How Are Scientists Using Social Media in the Workplace?

“People who are always praising the past
And especially the time of faith as best
Ought to go and live in the Middle Ages
And be burnt at the stake as witches and sages.”
– Stevie Smith, poet

“Of all the means by which wisdom ensures happiness throughout life, by far the most important is the possession of friendship.”
– Epicurus, Principle Doctrines, C300 BCE

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Collins K, Shiffman D, Rock J (2016) How Are Scientists Using Social Media in the Workplace? PLoS ONE 11(10): e0162680. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0162680

“Social media has created networked communication channels that facilitate interactions and allow information to proliferate within professional academic communities as well as in informal social circumstances. A significant contemporary discussion in the field of science communication is how scientists are using (or might use) social media to communicate their research. This includes the role of social media in facilitating the exchange of knowledge internally within and among scientific communities, as well as externally for outreach to engage the public. This study investigates how a surveyed sample of 587 scientists from a variety of academic disciplines, but predominantly the academic life sciences, use social media to communicate internally and externally. Our results demonstrate that while social media usage has yet to be widely adopted, scientists in a variety of disciplines use these platforms to exchange scientific knowledge, generally via either Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or blogs. Despite the low frequency of use, our work evidences that scientists perceive numerous potential advantages to using social media in the workplace. Our data provides a baseline from which to assess future trends in social media use within the science academy.”

Using metadata actively, Colin Bird, Simon Coles, Iris Garrelfs, Tom Griffin, Magnus Hagdorn, Graham Klyne, Mike Mineter, Cerys Willoughby 2016, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 76-85 doi:10.2218/ijdc.v11i1.412
“Almost all researchers collect and preserve metadata, although doing so is often seen as a burden. However, when that metadata can be, and is, used actively during an investigation or creative process, the benefits become apparent instantly. Active use can arise in various ways, several of which are being investigated by the Collaboration for Research Enhancement by Active use of Metadata (CREAM) project, which was funded by Jisc as part of their Research Data Spring initiative. The CREAM project is exploring the concept through understanding the active use of metadata by the partners in the collaboration. This paper explains what it means to use metadata actively and describes how the CREAM project characterises active use by developing use cases that involve documenting the key decision points during a process. Well-documented processes are accordingly more transparent, reproducible, and reusable.”

 I have no idea what prompted this or why The Washington Post thinks Carlos Ruiz Zafón is The bestselling literary sensation you may struggle to name, but Manuel Roig-Franzia profiles the The Shadow of the Wind-author -- and the anecdote about the 'Dragon's Cave', a pretty fancy author-indulgence, is certainly weirdly interesting.

   Well, there have been some nice multiple-brief-reaction round-ups, such as:

• 'I wouldn't have given Bob Dylan the Nobel Prize': Irish writers react, in the Irish Times -- more positive than negative, despite the headline (though I think Ian Sansom has it right)
• 'Dylan towers over everyone' -- Salman Rushdie, Kate Tempest and more pay tribute to Bob Dylan, in The Guardian
• Does Russia's literary elite think Bob Dylan deserves the Nobel Prize ? at Russia Beyond the Headlines

       There are some pro and contra discussions:

• Bob Dylan Won the Nobel Prize in Literature ?! A Conversation: Ryu Spaeth ("a Dylan skeptic") and Alex Shephard ("a Dylan fanboy") at The New Republic
• Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize: We Square Off: Sarah Seltzer and Tom Hawking at Flavorwire

       There were a few pieces arguing that it wasn't a good choice:

• Why Bob Dylan Shouldn't Have Gotten a Nobel by Anna North, in The New York Times
• Dylan is great -- but he's no literary Nobel winner Dave Bidini in The Globe and Mail
• A world that gives Bob Dylan a Nobel Prize is a world that nominates Trump for president by Tim Stanley in The Telegraph
• The Nobel Prize for literature, at long last, has been awarded to a complete idiot by Guy Dammann at The Spectator's Coffe House weblog
• Bitter critics slam Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize: David K. Li collects reactions in the New York Post

       Far more, however, were pleased by the choice, and wholeheartedly endorsed it:

• Why Bob Dylan deserves his Nobel literature win explains Richard Williams in The Guardian
• Yes, Bob Dylan Deserves the Nobel Prize says Jim Fusili in the Wall Street Journal
• Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize for Literature is deserved and overdue insists David Lister in The Independent
• Why Bob Dylan Deserves His Nobel Prize explains Rob Sheffield at Rolling Stone
• Bob Dylan turned the simple pop song into fine literature - of course he deserves a Nobel Prize says (music critic) Neil McCormick in The Telegraph
• Pop lyrics aren't literature ? Tell that to Nobel prize winner Bob Dylan suggests Alexis Petridis in The Guardian
• Bob Dylan deserves the Nobel Prize: He brought sophistication to the language of popular music like no one else explains Scott Timberg at Salon
• Bob Dylan Is the Perfect Nobel Winner claims Jennifer Croft at Vice
• Eugenides: 'No greater living artist than Dylan on the earth right now' in the Michael Knigge Q & A at DeutscheWelle

       There are also a few pieces that look at this selection and what it signifies for the Nobel Prize, and for literature:

• Tim Parks considers in particular the implications of Dylan's songs being even more tied to the language they are written in than most poetry, in Bob Dylan: The Poetry Stays Home at NYRDaily
• In Why Bob Dylan's Nobel Win Is Good News at the On the Margin of Error weblog Kaveh Mousavi argues: "It's good news, more than anything, for Nobel itself as an institution"
• Bob Dylan's Nobel Win Suggests the Prize Is a-Changin' (and Not Just Because He's a Musician) suggests (a not entirely thrilled about it) Laura Miller at Slate
• In The Los Angeles Times Carolyn Kellogg tries to convince us Why Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize is the best thing that can happen to the book world
• And at Quartz Ephrat Livni figures this marks: The day we knew that people don't care about books anymore

       Finally, Adam Langer offers lists of The Best and Worst Things About Bob Dylan Winning the Nobel Prize at Forward. ...via  complete-review.com saloon