1. Academic research
in 140 characters
or less …
#eLSE 2011 Bucharest
28-29 April 2011
Pictures : HikingArtist.com

2. AGENDA (or what you can read in the full paper)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53952320/Else2011-Final-Paper#
Introduction (very short)
Literature review (actually an overview)
The Romanian context (yes, that’s true)
The Study: background, methodology
and (of course) the results ...
The END: we have some conclusions, too ☺

3. „Can micro-blogging
micro-
be used
research?”
for field research?”
Mayernik and Pepe, 2009
http://research.cens.ucla.edu/events/?event_id=231

4. A new form of
scholarly
communication?

5. a way to track trends-in-time a new form of authoring
publishing, researching
a data repository to collect a platform for social
informations and links micro-interactions
to connect people
an outreach tool
aimed at promoting
public awareness a search tool
a tool for disseminating a social collection to manage:
a micro-peer method
scientific information • people
for learning, reviews
feedback • messages
• hashtags

6. (micro??) Scholarly identity 2.0

7. ROMANIAN EDU-MICROSPHERE
Total number Teachers / Doctoral /
Platform of users Researchers Master students
Twitter 50000 400 3000
Cirip 18000 250 600
Edmodo 200 30 140
Yammer 200 20 10
Plurk 500 30 40
Google Buzz 800 100 100
Identi.ca 500 50 50
Jaiku 200 30 20
Twiducate 150 30 100
Total 70550 940 4060
Estimations: ZeList.ro, RoTwitterSurvey 2010, specific Twitter lists, searches with twellow,,tweepz, Cirip statistics, Edmodo HE private
accounts, Google searches etc.

8. Respondents profile Data Validation
Research method Target
population 110 female, collecting 4.66% of the
survey distributed 123 male total of 5000
online 7-15 March educational
academics 2011
aged > 25 years accounts
METHODOLOGY

9. Respondents by academic position
PhD Student – 10%
Researcher – 9%
Instructor / Trainer – 8%
School teacher – 8%
Teaching assistant – 8%
Lecturer – 3%
University Professor – 2%
Administrative / management – 2%
Associate Professor – 2%
Decision maker – 2%
Other – 5%

10. Microblogging platforms used by responders
59%
56%
13%
3%
2%
1%

11. Microblogging uses in research by discipline
58% of the respondents have a
science background education
less than 20% are from
humanity field and economics

12. 7% are innovators (opened the
first microblogging account more than
3 years ago)
11%
11% are early adopters
(opinion leaders with accounts of 3
years old)
35% early majority (2 years)
35%
29%
29% late majority (one year)
19%
19% are laggards (accounts
opened during the last 6 months)
How long have you been microblogging?

13. 15%
the most active users write daily (15%)
almost half of the respondents (47%) say they seldom send a message
23% post weekly
How often do you post on a microblog?

14. FOLLOWED
more than 500 – 6%
between 201-500 – 11%
between 101-200 – 7%
between 51-100% – 5%
less than 50 – 71%
How many microblogging accounts do you monitor?
How many followers do you have?
FOLLOWERS
more than 500 – 11%
between 201-500 – 12%
between 101-200 – 4%
between 51-100% – 9%
less than 50 – 64%

15. How researchers are making use of languages
only in Romanian 25% (60 users)
only in English 9% (20 users)
both in Romanian and English 62% (144 users)
in other languages (including Ro) – 3%
others 1%

16. Social Networks (Facebook, LinkedIn etc.) – 86%
Video-Sharing (Youtube etc.) – 69% Blogs (any type of
platform) – 44%
Image sharing (Flickr,
deviantART etc.) – 46% Miniblog – 9%
Social Bookmarking – 47% Audio-Sharing (Blip.fm etc.) – 16%
Others – 14%
SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE

17. How do you use microblogging for the following activities?
Activities Yes Not yet
I have but I’m
used aware of it
No
didactical 45% 21% 34%
research 27% 27% 46%
professional 51% 22% 27%
development
personal 64% 17% 20%
development

18. I work with … Number Percent
Collaborators in different institutions from Romania 79 34%
Collaborators in different institutions from other countries 63 27%
Colleagues / peers across my department / faculty / university 54 23%
/ institutions
Students of my own department / faculty / university 102 44%
I work on my own research or scholarship 54 23%
Others 72 31%
Mode of research work

19. Contextual conditions in which scholars use microblogging
Activities No. %
Searching news, academic content 130 56%
Dissemination of own results articles, projects, presentations
110 47%
Inquiring (reviewing the literature, collecting and analyzing
research data) 51 22%
Personal / Professional Communication / Collaboration 171 73%
Networking for professional development 88 38%
Building a community of practice 39 17%
Building a learning community with students enrolled in formal
courses 61 26%
Learning from the stream (following a specific hashtag) -
participating / following different scientific events (as a real time 95 41%
news-source)
Others 51 22%

20. BENEFITS
Collective Intelligence
Ambient Intelligence
Extension of the PRN –
Personal Research Network DISADVANTAGES
Managing the researchers‘ Ethical dilemmas
projects Concerns about Quality
Security and Privacy
Developing as a researcher Concerns

21. Key findings
The role of microblogging technology in supporting Romanian research and
researchers’ careers is slowly increasing, but on an upward curve.
There is still a concern in adopting microblogging and other Web2.0 tools
(such as blogs and wikis) to communicate ideas and projects, some educational
actors believing they are dangerous or a waste of time.

22. Gabriela Grosseck Carmen Holotescu
University of the West Politehnica University
Timisoara, Romania Timisoara, Romania
Twitter: @ggrosseck Twitter: @cami13
Cirip: @gabriela Cirip: @cami13
Thank you for your attention!