About

SMART is a group of researchers associated with the iNOVA Media Lab developing Social Media Research Techniques and tools for media and software studies. The group and the #SMARTDataSprint were created in October 2016 by Janna Joceli Omena, who has directed this initiative since then. Associated with the Digital Methodologies Hub, the data sprint provides an environment for an international network community (to learn how) to conduct exploratory and empirical research advanced by digital methods. We sprint with: media methods; web environments, practices and vernaculars; (research) software and web-based tools – while engaging with (learning from and repurposing) the technicity of the mediums. As established research practice, we understand data sprints as (1) a means of teaching and learning digital methods research,  (2) a space for methods and tools creation but also (3) a reflective tool to understand the triad of data-, software- and platform-oriented research (from the standpoint of practice) yet a way of (4) producing scientific knowledge.

Designed by Beatrice Gobbo. Image source by Omena, Cano-Orón, Gobbo & Flores (2022), https://revistadigitos.com/index.php/digitos/article/view/253 

» Everything starts with…

The idea of the SMART group and data sprint first appeared in early 2016 in the shape of a one-year research project and during the Data Laboratory sessions of the Digital Media UT Austin – Portugal doctoral program at NOVA FCSH – Universidade Nova de Lisboa. The research project was conceptualised by Janna Joceli Omena and entitled “SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS IN PRACTICAL RESEARCH: Designing Data-Driven Techniques with Digital Methods”. Professor António Granado was heading the sessions and mentoring the project proposals. He came up with the suggestion of using the tool acronym creator because “projects have an acronym”, he said. Relying on the project title, different keywords combination were applied, and among all ordinary, weird, comic or odd options, the chosen one was SMART – short for social media research techniques. “It sounds good!”, that is what they said to each other. After that, and, meanwhile, the project was taking form, professor Paulo Nuno Vicente (the then newly appointed coordinator of iNOVA Media Lab) invited Janna Joceli Omena for a meeting. He asked her to join the newly created iNOVA Media Lab. It did not take too long to put two and two together. On 6 October 2016, the SMART group was officially presented at iNOVA Media Lab. Under the leadership of Omena, the group implemented the SMART Data Sprint in January 2017, the first of many to come.

Over the last six years, a long list of participants, collaborators and remarkable keynotes have joined the SMART Data Sprint; also, innovative projects were developed here, inspiring new initiatives, grant-awarded projects, papers and master courses.

2023 Cross Vision-API Studies

2022 Discussing Methods Making 

2021 The current state of platformization 

2020 Digital Methods: Theory-practice-Critique 

2019 Beyond Visible Engagement 

2018 Interpreters of Platform Data 

2017 What is the data journalism debate on social media? 

The SMART team has received post-doc researchers, master’s and PhD students from different fields and backgrounds, and people who either contributed to the organisation of #SMARTDataSprint or participated in the SMART theoretical-practical meetings. Below are the current team and former SMARTERs:

Janna Joceli Omena (founder and coordinator)

Ana Marta M. Flores