Hosted by the Information School at the University of Sheffield and the iSchool at Northumbria University, the 2018 iConference takes place in Sheffield this week from 25th to 28th March. Follow the conference remotely on Twitter using the hashtag #iconf18.

Lyndsey Middleton (née Jenkins)

Today Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Lyndsey Middleton (née Jenkins) is participating in the iConference doctoral colloquium.

This event is co-chaired by Kevin Crowston of Syracuse University and Elizabeth Shepherd of University College London. Seven mentors are also taking part: J. Stephen Downie, University of Illinois; Kristin Eschenfelder, University of Wisconsin; Charles Inskip, University College London; Anita Komlodi, University of Maryland; Jens-Erik Mai, University of Copenhagen; Joseph T Tennis, University of Washington; Mike Thelwall, University of Wolverhampton.

Lyndsey‘s invitation to join the colloquium was made on the basis of four reviews (including a meta-review) of a written submission that included: (1) a summary of her thesis; (2) her CV; (3) an explanation of her motivations for attending the conference; and (4) a statement on her meeting the requirements of attendance.

Lyndsey is one of fourteen PhD candidates whose submissions were judged to best meet the criteria for acceptance:

• Her ESRC-funded doctoral research on employee-led workplace learning and innovative work behaviour explores significant and meaningful interaction of people, information, and technology.
• Her submission included a research plan was clearly articulated, with clear motivation, careful framing, and a detailed course of action.
• The issues and challenges in the research were appropriately identified in her submission.
• Lyndsey is at the stage in her career where participation in the colloquium will have the greatest impact.

The organisers of the colloquium sought to build a portfolio of projects to reflect the greatest diversity possible among topics, methods, and institutions in the iSchool community. This is evident in the participant details on the iConference web site, both in terms of (1) the themes of research undertaken, and (2) the geographic spread of participants: from Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, North America, and South America, and studying in institutions in Canada, Germany, Israel, the UK, and the US.

Lyndsey blogs about her research (under her maiden name) at https://lyndseyjenkins.org. Here she recently posted about her expectations of this week’s iConference. Lyndsey will also be tweeting about the event from @MiddletonLy using the hashtag #iconf18.

If you are at the conference in person, do please say hello to Lyndsey to find out more about her doctoral research, and the wider work of the Centre for Social Informatics at Edinburgh Napier University. Lyndsey will also be able to tell you about iDocQ8, which takes place at Edinburgh Napier University on Thursday May 3rd 2018, with free registration for PhD students.