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.