Berlin 6 Open Access Conference: Lambert Heller

Lambert Heller
TIB/UB Hannover
On the challenging gap
between community feedback
and academic recognition
Berlin 6 Open Access Conference
Düsseldorf, 11-13 November 2008

Lambert Heller, On the challenging gap between community feedback...
Berlin 6 Open Access Conference, Düsseldorf, 11-13 November 2008

Blog aggregators as a communication pattern

> It is a revealing new communication pattern to
present regularly updated informations from personal
weblogs using blog aggregators.
> Feed aggregators...
...are web applications to collect entries from blogs
(or other feed sources) on a common topic.
...have a searchable archive and are public (unlike
personal aggregators, e.g. Google Reader).
...are in general driven by a common interest on the
conversations in and between the blogs of the
members of some community of practice / of interest.


A look at a software developer community

> Aggregator „Planet Debian“
> Started in 2004, pioneering the use of public
blog aggregators.
> At that time, it collected the entries from the
personal blogs of 40 developers of the
Debian Linux Distribution.
> Today more than 300 aggregated blogs,
several spinoff planets etc …
> Function as a community „showcase“.
> Not suprising: Some computer nerds as early
adopters of a new pattern.
Screenshot taken from
planet.debian.net

Spreading of the „blog aggregator“ pattern

> Well known examples of science blog aggregators

Screenshots taken from
researchblogging.org and
blogs.nature.com



> Perhaps even more important:
Small adoptions, like institutional „planets“…

Screenshot taken from
planetyork.yorku.ca



> …communities of interest, often loosely coupled…

Screenshots taken from
oerblogs.org and
en.planet.wikimedia.org



> …experiments with „social streaming“, and…

Screenshot
taken from
friendfeed.com,
room „Science
2.0“



> … ad hoc feed collections with free commercial tools.

bloglines.com
user account of
Blackpool, Fylde
& Wyre Health
Library


So what?

> What can we observe within these communities?
> In particular, what are the incentives to blog as a
researcher/scientist?
> What are the new patterns emerging from that?


Ambient findability as an obvious basis

> A sense of „ambient findability“ of the information:
When I‘m blogging out loud, every information will
(immediately, and later on) find its reader.
> Mostly impact of powerful web search engines (cf.
Peter Morville), but additional layers of community
building (cf. blog aggregators) go beyond this.
> One interesting implication thereof (as this conference
is all about Open Access): Importance of Open Access
is obvious. Although most bloggers catch on „openess“
as a more technical term, explicit licensing of blog
content under creative commons licenses is
spreading.


Instant community feedback

> Not only does the blogged content „find its readers“:
It also pulls its critics.
> By allowing your readers to comment on your blog,
you expose yourself to peer review in public. And
you simply can't defeat not being linked by others.
> Nothing gets sorted out before publishing, but
everything is „included and postponed“ (David
Weinberger, Everything is Miscalleneous, p 113) to
be reviewed and to be corrected later.


Appeal of easiness

> Blogging has the appeal of definitive easiness,
compared to any other way of publishing:
No need to „sort out unneeded information“ (cf. the
Wikipedians‘ inclusionist/exclusionist debate), to
negotiate with publishers, waiting to appear in print etc.
> Even original research data may someday be blogged
(not only blogged about). The tools are already there.


Continuos development „in the open”

> Resulting from the beforementioned adherence to
openess, instant community feedback and easiness:
Incremental, continuos developing of thoughts „in the
open“ as an individually chosen strategy.
> „Communities of blogging practices“ (Jan Schmidt)
encourage a new communication behaviour on top of
the new web infrastructure.
> Tensions and problems with this kind of revolution are
inevitable.


Gap between practice and acknowledgement

> Blogging is an emerging pattern in science
communication that won't replace traditional media
anytime soon, but definitely will complement them.
> “...we are witnessing a radical shift in how we establish
authority, significance, and even scholarly validity.”
(Michael Jensen, New Metrics of Scholarly Authority)
> Young generation of science bloggers begin to shift
their practice – but hard to gain academic recognition.
> Publishers, funding agencies, libraries and
appointments committees should acknowledge the
phenomenon and adapt their tools and strategies.


Thank you!

> References & recommended reading:
http://www.bibsonomy.org/user/sciencebloglibrarian
> Questions, counterpoints?
> Discuss with me anytime later:
> http://wikify.org/ | lh@wikify.org | Skype: wikify


Berlin 6 Open Access Conference: Lambert Heller

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