Nothing lasts forever: questions to ask yourself when choosing a new tool or technology for research

Andy Tattersall

Academia has become increasingly reliant on third-party tools and technologies to carry out many of the processes throughout the research lifecycle. But there are genuine concerns about the sustainability of some of these tools and what the implications would be for users in the event they were discontinued. Andy Tattersall suggests a series of straightforward questions researchers should ask themselves before choosing a new technology for use in their research. Can you export your content? Is there an alternative? After all, there is no guarantee your favourite tool will still be around tomorrow.

Academia has not always been good at adopting new technologies to aid research and teaching. Even a tool as seemingly popular and simple to use as Twitter has been received with some anxiety and trepidation within the scholarly community. There are various reasons for the slow uptake of new technologies, something not exclusive to the academic community, as captured in Everett Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations. Technology continually changes and the pressures of keeping up with it can actually cause inertia and some to bury their heads in the sand rather than engage with the changing environment. There are genuine concerns about the sustainability of tools we rely on in the academic community, with no guarantee that popular tools like Google Scholar or Twitter will be with us this time next year.

Adopting technologies that eventually cease business

There are several examples of really useful tools to have been accepted by the academic community only to pull down the virtual shutters for good. It can be quite depressing to have invested time and energy in mastering a tool only for it to disappear offline. This may happen for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of investment (financial or development), slow uptake, or the founding individual moving onto a new venture. Those in academia want solid, factual reasons to utilise a new tool; if the one they currently use works fine, why switch to another they haven’t heard of? It can be like the problem of buying a new laptop: why purchase one now when you could buy one with double the processing power for the same price a year later? Sadly that attitude means you end up not moving on at all. Academia is about finding answers to problems and learning from previous mistakes – surely the same should apply to the very tools we use to achieve better outcomes?

There are several issues around adopting technologies to carry out, communicate, and analyse research, issues further complicated by the duplication of platforms or providers’ expansions into new areas of business. Take Mendeley, for example, which started as a social network and reference management tool but has since expanded into a data-hosting and a funding-search service.

The sad demise of useful platforms

Google Reader, PageFlakes, Readability, Silk and Storify have all ceased business in recent years despite demand for their services. In some cases this can be problematic for users as they have invested great amounts of time in curating their own content, particularly so in the case of personalised dashboard PageFlakes or data visualisation site Silk. Thankfully, for most of the aforementioned tools there were suitable alternatives and useful sites like alternativeTo, which directs users to similar options. In some cases the provider itself even pointed towards an alternative, such as Readability which used its front page to direct users to Mercury Reader. Others such as Storify proved more problematic, with no immediate like-for-like tool obviously available and Wakelet seeming the best alternative.

Choosing the right tool for the job

For anyone working with academics to adopt new tools, or for those more proactive academics wishing to explore new ways of working, there are several questions you should ask before adopting a new technology. For the most part these are straightforward and it is important to remember you may only use some technologies once.

• Is it intuitive to use?
• Is there an alternative?
• Can you export your content?
• What are they doing with your data?
• How often will you use the technology?
• Do you know anyone using this tool already?
• Has the technology been around for long?
• Who created the technology and who owns it?
• Are the developers on social media and how often do they post new updates?

Nothing lasts forever

Academia is becoming increasingly reliant on technology, especially third-party tools, to carry out certain research processes. This has long been the case, with tools such as Dropbox or YouTube offering more functionality than in-house institutional platforms. With more tools comes greater diversity and potentially more problems. There is no guarantee we won’t see another dot.com crash like that of 2000, and this time academia would also feel its wrath. Many platforms, especially niche academic ones, are run by just a handful of staff or even students. They may have investors expecting a return on their capital, families with mouths to feed, or office bills to pay.

