SMART is a research group of iNOVA Media Lab specialised in Social Media Research Techniques that aims to conduct exploratory studies advanced by digital methods. The central idea of SMART lies in social media methods with the intention to build new data-driven research techniques to Social Sciences and Humanities, and, in parallel, to engage with (and learn from) device culture.

» Everything starts with…

The idea of this group first appear 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 projects 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 an informal meeting. It did not take too long to put two and two together. On 6 October 2016, SMART 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 years, the SMART team has received master and PhD students from different fields and backgrounds, people who either have contributed to the organisation of #SMARTDataSprint or taken part of the SMART theoretical-practical meetings. See on the Team tab the list of former SMARTERs and the current team.