Hi there.
This is an issue worth debating about, whether or not one assumes blogs
are naive and fashionable (blogging fashionable? maybe for geeks!) or an
open access and relatively more inclusive (and perhaps effective)
vehicle to reach broader audiences.
On 12 October 2007 I sent the note pasted in at the bottom of this
message to two Econ Geog lists and barely received a reply. In contrast
to hopping on the bandwagon, it is my biased view that capital G
Geographers are remarkably slow (relative to other disciplines) to
contribute to debates via blogs. Cartography/GIS people seem the most
active.
I have a couple of new comments to add on the basis of an additional
eight months of developing GlobalHigherEd
http://globalhighered.wordpress.com/, a research-based blog that is
associated with a group of contributors, some regular, and some unique
(ie guest contributors).
(1) Blog is a misnomer in some ways as many so-called "blogs" are not
opinion/rant sites - we use our blog, for example, as a vehicle to
develop 650-2000 word entries that act as archives for relevant (for us)
debates, links, summaries of arguments, profiles of developments,
interesting graphics, and stage 1 of an eventual article.
(2) The open access dimension means, if a blog gets on a roll, that you
can reach a relatively large audience. Draft conference papers can be
read by hundreds to thousands of people, many of whom would not even
know what the RGS-IBG or AAG acronyms stand for, let alone that they
sponsor conferences. Our blog (on a specific topic) now gets about
10,000 visits per month (obviously some are repeat visits over the
month) after being established in September 2007. In some disciplines
academic blogs can generate tens to hundreds of thousands of visits per
month. Of course the nature of the audience matters more than the total
number of visits, but....and recall that the average journal article
gets cited by 1-2 people in its lifetime.
(3) Blogs have the potential to generate all sorts of connections to
future collaborators, sources of data (i.e. people and institutions
often reach out and make contact versus the opposite), attention to the
output of research projects, debates going on in other disciplines
(e.g., it is easier to reach across disciplines with open access outlets
versus via disciplinary-specific journals), and so on. This form of
engagement is not captured in the "comments" section but it is much more
important from a researcher's perspective.
(4) Depending on the topic of interest, the platform (which includes
hyperlinks and the ability to include images) can help convey a sense of
the process, or the connections, or the politics, that traditional
articles and chapters on paper cannot. On-screen summaries of the
relationship between, for example, a firm, an institution, a
governmental unit, key individuals, and key documents can all be woven
together via texts, images, downloadable PDFs, and hyperlinks. This is
impossible to achieve in most publishing outlets (there are exceptions,
including ACME http://www.acme-journal.org/ and Geography Compass
http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/geography/).
(5) Blogs need a lot of care and attention, and most die due to lack of
attention. Material needs to be loaded up at a realistic (for the key
contributors) and relatively steady rate. If readers cannot detect a
pattern the blog will not generate an audience (assuming you want one).
(6) It is worth seriously deliberating about audience, format, and
volume of output. In my personal view they are best framed as open
access outlets for (a) updates on research projects, writings and
specific topics like the one Hilary Geoghegan seems to have started
(also see Greg Downey's blog (Uncovering Information Labor
http://uncoveringinformationlabor.blogspot.com/) , (b) collective
initiatives on sub-disciplinary or research topics such as Savage Minds:
Notes and Queries in Anthropology http://savageminds.org/, SSRC's
Knowledge Rules http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/knowledgerules/, or
GlobalHigherEd , or (c) course-specific material so that your students
can dig into topics, access complementary information and analyses, and
so on.
Apologies for going on for this long...I've been grappling with the pros
and cons of blog some of my sabbatical year so best to share a few
thoughts and reflections. And thanks to Hilary for getting the
discussion going!
Best,
Kris
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
12 October 2007
Kristopher Olds wrote:
> Greetings economic geographers,
>
> If any of you have been experimenting with blogs in economic
> geography, for research or teaching purposes, please contact me. I've
> been working with some academics (in geog, sociology, education), and
> several administrative and policy world colleagues, in an effort to
> use the platform of a blog to shed light on various dimensions of the
> rapid construction of a new "global industry"; one that you are all
> familiar with no doubt. The blog can be located here:
>
> http://globalhighered.wordpress.com/
>
> It was established on 1 September so these are early days. Critical
> feedback welcome as we're still working out a lot of bugs in the
> system, trying to get the tone right, figuring out far to go with
> hyperlinks (which help identify some aspects of the networks that
> matter), and how to best reach our target audiences (which have tended
> to communicate via site visits and plenty of private emails, so far,
> versus going "on-the-record").
> Thanks...
>
> Kris Olds
>
> PS: Is it a good or bad sign that economic geographers seem to be
> developing so few blogs? Or am I wrong in stating this? Faculty in
> business and economics are very active in the development of blogs
> (see http://www.gongol.com/lists/bizeconsites/ or
> http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/the-top-100-economics-blogs/), as
> are law professors (http://www.lawprofessorblogs.com/). Everyone
> knows that blogging is *not* a replacement for articles, chapters and
> books, but I do wonder about the implications of economic geographers
> making limited contributions, on-line, to the freely accessible
> "carnival of ideas" http://chronicle.com/free/v52/i07/07b01401.htm,
> where complementary conversations happen, and we reach new (and
> sometimes unexpected) audiences.
> *
> *
<><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Kris Olds
Professor
Department of Geography
University of Wisconsin-Madison
550 N. Park Street, Science Hall
Madison, WI 53706
USA
Web: http://www.geography.wisc.edu/faculty/olds/index.htm
GlobalHigherEd blog: http://globalhighered.wordpress.com/
EG Co-editor, Geography Compass:
http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/geography/
Managing Editor, New Perspectives in SE Asian Studies:
http://www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/cseas.htm
Address until July 2008:
Visiting Professor
Centre des Amériques de Sciences Po
13 rue de l'Université
75007 PARIS France
Email: [log in to unmask]
Skype: oldskris
Mobile tel (in France): 06.14.57.18.57
Mobile tel (from other countries): 33.6.14.57.18.57
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