the Internet makes us superficial
Definitely plan to write more on this… Nick points to A recent edition of Science featured a worrying paper by University of Chicago sociologist James A. Evans titled Electronic Publication and the Narrowing of Science and Scholarship.
Seeking to learn more about how research is conducted online, Evans scoured a database of 34 million articles from science journals. He discovered a paradox: as journals begin publishing online, making it easier for researchers to find and search their contents, research tends to become more superficial.
Evans summarizes his findings in a new post on the Britannica Blog:
[My study] showed that as more journals and articles came online, the actual number of them cited in research decreased, and those that were cited tended to be of more recent vintage. This proved true for virtually all fields of science … Moreover, the easy online availability of sources has channeled researcher attention from the periphery to the core—to the most high-status journals. In short, searching online is more efficient, and hyperlinks quickly put researchers in touch with prevailing opinion, but they may also accelerate consensus and narrow the range of findings and ideas grappled with by scholars.
If part of the Carr thesis [in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”] is that we are lazier online, and if efficiency is laziness (more results for less energy expended), then in professional science and scholarship, researchers yearn to be lazy…they want to produce more for less.
Ironically, my research suggests that one of the chief values of print library research is its poor indexing. Poor indexing—indexing by titles and authors, primarily within journals—likely had the unintended consequence of actually helping the integration of science and scholarship. By drawing researchers into a wider array of articles, print browsing and perusal may have facilitated broader comparisons and scholarship.
Digital Nomads & Data Cards…
More and more folks are using mobile data cards according to Nielson… another sign of the growth of the Connected Era:
…Nielsen’s research reveals that the cards are beginning to play an important role in home and personal Internet access, as well. In fact, 43 percent of mobile data card users report they most often use their data card at home, while 15 percent say they typically use the card at work. Additionally, one in five (21 percent) data card subscribers take advantage of ubiquitous access by heading outdoors and 9 percent use their card while commuting.
GigaOm points to one of the reasons:
An easy explanation would be better price packages and higher speed tiers, thanks to newer 3G technologies. Of the nearly 1,300 mobile data card users Nielsen surveyed, more than 99 percent still kept their wired broadband service: 40 percent of card users also have cable broadband and 34 percent also have DSL in their home. That number can jump to 59 percent, giving wired carriers something to think about…
Me On Social Media
Would have missed but for my Google feeds… and here… Me chatting about social and digital media…
on ambition
Tom Peters has some interesting ideas and exercises aimed at harnessing ambition. Here’s an example:
Performance
The output. The measurement of the progress towards the ambition, where talented people take pride in executing their personal accountability and continually add value through discipline, hard work and continuous learning.Goals, targets and rewards focus talent on the performance parameters that will deliver.
To get going…
With a few like-minded people create a list of all the performance measurements you use. Analyse what type of behaviour the measurements reward. Ask yourselves if the rewarded behaviour really helps to achieve your ambition. If it does; do more of it. If it doesn’t; challenge your assumptions of having it as a measurement. Start a discussion on how you could measure the real value added of your business/department.
On International Media
One of my fave reads is Richard’s blog… always plenty of good thoughts… here are some on the evolution of international media:
- The New York Times web site is attracting 37 million monthly unique visitors from outside of the US, almost twice as many as the 21 million from the US. The non-US circulation for Time’s print products is about ¼ of the total of 4 million.
- The content of Time outside of the US is more skewed to business. Fifty percent of the content for each edition is generated from the US, the balance from regional bureaus. According to Elliott, “the reader is interested in issues outside of the region. He or she is a globally minded person.”
- The Time International reader is making at least 100,000 Euros, is a frequent flyer, and speaks a second language fluently.
- Time has folded its Time Asia and Time Europe web sites into a single global Time.com web site as of 18 months ago.
- Both companies are exploring the expansion of the brand to encompass special dinners and conferences. Time has worked with Shell (disclosure: Edelman client) on a global series of salon dinners on the future of energy, including a recent event for 100 opinion leaders in Singapore.
- Time has kept separate the on-line and mainstream units. The NY Times has effectively merged the operations.
- The need for speed in posting content has led to a fundamental re-ordering of the editor’s job. Bowley told me about one of his reporters was in Berlin covering Senator Obama, moving from event to event. The reporter received a copy of the speech in advance and had written some parts of the story. The reporter called Bowley from the scene and gave his impressions. Bowley then wrote several paragraphs to provide context to the article, which was then posted to the web site. The reporter later edits the piece from the field with observations from third parties or participants.