Another strand to this debate is the thorny subject of open-source versus profit-driven platforms within scholarly communications, as discussed in previous posts by Jefferson Pooley and Mark Hahnel. Some academics may prefer the open, community-driven nature of open-source technologies, believing these to be more aligned with core academic values. Yet rejecting all commercial platforms could mean cutting off your nose to spite your face, with open-source initiatives often hamstrung by technical and financial constraints that make them unsustainable.

Academia’s increasing reliance on these platforms to undertake a multitude of tasks – including carrying out, communicating, and measuring research and its impact – requires greater dialogue around sustainability. It is likely that popular third-party platforms used by the academic community such as Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, Google Scholar, and YouTube will be here for some time. But what about the smaller niche tools that have been essential in changing and enhancing how academics carry out their work? One only has to look at Google Reader, PageFlakes, and the many others that are no longer in existence. Academia needs to be flexible and adaptable to the changes brought on by the shifting sands of technology but also pay attention to the tools you love the most but which might not be around tomorrow.

Originally published on the LSE Impact of Social Sciences Blog

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License unless otherwise stated.

Andy Tattersall to deliver Keynote at the Business Librarians Association Conference

Information Specialist Andy Tattersall is one of the three keynotes at this year's BLA Conference taking place at Swansea University. The three day conference takes place from 27th-29th June with the theme 'Making Waves'. Andy will be delivering his keynote on the 28th with a talk titled; "Staying afloat in a sea of technological change". 

The other two keynote speakers are 
Michael Draper, Associate Professor in Law, Swansea University and Professor Sally Bradley, Academic Lead in Accreditation, Award and Recognition, HEA and Professor, Sheffield Hallam University.

The conference web page and booking details can be viewed here

Following the success of the learning technologist, is it time for a research equivalent?

Andy Tattersall

With so many scholarly communications tools and technologies now available, how do academics decide which are most appropriate for their research? Andy Tattersall suggests it might be time for a research equivalent of the learning technologist, a role that has helped drive innovations in teaching underpinned by technologies. The research technologist would be embedded within the university department, make recommendations on appropriate online tools, provide technical assistance and also offer guidance on accompanying issues of ethics or compliance. With the right ongoing support, academics can improve the communication, dissemination and impact of their research.

The research cycle is changing rapidly and a lot of that change is due to the proliferation of technologies and websites that support the research process. Many of the most useful tools have been captured by Jerome Bosman and Bianca Kramer in their excellent 101 Innovations in Scholarly Communications. Whilst this work is a great help to those aware of it, the reality is a majority of academics are either unaware of or unwilling to engage with the myriad tools and technologies at their disposal (beyond social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, ResearchGate, etc.). There are several reasons for this: workload and deadline pressures; fear of technology; ethical implications around their use and their application, especially when it comes to third party software; or too much choice.

The usefulness of these tools has been recognised by major publishers, who have made certain strategic investments in order to create their own research cycle workflows. So if the likes of Elsevier are looking to use these tools to change the research ecosystem, this should be of great interest to anyone who publishes with them, right? But with so many tools available, how do academics navigate their way through them? How do they make the connection between technology and useful application? And who helps them charter these scary, unpredictable waters?

Image credit: A Multitasking Busy Guy by uberof202 ff. This work is licensed under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Lecturers and teachers have their pedagogy, what do researchers have?

If we look at applications of technology and social media in teaching, we can see more clearly how things have been implemented. Post-2004 and the advent of Web 2.0 there was an increased uptake of technology in the teaching community. The advent of virtual learning environments aided this, with the ability to employ discussion forums, blogs, video and, more recently, social media. Of course research has also taken advantage of these tools but the difference with teaching is that it was often led and facilitated by the learning technologist. This group of centralised, university-educated professionals help drive teaching innovations that are underpinned by technology – the clue is in their job title. The technology itself does not drive the teaching innovation but can help initiate and improve on it. By championing technologies with teaching staff, technologists have helped refresh higher education, making it more fit for the 21st century. They have helped shape learning and teaching through approaches such as blended and flipped classes, video and screen capture, fresh forms of assessment, use of mobiles, and social media. In many cases the innovation is led by the lecturer but, like research, in most cases it requires a good degree of guidance to get them there.

