Postkiwi

Darren Wright at Planet Telex has just referred me to an article at Slate on academics and blogging: “Attack of the Career-Killing Blogs: When academics post online, do they risk their jobs?” by Robert S. Boynton.

Boynton starts with the story of blogging Chicago political scientist Daniel Drezner who was denied tenure despite his qualifications and experience. Was it because of his blog?

Boynton highlights a common suspicion of blogs in academic circles. Blogs are not as serious as academic journals. In most disciplines at large research universities, tenure is directly related to the number of peer-reviewed books and articles one publishes.

So can academic work and blogging go together? Certainly there is a different language in blogs. It’s more conversation-oriented. A post on a blog is written with the knowledge that anyone could comment. In fact I would say comments are what makes a blog a blog. They takes us beyond monologue and into conversation.

Boynton refers to blogs as an expression of what Michael Oakeshott called the “The Conversation of Mankind” - an endless, thoroughly democratic dialogue about the best ideas and artifacts of our culture.”

At Postkiwi’s Generations in Conversation I’ve been able to post my summaries and critiques of the work of fellow researchers and authors. Some of them have responded, on the blog and off. That’s something that you can’t do so easily in an academic journal.