El Times Higher Education parla en el post All about me, dot com dels webs personals dels professors-investigadors universitaris, de com estan anant més enllà de la “pàgina web” que la seva institució els proporciona o els obliga a tenir, i munten pàgines web-reculls de la seva activitat a Internet.
Like countless other academics, David Gauntlett has a perfectly functional departmental home page. Buried inside his university’s web presence, you can find the University of Westminster professor of media and communications’ biography, contact details and list of publications next to a semi-smiling headshot. His institution’s logo appears in the top left corner.
But go to his personal website , located firmly outside the university sphere, and he comes alive. Here you can peruse his current projects, check his Twitter feed and blog posts or view his latest drawings. If you happen to click on a mention of his son, you can even watch a video of the toddler interacting with a passing train.
Estem i vivim en un món real, però també en un món digital que és igual de real que el no digital:
He is part of a growing global band of academics who supplement their standard departmental online profiles with web presences outside the university domain. Despite the rise of Twitter, Facebook and blogs, such personal/professional websites are an important avenue for scholars to showcase their work and themselves in the digital world.
Però on han de tenir els professors-investigadors les seves pàgines web que reflecteixen la seva vida professional fora de les parets físiques de la universitats? En Brian Kelly, que properament ens visitarà a Girona i que treballa a la Unviersitat de Bath a Anglaterra, opina al posta del THE que
universities may lose access to material, such as posted lecture notes, if academics are operating outside the university domain. But then again, if IT services cannot cater for academics who want to manage their personal page in a more hands-on style, an exit from the university sphere might make sense.
En aquest post hi ha múltiples exemples de bons webs, fets amb diverses eines i fins i tot “a mà”, i bones plantilles de wordpress. La veritat és que m’hi he sentit una mica reflectic, ja que precisament és el meu cas: he hagut de portar el meu blog a un hosting de fora la UdG, perquè tot és molt més fàcil que dins de la UdG, fins i tot al hosting del nostre grup de recerca, que gaudeix d’alguns privilegis.
Cal fer un cop d’ull a la llista de 10 conells per fer un web de professor universitari:
- “Shop around for your own domain name. Ask colleagues who already have their own domains who they have registered them through. You don’t need to pay lots of money.” – Chris Mitchell, professor of computer science, Royal Holloway, University of London
- “Think carefully about the design, in terms of both organisation and presentation. The more you put in, the more you have to maintain.” – Ralph Martin, professor of geometric computing, Cardiff University
- “Look carefully at colleagues’ sites for inspiration.” – Wendy Cadge, associate professor of sociology, Brandeis University
- “Make it yourself – I don’t really think it’s something you can farm out to someone else, unless it’s to be very impersonal, which I don’t think is the point. It takes some time to learn, but it’s worth it.” – David Gauntlett, professor of media and communications, University of Westminster
- “Think about how you will be presenting yourself to the world.” – Kevin Morrell, senior lecturer in organisational behaviour, University of Birmingham
- “Think about your Google ranking and how you can ensure your website comes fairly high up.” – Eszter Hargittai, associate professor of communication studies, Northwestern University
- “Get somebody good to design it and then train yourself to operate it and update it.” – Conor Gearty, professor of human rights law, London School of Economics
- “Think about the audiences and make the site easy for them to navigate. Don’t underestimate the importance of the colours and visual displays – there is much more to the page than just the words!” – Wendy Cadge
- “Get your friends to critique your website before it goes live. You might feel like a show-off at first, but if you are expecting the entire World Wide Web to look at it, you should be able to show it to a few friends first and get their honest opinion.” – Jim Wild, senior lecturer in physics, Lancaster University
- “Maintain it. There is nothing so annoying as academics’ sites with reference lists that are five years out of date.” – Alan Dix, professor of computing, Lancaster University
Alguns d’aquests consells són de sentit comú. El segon i el desè venen a ser el mateix: mantenir un blog-web porta feina, molta feina. Mantenir-lo vol dir ser capaç de posar-hi el que té rellevància per a un mateix i que es pot pensar que té rellevància per als altres. És la reputació acadèmica, professional i personal. En equilibri assenyat amb la privadesa.
Un dels comentaris és molt sucós, ja que suggereix que des dels serveis tècnics i administratius es posen restriccions als webs, en lloc de crear conversa (per al món 2.0):
Moreover, in these tough times I would suggest that Comms and Marketing dep’ts would be better spent using the web to have conversations with audiences and encouraging academics to participate in that process rather than the fruitless task (akin to that of herding cats) of forcing academics into corporate website straightjackets.
En la meva opinió, aquesta entrada del THE caldria enmarcar-la i ser de lectura obligada. Es tracta de la Universitat 2.0. I segueixo mantenint la importància del web-blog.
Foto: http://www.automation.siemens.com/mcms/totally-integrated-power/de/stromverteilung-energieverteilung-nutzen/referenzen/einkaufszentrum/PublishingImages/einkaufszentrum.jpg