Academic Bloggers – Blog and Perish?

The New York Sun recently had an article, Blogging Prof Fails To Heed His Own Advice, that looks at some academic bloggers. It starts with the quote "I shouldn't be doing this. I'll be going up for tenure soon."by Daniel Drezner , an assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Later, he did not get tenure but says his blogging was not the reason. Many academics consider blogging to not be a serious activity and view time spend by academic bloggers as time away from more serious research. One the other hand, some academic bloggers, such as Drenzer, have developed large following and, as a result, have made their work more accessible.

Often academics only speak to a very small group of colleagues. I think that anything that can spread their work to a larger following is a good thing. Naturally, they still need to do their research but time spend sharing it with the larger world is a good thing.

I heard from a friend at a large Boston area school that one of her colleagues is very into blogging about policy issues related to his research. He plans to continue after his upcoming retirement as he finds it very meaningful. Good for him. More academics should have this view.

As Henry Farrell, who contributes to the blog Crooked Timber is quoted in the Sun article, "To dismiss blogging as a bad idea altogether is to make an enormous mistake," he wrote. "For these academics, blogging isn't a hobby; it's an integral part of their scholarly identity. They may very well be the wave of the future."