Thanks Kris and others (esp. Hilary) for getting this discussion going.
I've just got a short set of comments to make as a regular reader of the
GlobalHigherEd Blog (GHE), edited by Kris Olds and Susan Robertson.
I've found GHE to be an excellent source of timely information about issues
of specific interest to my own research on knowledge production, as well as
a great source of contextual information for understanding the changing
conditions of my own labours in higher education. As Kris points out, I
think the success of GHE rests on the very hard work that Kris and Susan,
along with a range of other contributors, put into the blog. I seem to get
a posting from GHE at least once per week, and that really gives me a sense
that this blog is worthwhile. Not everything that gets posted interests me,
but there is usually something of interest at least once per month.
I also get a real sense of network building in the blog. My sense is that
many new contributors are coming forward with contributions to GHE because
of the things that they read on the blog... Thus the blog builds all sorts
of new connections that likely wouldn't come into existence otherwise.
Accordingly, I think a blog, if run well, can be a very useful forum for
academics to participate in. To see an interesting blog, and get ideas
about how to produce a very productive one yourself, I highly recommend
checking out GHE: http://globalhighered.wordpress.com/
Cheers,
Lawrence
On 12/06/08 9:27 AM, "Kristopher Olds" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 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
--
Lawrence D. Berg, D.Phil.
Canada Research Chair
Co-Director, The Centre for Social, Spatial & Economic Justice
http://www.chrdi.org/CSSEJ/cssejsite/Welcome.html
Community, Culture and Global Studies
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