The Road to Rio
by Sotonde
By Professor Guy Poppy
Director of Multidisciplinary Research at the University of Southampton
Having the opportunity to attend events at the Rio+20 Earth Summit is both exciting and worrying. It has been twenty years since Rio 92, which set the stage for many of the major targets, goals and policies we see in the world relating to the environment and poverty. So where are we now twenty years later and what will Rio +20 achieve which does not require/necessitate a Rio +40? These thoughts and questions were filling my mind as I flew to Rio late on Saturday night. Taking part in such a potentially important meeting in human history was an honour for me after years of undertaking pure academic research and now realising that applying this work to the ‘Grand Challenges’ was the best way in which Universities can really contribute to civil society, government and business. That is what we are doing at University of Southampton in our university strategic research groups and I am pleased that important progress is being made in this exciting new part of the University’s strategy.
Guy Poppy at the Rio +20 Earth Summit
On my journey to Rio, the plane was full of people coming to Rio+20 and we engaged in discussions about the summit itself and whether our political leaders will rise to the challenge to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet to get to the future we want. Whilst the view is pessimistic about our politicians, the civil society and business delegates at Rio will make a difference. It is in these meetings where knowledge, ideas and the pressure will grow. We are all in this together, but we as individuals can make a difference. It is worth looking at your personal consumption and lifestyle and telling others how they can help – our leaders will then not be able to ignore our thoughts and beliefs and will do what is right, even when it involves tough decisions. This is the sign of good leadership.
On arriving into Rio early in the morning, I decided to walk along Copacabana beach to get some sunlight. What a beautiful place with such beautiful people! Rio is the perfect setting to discuss protecting the earth and ensuring that mankind lives within its boundaries. Since Rio 92, the population has grown by 26% and today stands at a staggering 7 billion. That presents a huge environmental problem for our limited planet. We currently need 1.5 earths to support our consumption and that is growing towards three!
Today, I have been given a t-shirt and hat from a union parade representing the Brazilian people. This was a great experience and reminds me of the importance of civil society. Unfortunately, I cannot understand the commentary but the music and passion is evident and I am reminded again of the power of human spirit. I thus return to my hotel optimistic and keen to play my part in a potential turning point in society – as UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon has said – Rio+20 Earth Summit is too important to fail.
Follow me on twitter @GuyPoppy1
Related research projects- ESPA Assets project ‘Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems.
Digital Literacies Conference #sotondiglit
June 17, 2012
by Lisa Harris
Conversations from last week’s event are still ongoing, but an evolving Storify can be linked to below:
Digital Literacies Conference #sotondiglit sfy.co/j0Gb #storify #sotonde
— Lisa Harris (@lisaharris) June 17, 2012
And photos continue to be posted:
Great pics on Flickr from #sotondiglit today: flickr.com/groups/1885285… Feel free to add yours! Big shout to @IvanMelendezCh
— Lisa Harris (@lisaharris) June 14, 2012
And video from SUSUtv is now available on Vimeo :-)
Digital Literacies – SUSUtv from SotonCite on Vimeo.
DE Lunch Social Media in Live Events (#SMiLE) 10.07.2012
There will be three short presentations:
1. Social Media in Live Events (SMiLE)
Nicole Beale, Graeme Earl and Lisa Harris will discuss the findings so far of this action research project which is exploring the dynamics of the relationship between ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ communities in the context of a major academic conference. We monitored the use of a range of established and experimental social media tools to track how they were utilised before, during and after the event. Delegate online activities using these tools included information recording and sharing, network building, profile raising and development of a sustainable community of practice. We are now investigating how recent developments in social network visualisation and analysis can enable valuable insights to be generated from this data for the benefit of event organisers and community developers. We are also developing a code of conduct for the ethical collection, curation and archiving of social media data with Oxford e-Research Centre. Measuring the importance of social media marketing in the charitable domain
2. Chris Phethean from the Web Science DTC will discuss his PhD research on the evaluation of social media marketing effectiveness which has recently been presented at the Web Science Conference in Chicago
3. Graeme Earl will discuss the recent AHRC Digital Transformations workshop and opportunities for DE members from this scheme.
Other forthcoming events of interest:
4th July 2pm – 4pm Digital Literacy Workshop: Social Media for Researchers, facilitated by Nicole Beale, Lisa Harris and Fiona Harvey, in 32/3077. You can book tickets here
10th August is the deadline for abstract submission to the 3rd Annual Digital Economy All Hands Conference, Aberdeen 23-25th October. We do have funding to support staff/students who wish to present a paper/workshop at this event. Please let us know if you are interested in finding out more.
Digital Literacies Conference #sotondiglit – Video and Tweets
by Sotonde
The live streaming of the Digital Literacies Conference will be accessible here. You can also follow the #sotondiglit tweets below.
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Digital Literacies Conference #sotondiglit
June 5, 2012
by Lisa Harris
Due to popular demand additional tickets have now been released for the Digital Literacy Conference in Garden Court, Highfield Campus all day on 14th June. There will be un-keynote sessions led by Steve Wheeler, Cristina Costa, Sue Beckingham and Doug Belshaw, as well as contributions from a number of Southampton University staff and students who are engaged in various Digital Literacy activities.
