This is the type of seminal insight that simply cannot be ignored nor praised too highly. From the Chronicle
So I would argue that the answer to the first question above, as to whether new approaches such as blogging constitute scholarly activity, is an emphatic yes. Which leads us to a more problematic question: How should we recognize it?
. . .
It’s a difficult problem, but one that many institutions are beginning to come to terms with. Combining the rich data available online that can reveal a scholar’s impact with forms of peer assessment gives an indication of reputation. Universities know this is a game they need to play—that having a good online reputation is more important in recruiting students than a glossy prospectus. And groups that sponsor research are after good online impact as well as presentations at conferences and journal papers.
Institutional reputation is largely created through the faculty’s online identity, and many institutions are now making it a priority to develop, recognize, and encourage practices such as blogging.
More seriously. It is certainly the case that blog reputation is a big deal for a University’s overall reputation and amazingly work in the traditional way.
One of the most surprising things I have noticed about blogging is the number of students who have offered to do work for me for free because of it. Given the infrastructure right now I can’t even adequately handle them all.
Given that tangible result its hard to see how blogging over time doesn’t attract the best graduate students and that is presumably the foundation of University reputation.
Moreover, I tend to think its just a better intellectual world when everything is open and instantly accessible from top to bottom.
In economics in particular you have journalists writing about the things people care about. Some economists taking those pop questions and turning them into economic questions. Others, framing theories and arguments about them. Others applying data to the argument. Other synthesizing the findings and reporting them back out to the Journalists.
Thus there is a complete loop between the larger world and the academic world, ensuring that the things academics work on are not only based on things people care about but circle back to influence the general state of knowledge.
Not only that but the format lends itself beautifully to intellectual history. At relatively low cost the entire academic blogosphere could be recorded and stored as a fully functional web with timestamps, links and everything else.
This in theory allows us trace the evolution of an idea almost precisely and possibly to understand better how and why certain ideas win out over others.
HT Robin
11 comments
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Wednesday ~ May 2nd, 2012 at 8:12 am
woberz
I thought of this just the other day. As you say, blogging and the general presence on the internet is great for economics. It’s also a nice complement for students like myself. I enjoy being able to, at least in some way, communicate with the big names in the profession.
All of this really helps to connect the classroom to the world.
Wednesday ~ May 2nd, 2012 at 9:18 am
Srikar
As a novice blogger, I absolutely agree. Blogging has helped to express my views, however basic and amateurish, to the open world! It has increased my confidence in theorizing and articulating views which were, hitherto, in the preserse of my mind!
Blogging is truly a leveller as well as a motivator. Sometimes you wonder as to how you could have churned out such a well thought blog piece! But the icing on the cake is when luminaries in the field acknowledge and read your blog – no substitute for this thrill! Glad to know that it is slowly being recognized in academic circles.
Wednesday ~ May 2nd, 2012 at 10:39 am
rjs
that assumes that academic credit is important to bloggers…most i know could give a rats ass..
Wednesday ~ May 2nd, 2012 at 11:24 am
frankmuraca
Definitely agree. I’m only a freshman economics student, but the amount that I’ve learned through blogging has been huge. It’s a great complement to what we go over in classes.
The only thing is that blogging (in its nature) is pretty unstructured. And that’s what makes it so appealing to a lot of people, because they can go wherever they want with it. So it would be difficult for a university to enforce some kind of structure on blogging to make it credible.
Wednesday ~ May 2nd, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Morgan Warstler
Your biggest problem is this:
“One of the most surprising things I have noticed about blogging is the number of students who have offered to do work for me for free because of it.”
A real and valuable economist, would be focused on WHO CAN FIRED since you can get free work.
If your mind doesn’t go to cost savings FIRST, what you do is not really economics.
What entrepreneurs always do is look for something else they can gut, save everyone $5 and keep $1 of it yourself.
Entrepreneurs = real economics
PLEASE fix your gut instincts. You are soooooo close. You can do this.
Thursday ~ May 3rd, 2012 at 5:12 am
Jason Rave
What?! So a microenonomist for example specialising in behavioural economics or signal extraction, because they are not focussing on areas such as innovation, cost cutting and business efficiency are not actually economists?
Entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs. Economists are economists. Let’s just leave it at that.
Thursday ~ May 3rd, 2012 at 8:02 am
woberz
Methinks his comment is riddled with sarcasm.
Thursday ~ May 3rd, 2012 at 8:48 am
Morgan Warstler
Economics is not a social good. It is not what DeKrugman does. It is about how the market works. How the inventors / creators, investors, and consumers / labor interact. Atomic scarcity and now digital non-scarcity. The eternal marginal micro improvements of technology that are the only thing that raise humanity’s standard of living.
Macro basically doesn’t even exist when there is only one global currency, or multiple private currencies.
Someone claiming to understand how the market works, is not as believable when they show none of the gut instincts for the very core of the WTF makes this “science” go.
It is a big glaring 6th finger It doesn’t mean there aren’t 5 good fingers at MB, but it hints at the non-science bias, the non-science self-interest, that ANY non-rent seeker would not have.
An economist cannot first be concerned with policy outcomes, they cannot have a conscience of a liberal FIRST.
Thinking like an entrepreneur intuitively, at first glance, is to economics what being 6″8″ is to professional basketball.
It is an advantage.
Thursday ~ May 3rd, 2012 at 4:00 am
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Wednesday ~ May 30th, 2012 at 8:48 pm
fitzgeraldgem
There’s no way that you can’t get away with blogging as it becomes a norm and it’s one effective way to communicate and as well as conveniently do everything for you. Though, they were some descripancy regarding it’s security but then it can now be immediately resolve. Blogging allows you to do all things that you need to have in your entire duty if you were working so I might say that blogging is an effective tool for academic matters.
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