January 21

Twitter Expert Connect Reflection

Part 3 – Reflect

The Twitter Expert Connect Assignment was designed for us to communicate with experts in a topic of our choosing. Through this assignment we worked on different skills such as building an identity online, politely approaching others, and communication in a sophisticated way where your able to get the information you need. For my Twitter Expert Connect Assignment I chose to research about political science and how politics differs around the world. I asked a variety of professors, authors, and experts in the field of politics questions about global politics. The list which I created included 15 individuals.

Here are their names:

At first it was really hard to find experts in the field of politics that weren’t celebrities. I would search keywords however, they weren’t specific enough. Then I found a very helpful technique. If I found one or two experts that were in my field I would check to see who they were following because I assumed they followed people in the same field. Most of the time that was the case and I was able to find more experts through the ones I already followed.

From the people I followed most are either professors, researchers in global development that have PHDs in political science and or sociology, or authors. I thought that since they were all well knowledge people on politics to the point were most of them taught it, they were the people that could help me the most.

Truth is I really wanted to know more about how politics was different around the world and to answer this questions I asked a variety of questions to different these experts.

Here is a sample question I asked,

Dear @pmheywood I am an international school student currently doing research on politics and global development around the world. In your opinion how is European politics different from African politics?

I tried to be as polite as possible talking a little bit about myself as well as what I was researching. I posed this specific question to @pmheywood because while reading his bio I saw that he was a professor of European Politics and also leader of BA/DFID an anti-corruption program therefore, I felt he was the most fit out of my list of experts to answer this question.

Before asking any question I would look at the individuals bio and try to find something to ask that relates to my main research questions but at the same time that person would be able to answer well based on the type of background they obtained.

Here are more questions I asked:

(Ka, Sally).

 

In the future I feel as if these questions were answered they would really help for a Genius Hour Presentation of politics around the world or global development and crisis. For example, one question I asked was “What would you say makes or breaks a society. Is it more the way the government is ran or it’s people?” A question like that has no right or wrong answer and if asked the same question to a man from Africa his response might be different which opens so many more doors to discussion.

 

(Ka, Sally).

Unfortunately, from all the experts I tweeted to only one of them answered my question. And therefore I received minimal results considering the number of questions I asked. @MartinSEdwards and we discussed how one way a government is ran affects the global economy. He gave an example stating “If you were a diplomat from another country, would you want to initiate talks on a trade agreement with this White House? What confidence would you have of ever negotiating a deal that would stick?” I was lucky enough to be able to continue the conversation with him and he even offered to put me in contact with more professors he knew. I’m thankful that he answered however, I am truly shook that he was the only one that did. Before I followed anyone I would check to see if:

  1. The person wasn’t a celebrity.
  2. They were experts or well knowledge in my field of research
  3.  And lastly, active or recent on twitter

And every single person on my twitter list met those three criterias, so I am a little confused as to why only 1 out of 15 answered.

To conclude, I did enjoy this research through twitter and found it more interactive rather than just looking up answers on websites. The inside and personal response from an expert is more authentic in my opinion. I could use it the same process again of finding experts in an area for future research projects, papers, or if ever I would like to know more about a certain topic.

Words Cited

Ka, Sally. Twitter Image. Jan 21 2017. png.

Ka, Sally. Twitter Image. Jan 21 2017. png.