To create a new social network or not to? Scientists weigh in.
Scientists debate whether creating a social network for scientists has merit. Can anything other than Facebook be as good as Facebook?
- Upwell's Rachel Dearborn stumbled upon an article in Fast Company's Co.Exist blog about a new social network for scientists that's "bursting onto the scene" with 1.7 million members and an ambitious goal: to facilitate a "global network of scientists who are sharing, collaborating, and building a new generation of scientific research."
- ResearchGateResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferen...
- Neither a scientist nor a proponent of niche social networks, Rachel was skeptical about its success, but she wanted the opinion of some of her science-y friends.
A social network for scientists to speed up discovery. bit.ly/MtCXDg thoughts, @MiriamGoldste @WhySharksMatter @edyong209 ?The immediate response was not one of overwhelming support.
@rdearborn @MiriamGoldste @WhySharksMatter The social networks for scientists are Facebook, Twitter etc. I don't have high hopes.- @rdearborn @MiriamGoldste @WhySharksMatter Methinks that isn't enough of a draw to compensate for the not-being-Facebook/Twitter-ness of it
- David Shiffman (@WhySharksMatter) agreed with a resounding retweet.As others chimed into the conversation, one strong theme emerged: Twitter and Facebook are good enough, and facilitate conversation and information sharing. Why create more websites? That's just annoying.
- @rdearborn @MiriamGoldste @WhySharksMatter Here, you can gripe about papers but also socialise, talk about anything w/ anyone. Why narrow?
@edyong209 @rdearborn @whysharksmatter also if a social media addict like me quails at the thought of another damn website, so do others.- oh yeah, and don't forget LinkedIn.
- At moments like this, we must not forget Robert Metcalfe.
Metcalfe's Law: the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system.
Also, this whole "Social Network for Scientists" thing has been tried before.
- The question is always, "will this one be different?" People keep thinking they've cracked the code.
@BoraZ @rdearbron @edyong209 @whysharksmatter @MiriamGoldste To add to ResearchGate, JournalFire, Mendeley...?
@JacquelynGill @BoraZ @rdearbron @edyong209 @whysharksmatter @MiriamGoldste I once counted twelve. That was 2 years ago.- @MiriamGoldste @jacquelyngill @boraz @edyong209 @whysharksmatter @rdearborn Started one myself: CTSciNet. Gone now.
@rdearborn @MiriamGoldste @WhySharksMatter @edyong209 You haven't touched on DigitalOceans or OpenOceans, either. Same idea.- Here are some of the existing attempts at scientific social networking:
Free reference manager and PDF organizer | MendeleyMendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online...
DigitalOcean | Connecting for Ocean SustainabilityWe're a global community of people who care about the ocean. Together, we're working to advance ocean sustainability by: Sharing our succ...
OpenOceans GlobalCheck out http://openoceans.org! OpenOceans Global is a non-profit organization dedicated to Linking People to the World's Oceans™ throug...
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Zen FaulkesI tried ResearchGate for quite a while. I gave up: http://bit.ly/u2YfrR2012-06-20T02:31:31.839Z
- Zen FaulkesI tried ResearchGate for quite a while. I gave up: http://bit.ly/u2YfrR2012-06-20T02:31:31.839Z
