Introduction

This is a short overview of the Conference of Irish Geographers 2017, held at University College Cork, based on the analysis of tweets having the hashtag #cig2017. The aim is to try to reconstruct some aspects of the story of CIG 2017 through information relating to these tweets. Obviously the content of the tweets is the most important information, but some of the other data provided, such as the authors of the tweets, when they were created, and whether they were retweeted is also of interest.

When were people tweeting?

Below is shown a bar graph of the hour and date that each status was tweeted. There was a slow build up in the daily pattern of tweets, beginning around a week before the conference, but noticeably beginning to peak the day before, and rising to a climax on the final day. There was typically a drop over the lunchtime (suggesting many of the tweets were related to the sessions and were tweeted in situ) - and an evening peak on the 5th May (friday) on the night of the conference dinner (and speeches). The blue proportion of each bar represents tweets that were retweeted, the red part the proportion that weren’t. Generally a high proportion of #cig2017 tweets were actually retweeted.

Who was tweeting?

The top ten prolific tweeters are listed below. As with all of vvthisanalysis, tweets are selected by containing the hashtag #cig2017.

Twitter Name Tweets
Maynoothgeog 116
geogsocire 93
karenetill 86
AdrianKavanagh 67
Louise_SCollins 61
GSI_PGN 57
CorkGeog 52
SWIGIreland 52
RachelMcArdle13 46
NCG_Maynooth 41

Who was retweeted?

The following table gives the top ten accounts in terms of their total retweets:

Twitter Name Tweets Retweets
Maynoothgeog 116 257
geogsocire 93 208
Louise_SCollins 61 150
NCG_Maynooth 41 134
SWIGIreland 52 133
AdrianKavanagh 67 130
karenetill 86 130
CorkGeog 52 118
RachelMcArdle13 46 112
WildSlope 34 91

Both of the above tables suggest a strong presence for institional twitter names (eg CorkGeog,Maynoothgeog and NCG_Maynooth) as well as a number of individual accounts - all relating to people working at Maynooth. Since the latter table considers retweets, this suggests strong impact as well as presence.

What was tweeted most?

Here is a list of the most retweeted individual tweets - including any tweet having seven or more retweets. Here there is a mix of ‘housekeeping’ tweets, together with some tweets that give clues as to the most influential sessions or individual presentations.

Tweet Retweets Twitter Name
For all attending the @geogsocire #CIG2017, I’ve an exhibition on pilgrimage in Ireland running in the @UCCLibrary… https://t.co/F0ww2i4wKO 11 CorkGeog
@LJMU’s John Morrissey provides a #community perspective of #energytransition #pathways @EntrustH2020 #cig2017 https://t.co/XGRDiAjsov 10 breffnilennon
Please attend our AGM tomorrow at lunchtime #cig2017 10 SWIGIreland
#cig2017 & 2 great keynote speakers in enviro-geographer @JennyPickerill and place-hacker extraordinaire @GoblinMerchant What a line-up! 8 Envirofood
#UCC’s Paul O’Connor explores the role of #belonging, #place and #identity in the #energytransition #cig2017 https://t.co/LamKjsuio6 8 EntrustH2020
Looking forward to the @geogsocire Conference of Irish Geographers tomorrow hosted by @UCC Geography dept #CIG2017 https://t.co/4xMnZYJSru 8 CorkGeog
Maynooth Geographers at the Conference of Irish Geographers https://t.co/MC1thNigWD @maynoothuni @maynoothgeog #CIG2017 8 GerryKearns202
Really looking forward to panel discussion on Saturday (room 101) w/ @JennyPickerill @RoryHearne @i_morris @CorkGeog @krgeography #CIG2017 8 GSI_PGN
.@niamhmcherry uses the work of @Sean_ORiain as a starting point for understanding the politics of spatial planning in Dublin #cig2017 7 m_gilmartin
Great discussions around energy geographies at yesterday’s #cig2017 sessions organised by @EntrustH2020 and Energise projects @NPDunphy 7 EntrustH2020
Great welcoming speech from @AoifeD7 on behalf of @SWIGIreland tonight. Panel tomorrow at 11am #CIG2017 7 Louise_SCollins
Kicking off #CIG2017 with @karenetill @Louise_SCollins @WildSlope @GerryKearns202 @AoifeD7 @RachelMcArdle13 and man… https://t.co/5uMwkxNZma 7 SWIGIreland
Next, Mark Boyle completing the @Maynoothgeog trifecta on urban policy mobility at #cig2017 7 m_gilmartin
Our session with @RoryHearne on the housing crisis, neoliberalism and the right to the city is first up tomorrow fo… https://t.co/WijkwgiCnv 7 PhilLawton

What hashtags appeared most

Apart from #cig2017 (which appears in all of the tweets by definition) the following hashtags appeared more than once:

Hashtag Count
#legalgeography 6
#accresearch 4
#energy 4
#community 3
#cork 3
#energytransition 3
#geography 3
#loveirishresearch 3
#ucc 3
#climatechange 2
#energise 2
#energycitizenship 2
#ge2026 2
#practices 2

Who is referenced most?

A similar analysis can also be done for people (or more precisely twitter handles) appearing in tweets. Since these are more abundant than hashtags other than #cig2017 here, only those tagged 15 or more times appear:

Hashtag Count
@geogsocire 120
@maynoothgeog 92
@jennypickerill 27
@swigireland 26
@k_brickell 25
@zedtweetz 23
@karenetill 20
@ucc 17
@geographynuig 16
@gsi_pgn 16
@irishboglife 16

Who is associated with who?

The following is a zoomable network, showing links between people mentioned in the same tweet. Each star is a twiiter account mentioned by an @ tag. An edge between stars represents both accounts being tagged in the same tweet. Clicking on a star reveals the account, and highlights the associated edges. The positioning is determined by a ‘force’ algorithm, using an analogy of a system of pucks joined by springs (each edge is a spring). Sometimes the locations may remain in motion for a few seconds while the positions reach an equilibrium.