Twitter

Are UCSF’s Twitter users just like everyone else?

/ Anirvan Chatterjee

Are faculty who tweet different from the non-tweeters? My first guess would be that UCSF’s Twitter community would be more likely to be earlier in their career, and that the practice of tweeting would affect the way they write bios. Turns out I was wrong on both counts.

I used UCSF Profiles data to look at faculty (people with “professor,” “dean,” or “chancellor” anywhere in their primary title) who have either listed or not listed a Twitter account on their UCSF Profiles page.

Do Twitter users write more readable bios? Nope.

  • When Twitter users have have bios, the bios have a median Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 18.3
  • When non-Twitter users have have bios, the bios have a median Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 18.1

Do Twitter users write shorter bios? Nope.

In fact, Twitter users have somewhat longer bios!

  • When Twitter users have have bios, the bios have a median length of 1602 characters.
  • When non-Twitter users have have bios, the bios have a median length of 1465 characters.

Are Twitter users earlier in their career? Nope.

In fact, Twitter users have about two years more experience in their publishing career.

  • Twitter users have a median span of 16.6 years between their earliest and latest publications
  • Non-Twitter users have a median span of 14.7 years between their earliest and latest publications
  • Twitter users have a median rank of “Associate Professor”
  • Non-Twitter users have a median rank of “Associate Professor”

Are Twitter users more awarded? Maybe.

When Twitter users list awards, they list more of them. But are they more awarded, or just more completionist in what they list?

  • Twitter users with awards listed have a median 8.4 awards listed
  • Non-Twitter users with awards listed have a median 6.3 awards listed

Are Twitter users more in the media? Maybe.

When Twitter users list media hits, they list more of them. But are they more in the media, or just more completionist in what they list?

  • Twitter users with media mentions listed have a median 5.3 mentions listed
  • Non-Twitter users with media mentions listed have a median 3.2 mentions listed

Are Twitter users in more videos? Maybe.

When Twitter users list videos that they’re in, they list more of them. But are they in more videos, or just more completionist in what they list?

  • Twitter users with videos listed have a median 2.9 videos listed
  • Non-Twitter users with videos listed have a median 1.8 videos listed

Image: Coffee Bean Works, Twitter

2013 CTSI Retreat: Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 3

/ Nooshin Navidi Latour

A few distinct themes emerged from #CTSI2013 tweets during the two lively panel sessions at the 7th Annual CTSI Retreat:

Themes from the 2nd Panel:
(UCSF Leaders addressed how ‘Big Tent’ proposed initiatives align with/and complement UCSF strategies)
-“Speed Dating” to promote networking among research scientists
-Big Data at UCSF & beyond
-Other ‘Big Tent’ proposal topics

Find below curated tweets by themes.

See Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 1 for visualizations and retreat tweets from ‘Setting the Stage’
& Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 2 for tweets during the first panel with industry and academic leaders.

2nd Panel: UCSF Leadership Perspective with Deans from all Five Schools

“Speed Dating” for Scientists – To Drive Novel Translational Research Connections

Big Data at UCSF?

Continue reading →

2013 CTSI Retreat: Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 2

/ Nooshin Navidi Latour

A few distinct themes emerged from #CTSI2013 tweets during the two lively panel sessions at the 7th Annual CTSI Retreat:

Themes from the 1st Panel:
-Getting out of research and academic silos
-Community & #CitizenScience
-Industry Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Academia
-CTSA Consortium, National Issues

Find below curated tweets by themes.

See Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 1 for visualizations and retreat tweets from ‘Setting the Stage’
& Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 3 for tweets during the second panel with UCSF Leadership.

1st Panel: Leveraging CTSI, UCSF and CTSA consortium to radically transform research

Getting out of the Silo

Community & #CitizenScience

Continue reading →

2013 CTSI Retreat: Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 1

/ Nooshin Navidi Latour

The 7th Annual CTSI Retreat focused on a selection of 10 open proposals among 23 offered through The Big Tent: CTSI 2016 NIH Renewal Proposal Launchpad.

Attendees and external audiences joined the conversation online via #CTSI2013. A steady flow of tweets came in throughout the day from 27 unique contributors (up from 16 last year) who shared insights, thought-provoking questions and engaged with one another (99,085 impacts!).

See Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 2 & Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 3 for themes that emerged from #CTSI2013  tweets during the two panel sessions.

Ready & Raring: #CTSI2013 Retreat

2016-2021: Opportunities & Challenges w/ CTSI Director Clay Johnston

Continue onto Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 2 & Big Twitter at The Big Tent, Part 3. 

CTSA 2013 Annual Face to Face: The Power of Storytelling

/ Nooshin Navidi Latour

Hosted by: University of New Mexico’s Health Sciences Center (HSC) in cooperation with UNM’s Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC)

This year’s Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) communications key function committee (CKFC) Annual Face to Face  focused on the critical role of storytelling to lift research of out its silos to a wider audience.

Richard Larson, MD, PhD, UNM HSC Vice Chancellor for Research compared communicators to ambassadors of information – after all, “research ignored is research wasted.”