The research technologist

Whether we call it a research technologist or digital academic specialist, this role would not be too different from its learning technologist counterpart. It would support research and its dissemination in the use of video, animation, infographics, social media, online discussion, mobile device use, and social networks, to name just a few technologies. The learning technologist applies pedagogical reasoning for their technology choices, and the research equivalent would need to assess the same considerations. Not only that but good communication skills, information literacy, and an understanding of data protection, ethics, and what constitutes a good technology – and how it can be applied to a specific research setting in a sustainable and timely manner – are all essential. For example, the use of video to disseminate research around speech therapy would potentially be more useful than an infographic. In the same way, an infographic published in a blog post might be a better way of conveying the results of a public health project.

The reason why in-house support could benefit the practice and dissemination of research is that researchers are very pressured for time, and often don’t know what they need regarding research technologies and especially dissemination. Secondly, when they do know what they want, they often need it “as soon as possible”. These two problems are more solvable within the department, especially as researchers often don’t know where to go for specific help. The research technologist would be a designated, focused role, embedded within the department. They’d be a signpost to new ways of working, problem solving and, most importantly, be able to consider all issues of ethics and/or compliance when passing on advice. They’d become the “go-to” person for anyone wanting to use technology as part of their research.

More than just using technology

The issue of employing more technology in your research comes with various challenges. For example, with research that is sensitive, controversial or otherwise likely to attract negative attention, using social media does come with many issues. Instructing researchers to use Twitter to communicate their research is all well and good until they receive negative comments, especially abusive and threatening ones. Something like Twitter requires a technical explanation (e.g. how to use the block function or employ a dashboard like Tweetdeck) but also advice around negative comments, how, if and when to respond, when to block, and, in some cases, when to report to the platform, your institution or the authorities. Another example might be the copyright issues around ResearchGate or YouTube. Unless time is spent helping researchers understand how to use these tools and what the accompanying major issues are, those researchers will remain reluctant to use them at all. Additionally, the more those who use them have bad experiences, often through no fault of their own, the more likely others will see good reason to navigate around such opportunities. One bad experience on social media could put a researcher off using it for good. With the right ongoing support, these technologies can, in an impact-driven environment, help communicate and disseminate your research to wider audiences.

The role I am fortunate to have, information specialist, is akin to a learning technologist but I work more closely with researchers these days. My role was established a decade ago to look at how technologies can be leveraged to support my department. That extended to research and teaching staff, students and our own academic library. In that time I put my department on the path to their first MOOCs in 2013, edited a book on altmetrics, and championed Google Apps, as well as the use of video and social media on campus. Whilst I have seen the creation of new roles around learning technology, marketing and impact, there remain areas of support that fall between the cracks. This is where I pick up much of my work, supporting research and teaching colleagues around the use of video, infographics, social media and the many less attractive associated issues, like copyright, security, ethics, and the negative impact on productivity. I work closely with the centralised departments, which benefits all parties involved, and carry out some teaching, marking and write the occasional paper. In effect I am a hybrid model that is, hopefully, better able to understand the needs of all involved, including the centralised departments that work so hard to support researchers.

For teaching, which has always required librarians, IT technicians, and marketing experts, the learning technologist does not replace these roles, but complements them. The establishment of learning technologists within departments has helped bring teaching forward to take advantage of new technologies. For the same to happen within research it needs institutions to consider the learning technologist and explore whether there is value in developing an in-house research equivalent, a kind of “Swiss Army knife” professional, who can exploit the burgeoning number of opportunities afforded by the many new technologies out there.

Originally published in the LSE Impact Blog and republished under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Andy Tattersall Takes over as MmIT Chair

Andy Tattersall

Information Resources' Andy Tattersall has taken over as the Chair of the Cilip specialist interest Group MmIT.  MmIT aims to unite CILIP members engaged in, or interested in, multimedia information and technology developments in library and information science. The group is concerned with the organisation, delivery and exploration of information through modern media including graphic forms, video and web based applications. The Committee's remit is to support 1500 members in the group by running regular events, a yearly conference and a quarterly journal. Andy has written about taking over as Chair of the committee and what their plans are for 2017 and beyond.

I want to say what an honour it is for me to formally take over as the Chair of the Cilip specialist interest group for Multimedia and Information Technology (MmIT). Not only because of my passion in this area and the work this group does but also to follow in the steps of my esteemed committee colleague and friend Leo Appleton. I cannot stress enough how Leo has been a very important part of MmIT over the past decade and is now starting in an exciting new position as Director of Library Services at Goldsmiths. I want to publicly thank Leo for all of his energy and leadership in steering MmIT through many waters, sometimes choppy ones at that. He was a large reason for me joining the committee over six years ago and I am delighted that he is staying with us and taking on the challenge of taking our long running journal into uncharted open access territory. Leo steps down leaving MmIT entering arguably its most positive and exciting period since I joined the committee.

As I step into the chair’s role from that of secretary, it also means many changes are afoot within our

Cilip's MmIT Group

committee structure. Firstly Catherine Dhanjal has stepped down from the committee as our journal editor. Catherine brought a tremendous amount of skills and contacts to the committee and ensured the very smooth running of the MmIT Journal over many years. She will be sorely missed by all of us who have served on the committee with her and we wish her all the best in her own enterprises as she continues to run her own successful consultancy. With Catherine stepping down it left us with a decision as to the future of the journal. After much discussion we agreed that the journal should go fully open access on a quarterly basis. The content and quality of the journal will remain the same as it focuses on technology and libraries and will be edited by Leo.

I’m pleased to report that John Bottomley, who works for OCLC, will remain as our treasurer for the next year, giving us some degree of consistency on the committee. John has excelled in his honorary position and ensures that MmIT remains in a healthy financial state. Ruth Wilson from Edge Hill University has stepped into my old shoes as secretary, a role that I am certain will aid the smooth running of the committee and all of its ventures. I’m also very pleased that we have Nic Kerr from The University of Liverpool who has been invaluable in the smooth organising of our events, of which we plan many more over the next few years. Dia Mexi-Jones and Lizzie Sparrow continue to help guide and support the marketing and communication activities of the committee.

One of the best gifts Leo could give us before he stepped down as Chair was to be very proactive in recruiting new members to our committee. I am happy to report that we have five new committee members who bring together a superb collection of skills and insights that I am sure will drive MmIT forward. The addition of such experts in our field of work will no doubt make us more valuable to our 1500 members and everyone involved in the library and information sector. I’m pleased to announce the five new appointments.

Luke Burton - Digital Transformation Manager - Newcastle City Council

Antony Groves - Learning and Teaching Librarian - University of Sussex

Alison McNab - Academic Librarian - The University of Huddersfield

Virginia Power - Graduate Tutor - University of West England

Claire Nicholas-Walker - Electronic Resources Librarian - Lewisham Public Libraries

I have been aware of the work of some of the new committee members for some time and am very excited about the prospect of working with them to take MmIT to new audiences and deliver fresh ideas and content. In 2017 we will launch many new initiatives by the group that I am sure will be of interest to MmIT, Cilip members as well as librarians, information and knowledge professionals across the UK. These changes will include the aforementioned new journal model that everyone will be able to access without subscription. We will host our fifth national conference on the 14th September at The University of Sheffield on the topic of ‘Open’. We will be sharing details about conference submissions in the next few weeks on the theme that ranges from open libraries, research, education, spaces, data among other strands. We are also planning the delivery of yearly half day workshop events that we will host around the country, as well as a yearly webinar event. If any of this appeals to you then there are several ways you can keep up to date with MmIT. Firstly by joining the group as a member, either by selecting it as one of your special interest groups if you are a Cilip member. Or you can still join us for a yearly fee of £40 without being a Cilip member. You can follow our blog and Twitter accounts for regular updates.

