Social media as a tool forterminological research

Niina Nissilä &Anita Nuopponen

University of Vaasa

EAFT 2014 Seventh TerminologySummit “How does socialnetworking affect terminologywork?”, Barcelona on November 27-28, 2014.

Background: Call for papers

– Should social networks be a source in terminologicalresearch?

– Identification of organised specialist networks,– Social networks as a possible mechanism to access

• expert opinions,• consultation and• response

– Social networks as a possible source of recent neologisms[+ discussions on them and their formation]

=> Social media as a tool for finding information andinformation sources for a research project.

Yes, ofcourse!

Structure of the paper

• Scope• Social media• Special features of the social media in focus• Information types• Conclusion

Scope

• How to utilize social media to find relevantinformation for a research project concerningterminologies and concepts on userinterfaces?

• Case: TermFace research project:– how users and experts/designers reflect on

terminological problems on user interfaces

Social media as an information sourcefor our research project

• communication• acquiring and disseminating information

Red = types of social media infocus here

Search process

• Keywords and tags: e.g.”terminology”,”interface”,”localisation”, andcombinations

Twitter

Blogs

Q&Aforums

QuoraStackOverflowUX Stack Exchange

Special features of Twitter

• 140 characters• Offering/disseminating,

compiling information:tweet, retweet, favorites,lists, following

• Linking to otherinformation sources, e.g.blogs: links, #hashtags,@other twitter accounts

• #terminology, #t9y, #l10n,#i18n, #xln or #t9n, #UI

From a tweet to a blog postingTweet: Link to the blog:

Alexandria Library @Alexandria_xl8 [Article] "Softwarelocalisation: functionality and readability is the key" -dld.bz/dxG8M by @DkPawlak #l10n

Beyond the words

Maria Pia Montoro @WordLo Aug 28 What about a world-ready website #UI #terminology? | @scoopit sco.lt/8KyYSX

WordLo by Maria PiaMontoro

Tech Comms @TechComms · Aug 13 latest cybertext: Scaryerror message bit.ly/Y1Xaha

CyberText Newsletter

Oleksandr Pysaryuk @alexpysaryuk · Sep 23 The minimumyou need to know about internationalization (not lost intranslation) bit.ly/1x43YtE #i18n

not lost in translation(Oracle)

IdentityMine @identitymine 30 Apr 2013 Office 2013 andWindows Phone 8 product terminology and #UI translationspublished ow.ly/kxqJc #microsoft

Microsoft LanguagePortal Blog

Blogs writing on terminology on UI

Types of terminology relatedinformation found in blogs

• giving information on term lists or terms ofthe products of the company, or

• discussing principles, e.g:– expressing opinions on various terminology

related subjects on interface design– giving advice based on experience, or– arguing for the benefits of e.g. linguistic testing,

terminological consistency, or localization orinternationalization of interfaces.

Relevant blog postings

Q&A forums

• Quora: forum for any kinds of questionsabout any kind of theme

• Stack Overflow: forum for professional andenthusiast programmers

• User Experience Stack Exchange: forumspecialized in user experience

Searches on Q&A forums

• quora.com & stackoverflow.com– searches on keywords: terminology, terminology

usability, UI terms

• ux.stackexchange.com– searches on more specific keywords possible: e.g.

usable terminology, consistent terminology,correct term, synonym, terminology goals

Q&A: Special features• Quora:

– term = a) specialiced word, b) point of view– example: What works or doesn't work in terms of Social Media Marketing?

• Stack Overflow:– term, terminology = “programming commandos”– example:

– closed questions

• User Experience Stack Exchange the right forum for our interests– terminological questions frequently discussed– various perspectives on terminological questions– example: How to create a taxonomy?

Types of terminology related information foundin Q&A

• How is this this concept/object/thing called?• Are these terms synonyms? Which one should I use, why? Is there a

synonym for the term x?• Here is a term, what is the concept behind (definition)?• What is the difference between these objects/concepts/terms?• Is there this kind of resource (glossary, vocabulary, guide)? Where do I

find information?• Which aspects should I consider when labeling these things?• How do I explain this concept/function to a layman? How do I make

this information understandable?

Concluding remarks:social media as information source

• Each of the media we studied has their own characteristics:• Twitter is used for disseminating information: I’ve read this, I find this

interesting/important/worth sharing.• Both Twitter and blogs are used to give visibility to different themes, and

provide up-to-date information on a special field.• In blogs, own opinions are more explicit, the writers concentrate on the

themes that they find interesting and important.• In both blogs and Q&A forums the information is some more persistent

and easier to find than in Twitter. They all are places for discussion, andcan therefore be used for scanning different expert views.

• For asking information on more specific questions, Q&A forums giveinformation on the relevant problems.

Further work• Future work:

– Other social media (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn, collaborative wikis, discussionfora..)

– Other languages other than English (e.g. Finnish, Swedish etc.)

• To summarize: Social media can give some preliminaryinsights in term, concept and usability related issues that areconsidered relevant by the experts. The information can beutilized when planning e.g. interviews with the differentexpert groups.

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