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Monitoring Academic Conferences: Real-time Visualization and Retrospective Analysis of Backchannel Conversations. Awalin Sopan PJ Rey, Brian Butler, Ben Shneiderman Human Computer Interaction Lab, Dept of Computer Science, Dept of Sociology,
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Monitoring Academic Conferences:Real-time Visualization and Retrospective Analysis of Backchannel Conversations Awalin Sopan PJ Rey, Brian Butler, Ben Shneiderman Human Computer Interaction Lab, Dept of Computer Science, Dept of Sociology, College of Information Studies (iSchool) University of Maryland
Typical Conference Experience Conferences • Present our work and get feedback. • Extend our professional network. • Know about others research. Should have cited Markov! Nice talk.
Backchannel Conversation We can use online social networks, but …
Focus of Interest in Conference • Identify important people: whose research is getting more attention, whom to connect with. • Know what is happening on a session. • What topics are popular. participant • Engage participants in discussion. • Intervene when necessary. organizers
Focus of Interest in Conference participant organizers
Our Contributions Conference Monitor: A real-time monitoring tool. Analysis of the backchannel conversation.
Collected tweets about this conference as backchannel conversation sample. -Total 4828 tweets over one month. -Total 593 participants.
ConferenceMonitor A web-based real time monitoring tool for conference organizers and participants.
Participation dropped after lunch break morning opening keynote afternoon lunch
Talks in room d1 was less discussed Opening Session
Talks in room d1 was less discussed Opening Session
Keynote speaker and his interviewer gained all the attention
all tweets during the keynote mentioning the interviewer mentioning keynote speaker
Increase Remote Participation: Why Increases overall visibility 34% retweets were from remote participants All remote participants Most active remote participant
Increase Remote Participation: How read tweets, watch live streaming Allow easy communication with the speakers. Allow questions from the remote participants. Live streaming of the presentations.
Participate Remotely: Why Followers growth of in-person participants Followers growth of remote participants
Dynamic Community Creation Mention network
Lessons Learned • Organizers found the tool useful to answer their question. • Sessions, parallel tracks, speakers - these aspects make academic conferences different from other events. • Remote participation increased visibility.
We cordially thank: Catherine Plaisant, Jae-wook Ahn, Ann Rose, NSF (grant IIS 096852) Contact: @awalinsopan awalin@cs.umd.edu