useful to stay connected and informed about talks I couldn’t attend. But – and this is a big one – the use of Twitter at conferences is not without its controversy. Read here and here on discussions that highlight the concerns with live-tweeting at a conference. Another Twitter user (@online_academic) recently published a book on this very topic, “Twitter for Academics”. Here, I will try illustrating how I use Twitter at conferences and “Twitter-etiquette”[1].

Firstly, most conferences (if not all) will have a conference hashtag that twitter users use to discuss the conference; for instance, a recent conference I attended had the hashtag #ISME16. It’s important to always use this hashtag in all your conference tweets – this ensures that people following conference updates can see your comments/tweets.

More importantly, I find it useful to think before you tweet. In most cases, the work being presented at the conference is new and not yet published. I try to keep that in mind, and make the question/comments short (well, you only have 140 characters :-)). Besides, as scientists we are accustomed to writing concise sentences ;-). Clear and concise questions/comments always promote discussion and re-tweets (more re-tweets= a wider audience). Such comments tend to be effective, instead of simply stating obvious statements that do not engage your audience.

twit2

Where possible I try to make sure I tag the speaker or related people in the tweet. In an earlier conference (Society of Nematologist), I made such a comment and was well received.

twit3

Lastly, I use it to share great news that may be announced at the conference – for instance when South Africa won the bid to how ISME in 2020.

twit4

Now, dear reader, I do not want to leave you with one side of this story. There is a dark side to using Twitter at conferences. Personally, I tend to lose interest when people are tweeting every slide and giving a blow-by-blow account of the presentation instead of summarising the talk in a single tweet. AIso, I prefer not to tweet pictures of people looking sad/bored and more importantly I try to tweet pictures that promote equality/diversity ( I know most conference still have a disproportional male:female ratio of speakers) #Feminism #WomenofScience #WomenScienceDay. A recent blog post by renowned communication specialist of UNDP Mehmet Erdogan (@mehmeterdoganIV) explores these ideas further — it’s worth a read.

So, you see dear reader, we ought not be afraid to engage and use social media at conferences.I hope this blog encourages you to engage more and not be intimidated by using social media at conferences. It was through Twitter that I was able meet some of my collaborators. Remember that Twitter is just a tool we use to interact with other scientists, but it cannot replace face-to-face interactions. So, next time you are at a conference think of a person you might want to meet and check if they are on Twitter. Use this platform and ask yourself how could I use it to meet people in same field? Have I met or identified anyone who could be a possible collaborator? Once all these questions have been answered, the next step is how to approach/form collaboration with people you meet – but I will leave that for another blog.

met at conference (1)

P.S…In this picture, I met my science hero (Charles Greer of McGill Univerity) at a recent conference ( I had been following his updates on Twitter) and Angel Valverde (University of Pretoria) brilliantly photo-bombing us 🙂

 

 

[1] Personal accounts on what worked and what did not.

Posted on by sipokazinyeleka

That’s my line

Since I began my postgraduate research — trials at Mariendahl and ultimately lab analysis — I have found a new appreciation for the weekend, a sincere one. Like most aspiring academics, I use weekends to catch up on work, yes. But Chido (my roommate who happens to love the weekend) always says, “God

Chido and I when we are not movie watching

was not a fool when he created the weekend.” What do I do at the farm on the weekend? I watch movies. Well… only sometimes when work is slow — ok… most of the time. So I thought I should share movie lines that have become so significant to me that I sometimes use them to express how I feel. Therefore, behold, my borrowed wisdom:

1. “Petition the courts if you must, but do something about it and stop complaining” (Hidden Figures)
The excitement I had about my analysis died a sudden death on

My best friend , EXY

the first day of fat analysis. On this day I mixed up my samples, spent the whole day weighing and shaking the wrong samples (I died inside upon this realization). Anyway, by the end of the first day I remember calling Sesetu (Twin) and Xatyiswa (BFF) and sharing with them my not-so-pleasant experience and they, being such go-getters, referred me to the movie where I head this revolutionary line. You see the thing about these two people is that they don’t allow themselves and me to wallow in self-pity for more than a minute. To them an entire day of self-pity is equivalent to suicide. Self-pity and complaining is the death of action. The line caught my attention like a hook on the right cheek — so much that I paused the movie and started packing my bag for round two of the match against lab work.

Sethu and I
Spot the difference…

2. Sometimes the place you’re in is not where you belong (Queen of Katwe)
Three weeks in the lab and my arms were painful, the milling machine was broken and the horror of all horrors was that the fiber analysis results were not making sense (another death). So during that weekend I did what I do to get back in the game; I gave myself another movie fix. Ironically when I heard this one I was reassured that I should just walk away from it all (Laughs), and my tired self was quick to conclude, “It’s so true, I don’t belong in that lab anymore” (Laughing very hard). Eventually I came to my senses, I mean it’s not every day the machine will just breakdown and analysis results will have to be re-done. So then I reminded myself that for the duration of the analysis, I belonged in the lab in fact it was home, well for the most part of the day.

3. This is war gentleman, there are no rules (Think like a man, act like a lady)
It is strange how much a chicken trial is like war! No, not the blood, guns, and screaming. But in both there are rules of engagement and believe you me they ought to be mastered if one is to succeed. And in both you will still have disasters striking even when you do stick to the rules! I sometimes think about this line and I am reminded that in war, there are times to regroup and refocus because maybe the original plan isn’t working…. War definitely sounds like my experiments and lab work but I’m enjoying every bit of it.
4. You sir, you’re the boss, you just have to act like it ( Hidden figures)
This one is my absolute favorite and I’ll tell you why. It is spoken by a woman who in her work place had identified her obstacle (some guy who won’t acknowledge her work to her boss thus hindering her progress). To her it felt like her very existence and ultimately her purpose was being undermined and so she did what had to be done, or in this case said what should have been said. I also like it because it reminds me to decide I’m in control of my life — you know like I’m the boss and I should act like one. Standing up for yourself is never really easy but when it’s the only thing between you and what you really want then one must do it. So every now and then I always remind myself “Sipokazi, you’re the boss, you just have to act like it.”
There’s a quite a number of them I can quote and share but these ones are the most significant at this moment in my life. I hope the next time you face a weekend of work you will be reminded that sometimes it’s more constructive to watch an inspiring movie 😉