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Open Source Scholarship

Published May 2, 2011 by Brian Sarnacki

A couple of weeks ago, Bethany Nowviskie visited UNL and talked about adapting the model of “skunkworks” to producing research and development. While her talk included many great insights as well as the most entertaining slides I have ever seen in an academic speech, one part of my notes from the talk really jumped out to me. I wrote: “scholars used to hiding work until polished–> bad for open source collaboration,” which seems to me to be a great insight into academic production of scholarship. When debating whether or not to start a blog, I found that I too had…

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The Branded Professor

Published April 10, 2011 by Brian Sarnacki

Insidehigered.com: As a relatively new tenure-track professor in journalism and media, I teach students skills and critical thinking for a profession that is in a state of redefinition. One of the ways journalism educators are trying to increase their students’ job opportunities is by encouraging them to develop a “personal brand,” through which they establish themselves as a rising professional with a unique voice and style. They then publicize that personal brand through multimedia blogging and social media, in hopes of impressing prospective employers with their initiative and distinctive qualities. I think that this kind of engagement, through social media…

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Is the Personalization of the Web Making us Dumber?

Published March 4, 2011 by Brian Sarnacki

Mashable: This “invisible algorithmic editing of the web,” as [Eli] Pariser describes it, “moves us to a world where the Internet shows us what it thinks we need to see, but not what we should see.” Beyond Facebook, Pariser notes the huge diversity of search results his friends find on Google about topics like Egypt, where one friend sees news about recent protests and Lara Logan, while another sees results about travel and vacations. In turn, Pariser believes we’re collectively creating what he calls a personal “filter bubble,” which is also the title of a book on the subject due…

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Build it and they will come

Published January 31, 2011 by Brian Sarnacki

The crisis in the humanities is a well discussed topic, at least inside the humanities. The humanities are often seen as less important than departments that bring in money from the federal government or private businesses looking to turn a profit. These (like engineering and the sciences) departments produce “useful” and “practical” things while the humanities are just abstract. Frankly, this view of knowledge simply isn’t true (there may be a future blog post about why we need the humanities). While I abhor the commercialization of education, knowledge, learning, etc., I did begin wondering if there was money to be…

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