The programme is confirmed as:
9.00 Coffee & registration
9.30 Opening – Professor Hugh Davis (Director of CITE)
10.00 First ‘unkeynote’ – Associate Professor Steve Wheeler & Cristina Costa
11.00 – Coffee
11.20 Presentations (10 minute slots)
12.30 Lunch
1.15 Second ‘unkeynote’ – Dr Doug Belshaw & Sue Beckingham
2.15 Presentations – (inc.Tools & Techniques)
3.15 – Tea
3.35 – Panel (Joy Moloney, Chair)
4.30 – Closing session
There will be extensive use of social media at this event. The Twitter tag is #sotondiglit Questions for the panel can be posted using Twitter (remember to include the #sotondiglit)
Resources will be available via Delicious
We are encouraging all participants to record their conference by using Storify.
Photographs from the event can be shared via Flickr
Can maths keep the lights burning
by Karen Woods
Mathematicians are teaming up with engineers to keep the lights on across the world. Jacek Brodzki gave fascinating account of how careful calculation could stop massive cross-border blackouts at the last must-attend Digital Economy lunch at the University of Southampton.
Dare we say it, the Professor of Pure Mathematics electrified his audience by outlining how you can come up with new ways of isolating transmission areas if the worst happens, through the ingenious use of maths. He used the example of a major power failure, which spread across the north east of USA and Canada on 14 August 2003, after a tree shorted a line. Jeremy Frey, Professor of Chemistry, told people at the lunch he had been there at the time and became stranded in Toronto.
Jacek leads a research group investigating applications of modern Pure Mathematics, especially geometry and analysis, in a variety of problems emerging in Data Science and Energy.
Student Digital Champions build social media presence for #PianoHAWK
May 28, 2012
by Lisa Harris
The PianoHAWK launch event took place on 16th May 2012 at the Bluthner Piano Showroom in London’s Berkeley Square.
One of the major goals for the promotion of this event was raising awareness about the actual event and the PianoHAWK technology on several digital platforms. Considering that the main target audience interested in the technology could be found on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, the decision to create an online buzz on these media was obvious.
Digital Literacy Student Champions, Marina Sakipi and Panos Grimanellis were responsible for setting up and managing the social media accounts created.
First step was using the #PianoHAWK hashtag on Twitter in order to link together all relevant tweets, creating a ‘trending’ topic around the event and engaging users in using the hashtag before, during and after the event.
Here are a few sample tweets on #PianoHAWK:
MT @Marinasak: Yday’s #PianoHAWK launch event was sooo successful! See FB page for more news & photos on.fb.me/KSiTNH<excellent :-)
— Lisa Harris (@lisaharris) May 17, 2012
Looking forward to the #PianoHAWK event on 16/05 in London bit.ly/IJyG0F
— Marina Sak (@Marinasak) May 11, 2012
Second step was the creation of the PianoHAWK Facebook page which immediately took off with many people ‘liking’ it.
On the day of the event, during its first part a science presentation took place by Dr Cheryl Metcalf where she explained everything about HAWK technology and provided scientific evidence of her research on how H.A.W.K technology can apply in various fields.
During the second part of the event, a music programme took place organised by Professor David Owen Norris with 11 Bluthner pianos playing simultaneously by students from School of Music and Cantores Michaelis choir singing.
In the meantime, Marina and Panos were live tweeting and uploading photos of the event:
#pianohawk the choir live now! twitter.com/Marinasak/stat…
— Marina Sak (@Marinasak) May 16, 2012
As a whole, the event was very successful, and mentioned also in the University of Southampton Vice Chancellor’s blog post and as proved by the improved ranking of the PianoHAWK webpage on Google organic search results.
Storify from DE lunch on Wikipedia 28/5
May 28, 2012
by Lisa Harris
Digtial Economy lunch 28th May with @lescarr and @nicoleebeale #sotonde sfy.co/10yf #storify
— Lisa Harris (@lisaharris) May 28, 2012
Flickr set from #SxSC
by Graeme Earl
Social media in the business world
by Karen Woods
The next generation of sophisticated digital marketing professionals are learning their trade at the University of Southampton. And many of them look set for glittering careers, if you ask me!
Slightly nervous third year students have been trying their hands at being social media consultants, thanks to an innovative module at the Management School. But all deserved hearty rounds of applause after their presentations!
Marketing Lecturer, Lisa Harris had challenged them to work in groups to raise awareness of clubs, organisations and companies through digital marketing techniques based on social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and You Tube. They were also encouraged to write blogs to help with the promotion.
Eleven groups gave presentations about their experiences to marketing academics which were assessed as part of their final mark.
One group worked with the Southampton University Riding Club. The team, Emilie Prior, Laura Sensecall, Charlie Hilder, Charlotte Sanders and Kate Smith, set up an online community for members. They used several media to convey information, share photos and encourage dialogue with members such as voting for annual awards. The site even attracted attention from professional rider Lucinda Green. Other projects included Student Chic for online discounts and fashion and beauty tips, Soton Digest for local restaurant reviews, Gradbuddy to highlight internships and placements and Southampton Student Accommodation Support.
“This is a great opportunity for our students to find out what it’s really like to put the principles of social media to the test,” says Lisa. “Hopefully they have enjoyed the experience of working with ‘clients’ to get their messages across and developed skills which will be invaluable in their careers.”