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Clearly one of the challenges academia faces is to figure out a productive use of networks in terms of research practices. Usually I write more about the teaching aspects of the university and clearly there are many ways universities will employ networks. But I want to think specifically about the use of the web for research with a few goals in mind: to enhance collaboration between academics to publish and share research to share knowledge with a broader audience (students, governments, industries, non-profits, the general public, and so on) One might say that these have been answered, but the real challenge is that as the web continues to evolve and now converge with other networks, the practices we have established need to change as well. That is, from the inception of the web, one could find the appearance of academic journals: genuine, rigorously reviewed, academic scholarship available freely online. There were (and are) listservs that might facilitate collaboration. Similarly individual faculty and faculty organizations built websites where they offered information, policy statements, and so on (NCTE or MLA for example in English Studies). But how are we moving forward?

Conventional academic discourse lies with journals and conferences. For all the advantages of these modes, neither offers an ongoing, dynamic interchange. Listservs offer that, but, in my experience anyway, they don't really create a productive, collaborative space. Sometimes there are debates on listservs; sometimes there is sharing of information (e.g. does anyone know a good article about x"?). But there isn't a sustained building of knowledge there. I suppose there could be, but there isn't, probably b/c we all go off to write our individually authored articles and conference presentations. In any case, the listserv is too large a community for collaborative work. Yes, tens of thousands contribute to Wikipedia, but they don't all work on the same article, right? So I don't know what the magic number is, but let's say I was looking for a dozen scholars in who were interested in the same things I'm interested in: mobile networks virtual worlds audio/video production public, collaborative learning It's unlikely that we would all work on the same research project at once, but there would be a handful of project undertaken by individuals or small groups. There would be a public face to the group and a private project management site, like Basecamp. The public face would offer a steady stream of information as we shared what we were doing, what was going on in our teaching, what we were reading and writing. We'd be assembling streams of information from our blogs, twitters, flickr, YouTube, and so on--wherever we were post information. The result is a collection of information that is hopefully useful groundwork for more formal investigation and also a mechanism for fruitful collaboration between our classes.

Meanwhile, in a more private space we might be orchestrating collaborative classroom projects and sharing research, drafts, and other media: constructing our scholarly work. When it's complete, we publish it in traditional venues and republish it on our public site as well.

Text is linear Text is unlinear Text is said to be unlinear Text is often said to be unlinear Text is unlinear when written on paper Digital text is different. Digital text is more flexible. Digital text is moveable. Digital text is above all…hyper. Digital hypertext is above all… hypertext is above all… hypertext can link hypertext can link here here or here… virtually anywhere anywhere virtually anywhere virtual The WayBack Machine http://yahoo.com Take Me Back Oct 17, 1996 Yahoo View Source Most early websites were written in HTML HTML HTML was designed to define the structure of a web document. p is a structural element referring to “paragraph” LI LI is also a structural element referring to “List Item” As HTML expanded, more elements were added. Including stylistic elements like B for bold and I for italics Suck elements defined how content would be formatted. In other words, form and content became inseparable in HTML Digital Text can do better. Form and content can be separated. http://www.cnn.com RSS XML View Source XML was designed to do just that. http://www.cnn.com/?eref=rss_topstories same withCNN.com and and virtually all other elements in this document. They describe the content, not the form. So the data can be exported, free of formatting constraints. Latest News Anthro Blogs (124) Savage Minds 8apps: Social Networking for Productive People WORLD CHANGING ANOTHER WORLD IS HERE Antrho Journals (124) University of California Press Journals Digital Publishing Current Anthropology AESonline.org Google With form separated from content, users did not need to know complicated code to upload content to the web, I’m Feeling Lucky Create Blog Name Your Blog Beyond Etext http://beyondetext.blogspot.com Choose a template Your blog has been created! Monday, January 29, 2007 Hello World! POSTED BY PROFESSOR WESCH AT 8:14 PM 0 COMMENTS There’s a blog born every half second and it’s not just text…Search YouTube Broadcast Yourself This is a video response to The Beauty of Being Human flickr Ahoy mwesch! Upload Photos Anthropology club Created by you. KSU Anthropology club Club Photos Google XML facilitates automated data exchange font-size: 14px; font-f

Diigo has released v 3.0 of its browser plugin and has set a new standard in social bookmarking in the process. It not only allows you to bookmark and save notes in an easy to retrieve place, it adds a new dimension to the Web itself by revealing, at the page level, the community of people who have also interacted with the content. It also feeds into a bigger community of content that builds a social network around relevant information. It combines research and community.

Starting simple: You can bookmark and annotate relevant things that you need to reference later. Using the Webslides function, you also can share these links as a slideshow, which actually appear as “live” web pages. The slideshow is embeddable on Web pages and in blogs. Revealing a new layer of the web: The new sidebar gives you quick access to your bookmarks as well your annotations on each Web page. It also shows you other diigo users who have annotated that page to give you additional perspective. The sidebar is searchable to find your notes quicker and easier. Connect and Engage: According to the company, you are what you annotate. Bookmarks, tags, and annotations are one of the best representations of your interests and expertise. At Diigo, you maintain a bookmarks page which is your hub to relevant content. You can also connect to like-minded people and also browse their activities as they relate to you.