Summary: | At the end of March 2012 the annual international Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology (CAA) conference took place at the University of Southampton. As part of the conference, a team from the University carried out research to test the extent to which social media could be used to support the event. The Social Media in Live Events (SMiLE) project consisted of a team of volunteers, delegates, conference organisers and external interested parties who carried out a series of activities that aimed to encourage, support and analyse the use of social media at the CAA2012.
Shortly after the conference, Nicole Beale, a PhD student and SMiLE project organiser, and Jessica Ogden, a commercial archaeologist and conference delegate, embarked on a series of email conversations in which they discussed some of the key points that were raised during the conference and inspired by SMiLE. This review is an edited version of those conversations. All of the opinions expressed in these emails are those of the two individuals and are not meant to be representative of the CAA committee or the CAA2012 organisers or delegates. It is hoped that these notes provide a personal insight into the ways that social media were received at the CAA2012 and an exploration of the potential impact that these tools and platforms could have for the CAA community more generally.
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