Call for Papers - Community of Knowledge

As in the last post we addressed the issue of different content assigned to images and words, varying from a culture to another, you have the occasion now to share your experience, by applying to the Call for Papers for the Community of Knowledge. Speaking each other's language - also in terms of the words we are using - is a human business.

Good luck subscribers!

The Bad Side of the Internet in Human Sciences Research

I am referring now strictly to the Human Sciences, where the definition of concept is apparently a never ending story and the information is so diverse that only recognizing modestly the strict limits of our knowledge could offer a chance to believe that our "writing" are really worthy and bring something valuable to the general appropriation of a subject.

Just an example of the daily struggle of imposing yourself limits to find out more about your topics: you want to check something, and while searching, you find another information and you stop yourself from the writing and read more. And then, you discover that THIS was something new, not covered yet. And you continue to read more and more, and to do more searches and your thoughts are high-speed rolling over and over again. No more writing, or you reconsider chapters or paragraphs, and you need, of course, new ideas to fit or another checking of the basic starting point. Before, it was easier, as the time-space limitations were higher: needed to go to the library, to find out the bibliography carefully prepared before and at the end of the day, you got some clear ideas, ready to be put on paper. None of the situations are enviable and the less of them all is when you should stop finding out for the sake of the time&space pressure of finishing your fantastic papers.

On-line research

Two useful professional tools to create web surveys.

- Zoomerang - www.zoomerang.com - with a limited free access

- Survey Monkey - www.surveymonkey.com - providing a software able to create web surveys, allowing to anyone intersted the opportunity to have its own study.

One of the advantages of the extended use of Internet in various scientific domains is the possibility to acquire with very limited costs data relevant for the study. Once you set up the survey, you could distribute it to a wider list of contacts, space and geography being less important than before. The disadvantage could be in the sometimes randomly choice of the sample. If simply distributed on various lists or discussion groups, the surveys could be filled by people not necessarily included in your wishful sample.

New reading habits and e-research

The expansion of the new media techniques is influencing already the ways we set up and organize our research. During the last ten years, I changed for a couple of time the management of my notes and readings. At the beginning, I was writing on sheets of papers, carefully organized in identitified files. They occupied plenty of place, gathered lot of dust and for finding something it took quite a lot of time. Everthing was organized mostly as it was find in the book or paper I was reading. Also, they were the books everywhere, with various colorful bumperstickers. I keep today both the paper files and the books and usually I could use scraps of paper when I need to keep in mind any idea.

Soon after, I introduced in my research world the scanned materials, not always with good visibility and always overloading my computer. They were joined by downloads, organized in matrioshka's boxes like folders with names, category, mentioning the stages of the project, the specific theme addressed etc. The information on paper could be easily lost - a reversed cup of coffee or a bad ink could lost everything for ever. The same for the files from the computer, a virus or a problem with the hard could erase everything. You have the chance of saving on various devices - at least twice - USB, or CDs; before, they were the disks, with the same care for classification.

In the same time, it mushroomed the e-books, digital libraries, on-line book orders, the on-line access to various librarian resources across the world. Google is allowing access to various books, full or fragments only and you can save an unlimited number of links on your yahoo MyPage, and to follow and share your results via Google Docs. The copyright issue continue to be important, but the new technical opportunities are likely to change soon the core of the philosophy of the authorship, as we know from the 18-19 century.

Our office is everywhere, as long as we have a good internet connection and a reliable notebook. And, of course, a good anti-virus system.

The basis of the research networks widened, because through the Internet you could get in touch with various researchers by sharing your interests on blogs, or making comments to various academic researches. It is cheaper, easy to handle and it's have the potential of highly improving the quality and quantity of the academic research. The skills from the old days of print are still available, because without a strict(er) time and resources management, most part of the information could be simply wasted. And the idea of honesty and respect for the scientific accountability will survive.

Ph.D. students experiences: UK

Two pieces of articles from the Independent, on the personal challenges encountered by a PhD student and the time pressure in finishing the research in the UK sooner than a couple of years ago.