Public engagement as collateral damage
These notes are part of a series for the book.
From what I gather, UK universities are required to have ‘public engagement’ — engage with the general public. This chapter of Weller’s book argues that public engagement can be accomplished via digital networks.
Outline
- Public engagement
- A long-tail content production system
- Frictionless broadcasting
- Conclusion
Notes
Engagement between scholars and the general public can be accomplished within digital networks.
Currently, scholars contribute to public resources such as slidecasts because they know the organizers, they are interested in the subject matter, it is creative and fun, they want to engage with the public, and for reasons of ego and status.
Universities can look at the content they create as being of interest to the long tail of the Internet. This can increase public engagement, but universities need to make it easy to share including in the areas of technology, policies, and encouragement.
- To reduce the amount of time and money required: Transform current activities to shareable ones. For example, blogs can be used for keeping notes and working on ideas. Meetings can be videotaped. Post-conference reports can be published in an area available to others.
- To make the technology easier: Staff needs to be trained, and also given a sandbox area in which they can explore the tools, so that they can use them with confidence.
- To encourage staff: Promotion criteria usually focuses on published journal articles. This needs to change to recognize shareable content as well.