Purpose/Objectives of the Annual F2F:

  • Increase understanding and support of NCATS and NIH priorities
  • Improve awareness of CTSA value, dissemination of key information, and collaboration among key stakeholders across the consortium
  • Inspire CKFC members through new connections, skill building, clear direction, and storytelling

Here’s a selection of tweets by CTSA communicators during the two-day conference:

Continue reading →

CTSI 2012 Retreat: The Live-Tweet

/ Anirvan Chatterjee / 1 Comment

The 2012 CTSI Retreat was the first to be live-tweeted, under the #CTSI2012 hashtag. Fourteen people tweeted 144 original tweets. This year’s participants mostly repeated interesting points from speakers; perhaps we’ll see more original commentary or conversation in coming years, as familiarity with the medium increases.

Here’s a mildly-curated overview of the event, in tweets. (Consider browsing the whole thing—my favorite part was the very last panel.)

>> The event begins

Introduction by Clay Johnston

http://twitter.com/PRSatCTSI/statuses/228212804543467520

>> “Business Transformations” panel discussion

Panelists: Jonathan Schwartz, Victoria Hale, in conversation with Clay Johnston

■ Panelist 1: Jonathan Swartz

http://twitter.com/PRSatCTSI/statuses/228225597430722560

■ Panelist 2: Victoria Hale

>> Leveraging the UC Network

Speaker: Rachael Sak, with Clay Johnston

>> Discussing ideas for new initiatives

Breakout sessions by Leslie Yuan. Discussion by June Lee, Sally Mead, Bill Balke, Mark Pletcher, Elizabeth Boyd, Ralph Gonzales, moderated by Kevin Grumbach

■ Breakout sessions, and voting for the top idea

http://twitter.com/PRSatCTSI/statuses/228248229081391105

■ Discussion of the top 3 ideas

>> Message from UCSF Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellman

Message from Susan Desmond-Hellman, in conversation with Clay Johnston

>> Feedback from UCSF deans

David Vlahov, Sam Hawgood, B. Joseph Guglielmo

>> “Disruptive Innovation in Translational Research” panel

Participants: Jeff Bluestone, Catherine Lucey, Deborah Grady, Mini Kahlon

>> Wrapping up…

Social Networks for Academics Proliferate, Despite Some Scholars Doubts

/ leslieyuan

Here’s an article with an overview of online products out there for research social networking;  the big gap in the article is that no institutional products are included such as Profiles, VIVO, etc. This is noted in one of the comments at the end, by Titus Schleyer.

That aside, there are interesting opinions in this piece, a few clipped below, and perhaps pointing to the current status of the space,  where the sweet spot has not yet been found.  

“After six years of running Zotero, it’s not clear that there is a whole lot of social value to academic social networks,” says Sean Takats, the site’s director, who is an assistant professor of history at George Mason University. “Everyone uses Twitter, which is an easy way to pop up on other people’s radar screens without having to formally join a network.” 

Scholars aren’t interested in sharing original ideas on such sites, [Christopher Blanchard, an adjunct professor of community and regional planning at Boise State University] now believes, “because they’re afraid they’ll be ripped off” and because they simply don’t have the time.

“We have thousands of new discussions taking place every day—scientists helping scientists without getting anything for it,” [Dr. Madisch, of ResearchGate] says. “Three years ago, people were smiling at me and saying that scientists aren’t social. They won’t share information. They were wrong.”

Social Networks for Academics Proliferate, Despite Some Scholars Doubts – Technology – The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Measuring federal social media interaction rates—and how UCSF fares

/ Anirvan Chatterjee / 1 Comment

I love Expert Labs‘ new Federal Social Media Index, a unified dashboard of Twitter interaction stats for 125 different federal agencies. The effort itself is quite impressive, but the stats are even better.

Most agencies have a large number of followers, but a minuscule number of people actually responding to queries. If the point of social media is to be social, agencies are doing a fairly poor job.

How are UCSF Twitter accounts faring? I tried searching Twitter for replies to queries from several UCSF accounts from the morning of April 10 to the morning of April 14 (this excludes retweets and mentions).

The results?

  • @ucsf: 0 replies
  • @ctsiatucsf: 1 reply (a thank you from the UCSF library)
  • @gladstonelabs: 1 reply (a thank you from Bay Area Malaria)
  • @ucsf_library: 0 replies
  • @ucsfdentistry: 0 replies
  • @ucsfmedicine: 0 replies

For better or for worse, we’re doing about as well as the federal government.

Read more:

“Visible Tweets”: A Free Animation Tool To Display Twitter Messages In Public Spaces

/ Katja Reuter / 2 Comments

CTSI’s visibility on Twitter is growing – thanks to the tweets from CTSI programs and people like Anirvan (see his latest post AMIA 2012 Joint Summit: a report back in tweets).

But how can we leverage and highlight this activity, for example at upcoming events (retreats, conferences, symposia, etc.)? “Visible Tweets” is a great tool to do just that. Type in a search term, for example @CTSIatUCSF, and go…

Try it!

Tweets fly in and out… Here is an example.

AMIA 2012 Joint Summit: a report back in tweets

/ Anirvan Chatterjee / 3 Comments

Eric, Leslie, and I from CTSI at UCSF’s Virtual Home team spent the past three days at the AMIA 2012 Joint Summit in San Francisco.

Here’s some of what was happening on the researcher networking, social networking, knowledge representation fronts, and public search front, via Twitter:

Other tweets that caught my eye from the rest of the conference: