[Asis-l] ASIS&T 2008 Annual Meeting Panel Session: Making the Most of Conferences via Social Networking

[Ophelia Morey]

Hello ASIS&T Members!

SIG USE is sponsoring our panel for the 2008 annual meeting. Please read
the following to learn more about the panel and visit our Facebook group
"Making the Most of Conferences via Social Networking."

See you on Facebook!

Crystal Fulton (University College Dublin, Ireland)
Panel Co-Moderator & Corresponding Author
Email: Crystal.Fulton at ucd.ie

Julia A. Hersberger (University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA)
Panel Co-Moderator & Corresponding Author
Email: jahersbe at uncg.edu

Panel Members
Kate Johnson (University of Western Ontario, London, Canada)
Ophelia T. Morey (University at Buffalo, New York, USA)
Ruth Vondracek (Oregon State University, USA)



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Making the Most of Conferences via Social Networking

ASIS&T Panel, Autumn 2008
Sponsored by SIGUSE


Come and Join Us in Facebook
and Explore Your Networking Style!


Why set up a Facebook group?

The purpose of this panel is to create a live experiment that will
investigate how attendees at the ASIST 2008 annual meeting interact in a
specially created Facebook.com group and how this affects your experience
of the conference and face-to-face interactions. We are planning a fun and
interactive information sharing session involving people who have built
relationships at the conference and in the online community.

Some people develop strong and lasting friendships, others have terrible
experiences, and many have simple, rather pragmatic social interactions.
How do social experiences transpire at a conference?  Do hotel bars
represent a rich environment central for making connections at conferences?
What traditional and evolving roles do conference sessions play as places
for establishing social connections?  What cliques exist?  Do some
participants feel socially excluded at conferences? Why or why not?


Who is coordinating this panel/project?

Panel Co-Moderators (& corresponding authors):
Crystal Fulton & Julia A. Hersberger
Panel Members:
1. Crystal Fulton
University College Dublin, Ireland.  Email: crystal.fulton at ucd.ie.
2. Julia A. Hersberger
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA.  Email: jahersbe at uncg.edu.
3. Kate Johnson
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.  Email: cjohn24 at uwo.ca
4. Ophelia T. Morey
University at Buffalo, New York, USA.  Email: otmorey at acsu.buffalo.edu.
5. Ruth Vondracek
Oregon State University, USA.  Email: ruth.vondracek at oregonstate.edu.


What will I learn?

This conference session offers an exciting opportunity for ASIS&T Facebook
community members to meet and chat face-to-face to enhance conference
relationships and to exchange online community experiences.

Based on the information shared in Facebook and during the panel session,
participants will take away a range of strategies for networking at
conferences to build not only valuable and formal relationships, but also
pleasant informal relationships.


How do I join this Facebook Group?

Joining is simple:
1.	If you have an existing Facebook account, log in.  If not, go to
Facebook.com and create an account.
2.	Using Facebook's Browse Groups or Search functions, locate our group,
Making the Most of Conferences via Social Networking.
3.	Select our group.
4.	Select the link labeled Join this group.  This link should be located on
the right side of your screen.
5.	On of our group administrators will accept you as a member.
6.	You are ready to participate online!


What will I see at our Facebook group page?


1.	Project Information

a)	You will find our Letter of Information and information about informed
consent on our opening page.  Note: Joining and participating in the group
provides consent to participate.
b)	Research Questions for the project.

2.	Photos, conversation, news of members... and MORE, contributed by you!

We have started the ball rolling with photos from recent trips, etc.
Now we want your input.  Go ahead - write on our wall!

What will happen with data gathered in Facebook & at the Panel session?

Project investigators will analyze the interactions that take place on
Facebook leading up to and during the conference, including the rate and
manner in which membership grows, the kinds of information that are shared
with the online group and the events that are organized or emerge out of
the interactions among group members.  All data from the Facebook group
will be anonymized for purposes of analysis and future publication.

Facebook participation will culminate in a panel at the 2008 ASIS&T
conference in which the Facebook interaction among academics is discussed.
Facebook participants, as well as other conference attendees, are welcome
to participate in the panel session.  Individuals who choose to participate
in the panel session will be advised at the beginning of the panel session
that their participation is voluntary and confidential and that data
resulting from the panel session may be used in a final project publication.


Tell us about your Facebook Experience!

We will be interviewing 25-30 Facebook participants during the ASIS&T 2008
meeting.  Please email corresponding authors at Crystal.Fulton at ucd.ie or
jahersbe at uncg.edu, to arrange an interview time and location at the
conference.

Note: Interviewees will be asked to sign a consent form for participation.
All data gathered in interviews will be anonymized; participants will not
be identified in any ensuing publication.


What are the next steps for this project?

Project investigators will analyze the data resulting from the experiment
and present the results in a formal paper to be submitted for inclusion at
the Autumn 2009 ASIS&T conference.  After the conference, a final version
of the paper will be submitted for publication in the Journal of the
American Society for Information Science & Technology (JASIS&T).