I remember when I joined the committee in September 2010 and there was much discussion about whether the group should continue. Given it had begun a few decades earlier with an original remit pre-dating the web, the committee questioned their relevance today in a world that no longer worked in microfiche, video, CDs or talked about ‘multimedia’. Back then I wondered why such a question should be asked, as more than ever there was a need to understand the ever changing world of technology and media as a profession. I feel the committee does have a valuable remit, more important than ever given how technologies seep into every part of our personal and professionals lives. There are a growing number of technologies and websites we can leverage for our organisations and our professional development. Our committee’s aim will be to explore as many of these as we can and share what we find with you. We will look to working with external partners, experts, writers and speakers and help support the library and information community as we always have. Hopefully through a new model, new committee members and new opportunities to impart knowledge we will help support our community better than ever before.

You can find out more about the committee by going to the Cilip website

http://www.cilip.org.uk/multimedia-information-technology-group/about-mmit-special-interest-group

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MultiMediaIT?lang=en-gb

Blog: https://mmitblog.wordpress.com/

MmIT 2016 Conference Review - Digital Citizenship : What is the library's role?

Sheldon Korpet

Our latest recruit to ScHARR's Information Resources Sheldon Korpet attended the MmIT Conference last week and writes about her experiences over the two days. Sheldon is an Information Officer at ScHARR and a current MSc Digital Library Management student at the University of Sheffield.

This year's Multimedia and Information Technology Conference (MmIT) focused on “Digital Citizenship: What is the library's role?” and included a fabulous range of talks from librarians, head of services, computer specialists and suppliers which really reflects the scope and depth of the topic. As a relatively new professional, one who had never attended a conference before, I decided to join in mainly because I’d heard good things about the food. However I am always keen to broaden my horizons and I’m pleased to say not only did the food exceed my expectations, so did the conference itself. MmIT are a special interest group within Cilip.

MmIT Journal

Dr Chris Stokes (Joint Director of Digital Learning, University of Sheffield) spoke about his team’s process to make the University of Sheffield’s first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This was inspired by an outreach scheme designed to give 16 to 18 year olds the knowledge, information and guidance to make a competitive application to the University of Sheffield’s Dental School. This digital course aimed to use technology to increase access to a course that promoted inclusion within higher education and unexpectedly inspired an online community that facilitated communication between a range of user groups. This group ranged from aspirational A Level students to individuals with fear of dentists and even dental nurses refreshing their knowledge before returning to work after maternity leave.

What I learnt from Chris: MOOCs aren’t just for graduates, or a specific age range - they can be all inclusive and empowering if you design interesting, interactive content which simplifies the subject.

This issue of safe and knowledgeable digital access for the masses was something which inspired Lee Fallin and Mike Ewan to create a website called “The Digital Student”. This project aimed to educate students at the University of Hull by creating a mobile optimised website applicable to all students which could also be embedded within the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). This idea not only gives students convenient access to information from a point on the university system which they already utilise but also standardised, quality information which can be updated centrally and easily replicated over a large number of users quickly. Further to this, the site is also mobile enabled and also designed to appeal to a range of different abilities using a content layout inspired by the popular website, Buzzfeed. After creating this content to improve the digital literacy of their students, the project will next release guides which aim to help students sell the digital skills when applying for jobs.

What I learnt from Lee and Mike: Take content to channels students are already using and display it in a way they are familiar with, in a format they like.

The socio-economic benefits of digital literacy was the focus of Helen Milner CEO of the Tinder Foundation. Her keynote speech, based on digital social inclusion, explained work of the Tinder Foundation which aims to connect and empower individuals. This is as a result of an aim to raise not only digital literacy locally, but also for the awareness of the need and benefits of digital literacy and digital access on a national scale.

