I’m barely back from my trip to Austria for CeDEM and my Twitter research methods seminar at the University of Vienna, as well as my public talk for Quintessenz and the Internet Research Group at the University – but today I also presented a brief talk on using social media in corporate communication at the Cooperative Research Centres Association conference here in Brisbane. CRCs are one key form of government-supported research centre in Australia – and the CRCA is the peak body coordinating and representing their activities.

I'm very happy to report that the second part of my Social Media report for the Smart Services CRC has now been released, again under a Creative Commons licence. Volume 1 is still available here, and provides a general overview of the state of the art in social media; in doing so, it also points to a number of key social media sites which represent important developments in the field.

Volume 2 is divided into two parts: Part 1 offers background information that is crucial to the development of an understanding of how communities work and what motivates their participants to contribute, while Part 2 converts that understanding into a series of strategic recommendations for profit and non-profit organisations aiming to develop a presence within the social media environment. There is probably nothing here that will surprise long-time followers of social media developments - instead, the report aims at those individuals and organisations who feel the need to develop social media strategies, but have yet to establish a full understanding of what makes online communities tick, and of how to engage with them.

It's nice to see that we're getting some good press on the recent Social Media: State of the Art report for the Smart Services CRC - QUT has put out a press release for it now, and it's also been featured on Australian Policy Online. Mark Bahnisch and I are currently working on Volume Two of the report, which should be delivered to the CRC in a couple of weeks and will hopefully be released publicly not too long after that.

I'm very happy to say that our first report for the Social Media project at the Smart Services CRC has now been published. Written with my research assistant Mark Bahnisch (an expert in the field in his own right), this report provides an overview of the state of the art in social media,and focusses especially on the dynamics of user community participation in social media sites; as part of this, we're also looking at a number of leading social media sites (and one or two 'interesting failures'), particularly in three key areas: news and views, products and places, and networking and dating.

Looks like my email footer is about to grow by a couple of lines: late last week I accepted an offer to take on the role as project leader for the Social Media project in the Smart Services CRC, following the swift footsteps of Darren Sharp, who's moving on into an industry position. I've already been involved as a researcher in a number of projects within the CRC - and our first few outputs from this work should become available on the CRC Website in the not-too-distant future -, but in this new role I'll have a great deal more responsibility for seeing our current Social Media projects through to completion, and supporting the development of the next round of projects.

Just a quick announcement (more blogging to come soon, promise!) - one of the research teams at the Smart Services CRC that I'm participating in is currently running a survey about Australians' use of online news. Please participate, and pass on the link: http://tinyurl.com/digitalnews. One lucky respondent will win an iPod!

There's more to come from the CRC soon, incidentally - the first few major reports from the Audience and Market Foresight and Social Media research streams will be released shortly...

I've previously posted the call for expressions of interest in PhD scholarships in the new Smart Services CRC, working on topics related to social media and audience and market foresight. In addition to these PhD positions, I'm now also looking for a part-time Research Assistant for my own project within the CRC, which deals quite directly with the further exploration of user-led content creation (or what I've called produsage) and its possible application in commercial contexts by the CRC's industry partners. Below is the blurb for my project, to give you an idea of what I'll be embarking on:

Report on Social Drivers behind Growing Consumer Participation in User-Led Content Generation

Exploration of social drivers behind the growing consumer participation in user-generated content, encompassing the structural, operational, and social configurations of leading social media environments. In particular, it will examine the individual and social motivations for user participation, and identify the content and service needs of participants in these environments. The report will highlight opportunities for generating and cultivating social networks of active users around commercial sites and products, and outline appropriate practices in managing and moderating such networks; for enhancing commercial content and advertising effectiveness by harnessing user participation and contribution; and for enhancing user experience through the provision of targeted commercial content and services to the user community. It will present structural and social guidelines for successfully and sustainably interweaving commercial and user-produced content and services.