David,
I'm keen to hear more about your take on blogs as research/engagement
tools, perhaps in comparison to this very discussion list. Can the list
be critiqued in exactly the same way? Where might geographers draw
boundaries around the utility/value of web-based media?
Part of the reason I said this topic is worth wider response is because
I haven't seen much discussion of whether self-selection,
contextualisation, possibility of engagement, research value and so on
are as limited as supposed. Some anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise,
such as the runaway popularity of certain academically-created YouTube
postings, and the apparantly broad sample of people responding to blogs
on a variety of topics.
Web media may be self-selecting etc to a considerable extent, but
perhaps it's less self-selecting that other means of academic discourse.
I'm wondering if there's anything more than my own cursory observation
on this and related topics to back that up, and think Hilary's post and
the responses to it are interesting steps in that direction.
David
David Crouch wrote:
> Hilary and others
>
> I appreciate what you say of course. Not being patronising, the intention is
> very relevant in current CG debates [and others].
>
> But it`s surely a myth that the blogging practice is an interface on
> real-people-who-deserve-our-attention etc.
>
> It is surely acknowedged to be far too faulty- self selective,
> non-contextualised, etc, etc, etc,
>
> I`d go for more gritty engagement.
> Best
> David
>
>>>> Hilary Geoghegan <[log in to unmask]> 06/11/08 11:57 PM >>>
> My reasons for creating a blog were diverse. Ultimately it came down to
> the practicality of setting-up, organising and maintaining/updating the
> information I wanted online. Wordpress.com and other online companies offer
> a virtual space readily accessible to those of us creating a site online
> (see also http://nigelthrift.org/ and those cited in the previous post).
> However, as someone that uses the Internet regularly to access journals and
> other online resources, as well as to visit other blogs/sites (see for
> example http://techstyle.typepad.com/ and http://fretmarks.blogspot.com/),
> the benefits are clearly there. I am sure I am not alone in including on a
> research proposal to a funding council that “I will also create an
> associated project website”; this is MY associated website that is
> available to all to publicise my research not only to geographers but also
> more importantly to my research participants. Okay, perhaps BLOG is the
> wrong word to use in this instance, it is more like a regularly updated web
> resource – a virtual space that I hope will encourage fellow geographers to
> check in now and again to see what is new.
>
> David Crouch’s earlier comment – ‘why on earth a blog’– raises further
> useful questions in relation to the public geographies often discussed here
> on the crit-geog-forum (also a regularly updated web resource).
> Many ‘Critters’ are keen to make their work relevant to audiences beyond
> academic geography – through collaboration with private and public
> organisations, as well as through feeding their research back into policy
> and the communities they research. The Internet offers perhaps the most
> readily accessible tool for just such a purpose. I freely acknowledge that
> the shelf-life of such ventures is varied and can be short-lived, but
> surely such sites are a step in the right direction.
>
> I therefore encourage Critters to visit my site
> (http://hilarygeoghegan.wordpress.com), and others like it, in order to
> foster an online culture of communicating, disseminating and feeding back –
> helping geography to become MORE public and not just a good intention on a
> research proposal.
>
> Yours enthusiastically,
> Hilary
>
>
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