What I learn from Helen: In 2015, a shockingly large amount (12.6 million) of the population were still offline. What was even more shocking was finding out was that if you were uneducated, retirement age, disabled or had a low income you were less likely to have access to the internet despite the potential benefits including being able to apply for jobs (25% of which are online-only applications), making online savings as well as maintaining social connections.

Check out this brilliant infographic that captures the data around digital literacy and accessibility

Ian Clark

Communication and digital access was a key part of Ian Clark's talk focusing on the digital privacy divide. He highlighted the clash between the government’s desire to protect society by observing their browsing and borrowing history versus the negative effects of surveillance on information exchange. Although there are benefits of surveying information exchange between individuals and groups undertaking illegal activities however GCHQ have undertaken projects (such as “Karma Police”) which aim to create unique profiles for each individual of the population, regardless of whether they are law-abiding citizens or not.

Although there are methods to avoiding online observation, such as encryption technologies and browsers such as Tor, these have received a negative spin as a result of illegal activities linked to the Dark Web and the popular attitude, “you have nothing to worry about, if you have nothing to hide”. These tools, while increasing security for individuals who want to protect their communications, are also complex to execute.

What I learnt from Ian: Individuals who thought they were under surveillance changed their information searching behaviours and automatically censored themselves. This arguably reduces freedom of thought which is indusive to critical thinking, idea generation and the democratic process.

Check out Infoism for more information

Dr Kevin Curran

Another highly informative talk was hosted by Kevin Curran, who is a Reader in Computer Science at Ulster University. His overview, “Hacking: Child’s Play” highlighted just how hackers can locate unsecured databases and webcams by using Google dorks, hold a company to ransom with a simple denial of service attack program and receive money from illegal activity anonymously using a cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin.

What I learnt from Kevin: Great tips to improve your security online.

• Check if your details have been breached. You can also sign up to the “Notify me” service which will tell you when you need to change your password so no unauthorised snoopers can access your accounts https://haveibeenpwned.com/
• Don’t invest in expensive anti-virus. Windows Defence is freely available available from Microsoft and will do just as good a job as Norton and other popular paid-for antivirus softwares.
• Don’t use the same password for every website. You can use a password manager like LastPass (link https://lastpass.com/) to simply this for you

All of the presentations I attended were thoughtful and particularly made me reflect on the idea of using the benefits of technology to empower - Chris and his team's outreach MOOC gave disadvantaged students the chance to participate in a highly competitive career path. Additionally, Helen and the Tinder Foundation, as well as Lee and Mike from University of Hull, had recognised the need for further digital literacy training and the benefits of enabling individuals to use technology, in terms of both increasing employability and confidence.

Digital Privacy & Digital Citizenship

The knowledge brought to the conference by Ian of Infoism and Kevin of Ulster University did however highlight some of the areas in which there is much at stake if individuals and organisations use the technology in an irresponsible way. The main thing I’ve taken away from the conference is the idea that using digital technology is like driving a car - it doesn’t matter how bright, young or reactive you are - if you aren’t taught how how to operate the machine and navigate the system there’s the potential for a crash.

“Discover Dentistry” MOOC at FutureLearn

“The Digital Student” website

From Clicks to Cites - Social Media for Social Scientists

Andy Tattersall

Earlier this week Andy Tattersall was asked to be part of a panel discussion within the Faculty of Social Sciences and the launch of their Northern Exposure events. Northern Exposure is a new series of events, aimed at helping social scientists maximise the reach and accessibility of their research. It is coordinated by the Social Sciences Partnerships, Impact and Knowledge Exchange (SSPIKE) team and Communications team in the Faculty of Social Sciences. 

