This blog is now over one year old. Recently I haven't been posting much that's true. It really is more effort than I anticipated to get people talking about research. Over the year ther has been about 2500 visits to the sites and given that I have visited a few hundred times I can say maybe 2200 people have been. that's 42 a week on average.
The question is, is it worth carrying on? Not many people have contributed over the year except Anna from the UK. Her posts have been interesting. Even my own Phd students do not contribute. I have also noticed that with the lack of interaction and comments it doesn't encourage me to put effort into my writing. It is like writing for the sake of it and it becomes a chore.
So I will read the comments and find out if anyone thinks it has any value? I guess no comment means no value.
Has it any value?
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Well, Craig, you know how I feel about a blog for researchers – as you, yourself, say: I am the one who keeps on commenting. I suppose that the Dubai maxim (i.e., ‘build it and they will come’) does not hold in the digital world. Whatever you decide, do keep in touch, please.
ReplyDeleteOnly a small percentage of academics are really keen on research. Even in research intensive universities many do research because they have to and then it comes down to a few that have any passion. Out of over 2000 visits there can't be more than say 20 or 30 comments (maybe half of those from you). That is one percent. As for students and junior researchers maybe our approach is wrong. I notice in my own university that they are putting on more and more courses and seminars for research students and early career researchers. Although the content is useful it can create a "feed me" culture rather than one where a researcher makes an effort to find the answer.
ReplyDeleteI think 2500 visits in a year is pretty good but the lack of interaction isn't good. I wish I had been able to read a blog on research when I was a PhD student, but then again I have been keener to learn about research than most of the people I know.
Thanks for making the comments, I always enjoy reading them.
I think you need a community.
ReplyDeleteJoin Scientopia. http://scientopia.org/blogs/
Just an idea, research is a big topic on its own, and creating an online research community might be a big challenge. However, if we can create a online research community on a certain topic, we could get a better traffic.
ReplyDeleteI might talk nonsense here, as I have just started to visit your blog on a regular basis now. (and havent done extensive environment analysis).
I bumped into this interesting post - some interesting points regarding dissemination of ideas, as well as the issue of traction / community hinted at by the comments above.http://highered.prblogs.org/2010/11/26/researchersblog/?sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4cf002dbe8ef78c3,0
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