WordCamp NYC 2009 – Using WordPress as Research tool

I am live blogging from WordCamp NYC,  please excuse any typos or less polished text.

Speaker Jeremy Boggs

Information management: how do we aggregate information and make sense of it? Back in the old days we had notes. now we have that and delcious, twitter, other aggregators. “if you are using all your research you have not enough research” citing James I. Robertson.

Scenario: I am a scholar using hos of web services to write their work. How do I make a good use of my delicious, twitter, flicker, and other information aggregation. How do I efficiently manage my information?

Solution: Jeremy created a second panel to reuse whatever he aggregates. usingAtelier – panel adding post content. As you write you can drag and drop from the aggregator column into the writing column. Recommends using Zotero (tool to helpo you collect, manage and cite research sources).

Plugins for notes:

CommentPress – let’s individuals comment on specific sections of text. Make conversation specific about arguments being made.

Headup – aggregates from all social sites relevant info, it reads content you write and helpos find matching content. problem is it tend s to get very general and wide, not always specific to you and your needs.

Citation aggregation – aggregates all your tweets and content, but doesnt necessary sorts them

One of the audience recommends using a google docs plugin.

The brilliant and inspiring Danah Boyd is mentioned as an example for collaborative academic writing making most of social conversation through her site to write her PHD.

Tagged as: Aggregator, blog, CommentPress, Danah Boyd, Drag-and-drop, Research, twitter, Web service, WordCamp 2008