The event was opened by Professor Gill Valentine, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Social Science. Whilst the keynote was a very interesting talk by Mark Carrigan, author of an apt new book, 'Social Media for Academics'. Mark talked about the potential for social media for academics whilst http://www.internetlivestats.com/ chalked the latest daily statistics for Google Search, Tumblr posts and Tweets sent just to name but a few. 

Mark Carrigan's book

Following that was an interesting panel discussion around the topic of the 'The academic blogosphere' that was chaired by Sarah Boswell, Marketing and Communications Manager, Faculty of Social Sciences. The panel included Laura Hood - Politics and Society Editor; The Conversation UK, Andy Tattersall - Information Resources; ScHARR, University of Sheffield, Sierra Williams - Managing Editor; LSE Impact blog and James Wilsdon - Director of Impact and Engagement; Social Sciences, University of Sheffield.

The event looked at the the value social media can contribute to shaping academic research and how it could be used as a resource to disseminate findings. How academics can use social media as a way of encouraging meaningful discussion. How social media can be used to build a prominent research profile, access relevant information and build important stakeholder networks. How to begin overcoming the barriers to engaging with social media in research. 

Panel debate at #NthExpo

Various questions were raised as to overcoming the barriers to using social media in academia, dealing with negative comments and trolls, where should support come for academics using social media.
After the panel discussion, delegates were split into four groups and worked with panel members to discuss some of the challenges facing them and the use of social media. It was a worthwhile and interesting event and hopefully springboard on to other events in the Faculty and further afield. Tweets from the day can be seen by following the #NthExpo hashtag

Productivity Hacks for the Digital Academic: Part Two

This is part two of a blog post I wrote for the Digital Science Guest Blog

Image CC BY 2.0 Dennis Hamilton

The first part of this guest blog post looked at the problems that new and existing academics face when considering web and social technologies as part of their profession. The second part looks at a few options for dealing with digital distraction in the academic institution. Given that the web and technology is increasingly becoming important to how researchers do their work, from communication to measurement, it makes sense to have strategies at hand should managing them all becomes too much.

Create to do lists

Starting your working day as you mean to go on can be a helpful thing to do. We often start our working day full of good intention and a strong sense we can achieve many things. By mid morning and a few checks of your email and favourite research and news websites we find ourselves promising more for later. Soon lunch is with us and by mid afternoon we start feel bad we have not nailed that proposal, article, literature search. So for the last hour the temptation is just to reply to email and complete a few conversations, as that feels like moving things forward. The reality will be that it did not, as more emails pop up in some kind of technological ‘whack a mole’. A list is a way of prioritising your tasks and what you need to complete. Tools such as Wunderlist can help structure your working to be more productive and constructive. Of course like any of the suggestions below it requires a level of willpower but so does any kind of change for the better.

Use a timer

Like the suggestion above, this is about structuring your working day that fits in with the modern digital academic. For some researchers they have to consider the notion that they will often struggle to retain focus, whether that be internal or external factors. That for some, the idea of sitting hour after hour reading or writing will never happen naturally. Work may always be in some kind of fractured state and by giving yourself set times to work on projects and pieces of work you can have a better chance of at least nudging them forward bit by bit. By applying a timer you can set waypoints and reminders to change task that it is less disruptive than just jumping from one thing to another. One way to do this is called the Pomodoro Technique which encourages you to work on one thing for 25 minutes at a time with regular short breaks in between to recharge the brain cells. Whilst apps like 30:30 on IOS and ClearFocus Pomodoro App on Android help break your day up into more productive chunks.

