Building Online Communities: Digital Tattoo at the IM Conference 2019

This year has been a very special one for the Digital Tattoo team. On the week of April 15, I flew to Toronto from Vancouver to participate on our very first Digital Tattoo Talks. The event was part of the Information and Museum Studies Conference hosted at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information.

This was also the first time the entire Digital Tattoo student team met in person. Since we are a cross-institutional initiative between UBC and U of T, we only get to connect with each other online.

Participating in the two-day conference itself was a wonderful experience of learning, collaboration and community. It was even more rewarding for having the opportunity of closing it with a panel promoted by Digital Tattoo. After months of preparation, our talk gathered six speakers to present initiatives happening in Toronto and globally, and discuss how those projects relate to community-building.

Digital Tattoo Talks

We had the pleasure to have Ryan Merkley, CEO at Creative Commons, as our keynote speaker. Merkley talked about the role of Creative Commons on promoting more access to knowledge. He is an avid advocate for open access and for more collaboration in scholarship. For him, collective action should drive our communities moving forward.

You can find more highlights of his talk on this Twitter thread:

Starting now! Our keynote presentation with @ryanmerkley of @creativecommons. Follow this thread for insights from his presentation.

— Digital Tattoo (@DTatUBC) 16 de abril de 2019

In the second part of our event, we hosted four lightning talks followed by a Q&A with speakers. To start, Tasneem Mewa and Rayna Sutherland, co-editors-in-chief of the Open Praxis Forum, talked about their work to create a more inclusive space for early career researchers and activists.

Following, Alex Jung, the first Wikipedian-in-Residence at the University of Toronto Libraries, made the case that Wikipedia encourages collaboration and enriches knowledge-building.

Then, Josh Dyer, director of marketing at Myseum of Toronto, presented the innovative idea behind the institution: a museum that was born without walls. They promote both online and offline experiences, but not without listening to what their community wants.

Our final speaker was Carol Yeung, a former Sidewalk Toronto fellow, who spent last summer meeting with smart city stakeholders to inform the project. Yeung discussed the benefits of data collection to enhance people’s lives, but highlighted the importance of creating mechanisms to respect citizen’s privacy and will.

Check out this Twitter thread for more on the four lightning talks:

Now for our Lightning Talks Panel! #BuildingOnlineCommunity

— Digital Tattoo (@DTatUBC) 16 de abril de 2019

Organizing this event and participating on the conference was a truly amazing experience that changed the way I think about collaboration and community. It was outstanding for me – and I’m sure for other participants – to hear from people with such diverse backgrounds and experiences reflecting on ways to improve their communities. I was inspired by what I learned there and I’m looking for ways to incorporate it on my next experiences. 

---

_{Speakers during their presentations at the Digital Tattoo Talks. Photos by Defne Inceoglu/Digital Tattoo.}

---

And here are some of the impressions from the other Digital Tattoo student coordinators about the IM Conference in general and the Digital Tattoo Talks:

Defne Inceoglu

The IM Student Conference 2019 was a fantastic experience. It was a great experience, having the chance to work in person together to facilitate our keynote and lightning talks. Each of us brought our own strengths to the team which ended up creating a well-rounded event. The panel brought to light some really fascinating and at times polarizing projects happening within our community here at the University of Toronto and across the city. I am grateful for having the opportunity to have worked with the with the conference organizers, Inforum staff and with the Faculty of Information. I am also filled with pride for my team members, who all are so hard working, dedicated, intelligent and kind. 

Elyse Hill

The Digital Tattoo Talks allowed for us to gather a broad community of students and professionals in the information field to collaborate and learn. Through this experience, we were able to connect individuals and engage in discussions surrounding open access, digital identity, and online communities. I’m incredibly proud of all of the hard work our team put in to make this a successful and meaningful experience for attendees, presenters, and organizers alike!

Jason Cheung

The IM Student Conference 2019 was a great opportunity for me to learn and develop as a professional in the information field. One of the most useful insights I learned at the conference included the introduction to the concept of “Core Competencies” by Ciara O’Kelly and Jordan Pederson. That really helped to clear up how I should approach job applications in the information field by speaking in familiar language that speaks to the skills that an organization is looking for. Of course, facilitating the Digital Tattoo Talks was an amazing opportunity to end my time at the Faculty of Information with a high note. Gathering speakers that were passionate about protecting and advocating for digital identity within the contexts of online communities helped to show me that events such as these can provide a worthwhile opportunity to share ideas with individuals that may be just as passionate about an idea. In the future, I plan on seeking out more conferences such as the IM Student Conference 2019 in which I can prepare and bring along ideas I am passionate about.

Samantha Summers

This conference provided such a unique and wonderful opportunity for me to collaborate with the Digital Tattoo team this year. It is so rewarding to work with a team with such diverse skills to produce such an exciting and dynamic event, and I cannot wait to see what this team accomplishes going forward. My thanks go to the whole Digital Tattoo team for their endless support and energy throughout the year.

To wrap up such a fantastic conference, we encouraged participants to contribute to an ongoing knowledge sharing activity that is open to everyone. The idea behind it is to keep the conversation going and promote a collaborative experience.

You can contribute as well! Just access this interactive Padlet and share your thoughts on the question: What does sense-making, communication, and collaboration mean for your community? If you prefer, use the comment box below. 

For additional resources, you can access: https://wiki.ubc.ca/Sandbox:Digital_Tattoo_Talks.

Let’s keep building a strong online community together!