Mass Collaboration
Does the world really need another blog? With more than 100 million blogs already out there, and 100,000 new blogs created daily, I was wondering if this blog would make a difference, or would it just be adding to the noise.
But then it hit me: I was asking the wrong question!
Mass collaboration through the open sharing of information, software and ideas has been the topic of numerous books and articles. Recently, I have been reading Wikinomics by Tapscott and Williams. It has been eye opening and has made me rethink some of my initial skepticism.
While there are errors and pitfalls with sites such as Wikipedia (I still tell my students that Wikipedia it a great place to start, but they must cite other references when writing a paper), there is also tremendous potential in the free, almost instant sharing and peer-reviewing of information. It makes our traditional methods of refereed publishing seem antiquated and frustrating (I recently had a paper take 2 years from submission to publication). While traditional academic publishing will not and should not disappear any time soon, we now have the opportunity to freely and quickly share high quality information.
So back to the question: The question was not whether there should be another blog (yes), but what kind of blog should it be? Our goal with Powerprofs is to share insights, ask questions, and create diaglogue with other graduate school educators. I am so energized by this new world of ideas that my mind is on overload; I feel like a big kid in a brain candy shop.
While this brain candy flood of ideas though blogging and open source websites is exciting, it creates the problem of how to stay sane and organized. I would suspect I am not alone here, and a few of you may find electronic information more challenging to organize than paper files. We have been working on some practical, real-world solutions to share with you.