Put a leash on email

Email is a constant distraction for academics, whether it be the prospect of getting an exciting communication, response to a conversation or just passing on your latest idea to a colleague; it can be very addictive. The quicker we respond to emails the more they seem to come, and with it expectations by others you will reply speedily each time. Email is essential to modern academia and platforms like Google Wave and more recently Slack have tried to change that. There are tools available like Inbox Pause for Gmail that allows you to pause incoming mail till a time you want to receive it. Whilst restricting email on your mobile phone might also help break that pattern of constantly checking it up for new communications. Doing something like restricting email so it only updates when in wifi range not only gives you peace and quiet but could save on personal data charges. There is of course the option of just not checking, which is quite hard for some, but by turning off email whilst working at least puts an extra step in the process. Some organisations have tried ‘no email days’, or periods, but that approach has often been seen as using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Use a blocking tool

Any digital academic keen to communicate their research across the web will more than likely at some point start using social media. Add this to email and you have a double whammy of digital distraction if you don’t contain it. Obviously there are detractors who believe social media is bad for the modern workplace, whilst there is the opposing view who believe it has revolutionised work and communication. Like so many other things in life, it is about everything in moderation, if you are on social media every minute of the day you will get little else done. On the other hand if you ignore social media as a researcher you could be missing out on valuable information, conversations and of course a platform to communicate your research. To bring some balance back for the researcher who wants to structure their working day around writing, reading and communicating there are things you can do. By applying blocking tools so that you use them when you want, not when others prompt you. One of the most popular tools is StayFocusd which allows you to limit time on a certain website. That website might be legitimate for work or not, nevertheless if you think you are spending too much time on Facebook personally or LinkedIn professionally, this could help.  

Create an alternative calendar

Again like the to do lists and timers this is a useful way to create a more structured and disciplined working day. Most academics have digital calendars these days, whether they use them is another thing. For anyone using platforms such as Google there is the ability to create additional, private calendars. These can be used as gentle reminders with repeated daily events to check your email, read or write for set periods of time, rather than mix up the various tasks into one cluttered, unstructured day.

Use an aggregator

Trying to stay on top of the latest published research, news and updates from experts in your field gets increasingly harder to do. The sheer volume of content across the web means finding new and inventive ways to keep up to date. One tried and tested way is to use an aggregator to pull in the disparate collections of content into one location. Such as journal contents, blog posts and news can be subscribed to by using an RSS aggregator such as Feedly. Whilst Twitter users can refine the continual stream of Tweets into various strands based on users, search terms or hashtags using tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck.

Set up a personal Dashboard

Working on a similar model to aggregators and employing rss are personal dashboards. Personal dashboards used to be more popular thanks to iGoogle, PageFlakes and Netvibes, with only the latter still in existence. Nevertheless, Netvibes is a useful tool that goes beyond rss aggregators that allows social media monitoring, video embeds as well as using the xml format to bring in traditional rss content.

Eat a frog

The final suggestion might seem like the most drastic, and before anyone goes out in the garden to find a frog, I need to say you do not actually eat one. For most people, apart from survivalists and Bear Grylls, eating a frog would be considered a very hard thing to do. So are many tasks an academic has to complete, they can feel almost impossible at times. Yet that comes with the territory and at some point you will have to tackle that piece of work. So why not do something radical about it and start your day by ‘eating that metaphorical frog’. By keeping email locked away for the first hour of the day you could instead work on that piece of work you have been avoiding for the last few weeks/months/years. The chances are by practicing this approach a few times you will begin to feel a real sense of achievement. So by the time email starts to suck you in, or you pop out of the office for a coffee, you will feel that little bit better about it.

In Conclusion

Whatever tools and tips you apply you are certain to find a few that will work with refinement. Everyone is different and works differently so these kind of suggestions will have different results. It might be that you are already very well organised, so in that case - well done. It might be that you are a terrible procrastinator and incredibly dis-organised, many people are for a variety of reasons, some of which they cannot change. Either way, it is likely that there will be something from this list above that you can use to help you manage your digital workplace that little bit better.

Useful Links

http://3030.binaryhammer.com/

http://appcrawlr.com/android/clearfocus-pomodoro-timer

http://pomodorotechnique.com/

https://www.wunderlist.com/

http://www.stayfocusd.com/

https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/

http://inboxpause.com/

http://www.netvibes.com/en