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Hi John, I can see social networking techniques replacing (or supplementing) coffee > break meetings and even the old invisible college idea. > Yes, I would see social media is supplementing coffee breaks meetings, conferences and the like. I not only want to be able to read your emails but I want to be able to speak with you face-to-face as well. > However, unless you have specially designed social networking services > focussed on the needs of researchers (and subject specific) the > possibilities seem limited. > You raise an interesting point, namely that there is a possibility that services that arise on the web may not be sufficiently well adapted to the specific needs of academic communities to be of use to them. I don't know how 'designed' those academic services might have to be to be useful, but if there is enough awareness then perhaps their development can be shaped in a better way as they evolve? > Although now quite an old idea I still see a role for virtual journals. > If you mean open access journals, then I would hope that their role increases! Without journals, open access repositories and preservation, what would scholarly social networks have to share and talk about? > We still need to have humans who actually 'understand' rather than > compare keywords in the loop. Only with understanding can you see analogies > and recognise the possible usefulness of discoveries in other fields. > As Scott Wilson says in his reply, 'This is where the SN approach shines'. > I agree entirely about watching what people do with these social > networking (and other information related) tools. I think what we can > predict with certainty is that they will do things the designers never > intended :-) . > Quite, and not knowing how it will shake down makes it interesting to follow. Best regards, David Kane Systems Librarian Waterford Institute of Technology http://library.wit.ie/ T: ++353.51302838 M: ++353.876693212