By Julia C. Turner, Office of Media Relations
In the fast-paced world now primarily lead by online presence and conversation, Clemson University is on the forefront of Social Media research. The university is welcoming a new Social Media Listening Center (SMLC), an interdisciplinary research lab and teaching facility in Daniel Hall, the second SMLC to be brought to Clemson in the past two years.
“Clemson’s first Social Media listening center at Sirrine Hall was very successful and is in high demand,” said Joseph P. Mazer, director of the new Social Media Listening Center, which will be managed by the College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities’ (CAAH). “The new listening center at Daniel Hall will build on that success and will offer even more.”
The new center features a “wall” of six, 55-inch screens that can be used separately for pulling up layers of data, or combining screen information together to make one large projection using Hiperwall, a software that allows images to be expanded and magnified over the full six screens. Although projectors are not found in the room, two additional 42-inch screens can be used in collaboration stations, allowing faculty, staff and students to connect with their computers and conveniently display data from their own desktops. Two more 70-inch screens are also mounted for extra display area, which allows more data to be shown outside of the “wall” and collaboration stations.
The new center has been in the works since August 2012. The second center will benefit facility, staff, students and external companies and partners by providing intensive Social Media data for research, creative inquiry and promotion purposes.
The listening center at Daniel Hall will feature Radian6 software allowing both students and staff to conduct in-depth research on social media conversations. Dr. Mazer admits that the new listening center “effectively doubles our capabilities for Social Media Listening” and will have “more technologically advanced hardware and software.”
The excitement for the SMLC is only expected to expand as the new Erwin Center for the Study of Advertising and Communication, set to be under construction this fall, will be moving in right across the hall.
CAAH will host an open house for Daniel Hall’s Social Media Listening Center from 9 until 10:30 a.m. and again at 2 until 3:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6. Located in Daniel 304, staff, facility and students are encouraged to stop by to see the exciting, new development at Clemson University.
