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.
Wikipedia Policy
Transparency matters if you plan to edit and entry that describes you, your company or something in which you have a vested interest. So make it apparent what your interest is and why the edit matters. Remembering that what matters to you, might not matter to others.
Ross comments on editing entries in your own Wikipedia and outlines their policy. Tim Bray has more.
Secret Sommelier
Cool new wine site, Secret Sommelier, pitches itself as "the blog site for wine lovers" – and lives up to that promise. Plenty of RSS Feeds, podcasts and other great stuff.
And, Goosecross, a Napa-based wine maker, is podcasting.
Brand Blogs…
NYT covers the emergence of brand blogs. Communicating to, evangelizing and even spurring the development of brand blogs should be a key activity for any communicator and marketer. Ken Ross of NetFlix is quoted:
"In addition to viewing blogs as another media channel, it allows us to keep our pulse on the marketplace," said Ken Ross, a vice president of Netflix, the movie rental company based in Los Gatos, Calif. One of the best-known blogs about Netflix, hackingnetflix.com, was started last November by Mike Kaltschnee, who lives in Danbury, Conn.
"I post anything I find interesting, and it turns out 100,000 people a month find it interesting, too," said Mr. Kaltschnee. He also started a blog about Trader Joe’s, the specialty grocery chain based in Monrovia, Calif., at trackingtraderjoes.com/.
When it comes to Netflix service, postings about scratched discs or torn return envelopes generate dozens of comments from readers. "It’s sort of like the unadulterated truth about Netflix," Mr. Kaltschnee said. "We hope that Netflix reads these things and notices trends and fixes them.
All the more reason for branding, marketing and communications to be joined at the hip. More than anything, this points to the emergence of complete brand transparency. Here bloggers are diving deeping into the brand and product than any analyst or journalist could on an ongoing basis. It gets at a deeper trend of brands being evangelized and laid bare.
Street Art
Thanks to James for beaming this link over. Cool stuff…
