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I'm been thinking a lot lately about how publication media shapes academic communities. I'm particularly interested in academic communities because since academic communities form primarily to share knowledge, their shape is more dramatically affected by the channels along which they communicate.
I have grown disenchanted with the shape of academia because academia hasn't reshaped itself to suit new media. To me, it seems there is a vested interest in maintaining the status quo method of organization of academic communities: the heirarchy of institution and peer-review.
And why not? I mean, the academic system of peer review has done a good job vetting academic research for many years. Right?
Here's two reasons why not:
1) There's a difference between filtering information and organizing it. A good vetter does not a good organizer make. The journal-based system of sharing knowledge may vet well, but as an organizer--a knowledge architect--it blows.
2) We allow technologies to shape social behavior all the time. (The next time you're in an elevator, try staring anywhere but the floor number.) But there is a danger in placing intrinsic value in the social effects of a particular media. If we continue to organize "academia" according to a system devised to assist print publishing in an age when kids eshew books for video games, we're screwed.
Anyway, I'm frustrated with the shape of community we've created. Lord knows, that's not the only reason I've made some life changes, but there you go.
Posted by brandon barr at November 11, 2003 03:30 PM | TrackBack