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Tracking the conversation from Displacements

The joint SCA/SVA "Displacements" conference has come to an end (although the archived presentations will remain up until the end of the month).  By all accounts, this virtual conference has been a success, but I wanted to probe the extent to which the conference brought together people across diverse locations.  Although we have some sense of this from the "Nodes" (local groups of face-to-face meetings and events surrounding the conference), Twitter may be a more important index, since that social media emerged as the most generative form of communication over the past few days.

Using NodeXL, I downloaded tweets with the #displace18 hashtag, and grouped them by timezone.  Here is the sociograph I generated:


And here's a key to the groups (which may help with some of the smaller ones in the lower, right-hand corner). 

Pacific Time (US & Canada) 0, 12, 96 Disk     Pacific Time (US & Canada)  
Eastern Time (US & Canada) 0, 136, 227 Disk     Eastern Time (US & Canada)  
London 0, 100, 50 Disk     London  
Central Time (US & Canada) 0, 176, 22 Disk     Central Time (US & Canada)  
Atlantic Time (Canada) 191, 0, 0 Disk     Atlantic Time (Canada)  
Quito 230, 120, 0 Disk     Quito  
Arizona 255, 191, 0 Disk     Arizona  
Amsterdam 150, 200, 0 Disk     Amsterdam  
Sydney 200, 0, 120 Disk     Sydney  
New Delhi 77, 0, 96 Disk     New Delhi  
Hawaii 91, 0, 191 Disk     Hawaii  
Greenland 0, 98, 130 Disk     Greenland  
Paris 0, 12, 96 Solid Square     Paris  
Istanbul 0, 136, 227 Solid Square     Istanbul  
Jakarta 0, 100, 50 Solid Square     Jakarta  
Wellington 0, 176, 22 Solid Square     Wellington  
Edinburgh 191, 0, 0 Solid Square     Edinburgh  
Chennai 230, 120, 0 Solid Square     Chennai  
Mexico City 255, 191, 0 Solid Square     Mexico City  
Berlin 150, 200, 0 Solid Square     Berlin  
Seoul 200, 0, 120 Solid Square     Seoul  
Tokyo 77, 0, 96 Solid Square     Tokyo  
Bogota 91, 0, 191 Solid Square     Bogota  
Casablanca 0, 98, 130 Solid Square     Casablanca  
Mountain Time (US & Canada) 0, 12, 96 Solid Diamond     Mountain Time (US & Canada)  
Alaska 0, 136, 227 Solid Diamond     Alaska  
Helsinki 0, 100, 50 Solid Diamond     Helsinki  
Brisbane 0, 176, 22 Solid Diamond     Brisbane  
Melbourne 191, 0, 0 Solid Diamond     Melbourne  
Ljubljana 230, 120, 0 Solid Diamond     Ljubljana  
Vienna 255, 191, 0 Solid Diamond     Vienna  
Athens 150, 200, 0 Solid Diamond     Athens  
Lima 200, 0, 120 Solid Diamond     Lima  
Taipei 77, 0, 96 Solid Diamond     Taipei  
Dublin 91, 0, 191 Solid Diamond     Dublin  
Singapore 0, 98, 130 Solid Diamond     Singapore  
Beijing 0, 12, 96 Solid Triangle     Beijing  
Stockholm 0, 136, 227 Solid Triangle     Stockholm  
Tijuana 0, 100, 50 Solid Triangle     Tijuana  
International Date Line West 0, 176, 22 Solid Triangle     International Date Line West  
Brussels 191, 0, 0 Solid Triangle     Brussels  
Muscat 230, 120, 0 Solid Triangle     Muscat  
Tehran 255, 191, 0 Solid Triangle     Tehran  
America/Los_Angeles 150, 200, 0 Solid Triangle     America/Los_Angeles  
Europe/Brussels 200, 0, 120 Solid Triangle     Europe/Brussels  
America/Montreal 77, 0, 96 Solid Triangle     America/Montreal  
Nairobi 91, 0, 191 Solid Triangle     Nairobi  
Buenos Aires 0, 98, 130 Solid Triangle     Buenos Aires  
Santiago 0, 12, 96 Sphere     Santiago  
Perth 0, 136, 227 Sphere     Perth  
Hong Kong 0, 100, 50 Sphere     Hong Kong  
Brasilia 0, 176, 22 Sphere     Brasilia  
Mumbai 191, 0, 0 Sphere     Mumbai  
Pretoria 230, 120, 0 Sphere     Pretoria  
Bangkok 255, 191, 0 Sphere     Bangkok  
Midway Island 150, 200, 0 Sphere     Midway Island  
America/Belem 200, 0, 120 Sphere     America/Belem  
Bern 77, 0, 96 Sphere     Bern  
UTC 91, 0, 191 Sphere     UTC  
America/New_York 0, 98, 130 Sphere     America/New_York  
Abu Dhabi 0, 12, 96 Circle     Abu Dhabi  
Europe/Amsterdam 0, 136, 227 Circle     Europe/Amsterdam  
Irkutsk 0, 100, 50 Circle     Irkutsk  
Asia/Singapore 0, 176, 22 Circle     Asia/Singapore  
La Paz 191, 0, 0 Circle     La Paz  
Madrid 230, 120, 0 Circle     Madrid  
Prague 255, 191, 0 Circle     Prague  
Europe/Rome 150, 200, 0 Circle     Europe/Rome  


What we can see here is some significant traffic between different zones, particularly (but not exclusively) between North America and Europe.  Traffic is generally in the form of re-tweets. I was pleased to see the lively Quito node!

I'm still processing my thoughts about the conference, but I am steadfast in my belief that this represents a real alternative to the disciplinary mega-conference.  
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