« Do Non-Bloggers Need an Invitation? | Main | blogging (with) students »

January 28, 2005

Mathemagenic/Lilia Efimova - an intro: what blogging did to my research?

It took me a while to start writing this post: I was somewhat reserved to write "out of context" and wanted to read others first. It didn't work, so I'd just start somewhere...

So, an intro - Lilia Efimova, AKA Mathemagenic, PhD researcher (details are here), Russian living in the Netherlands, guest blogger wishing I'd take your course a couple of years ago :)

I'll start from a quick brainstorm on "what blogging did to my research?"

1. Confidence

- finding out that I have something interesting to say even if I'm just a beginner in the field
- finding others studying strange things I want to study and not feeling as an alien
- getting more confident writing in English
- being convinced that PhD could be finished and emotional support at hard times

2. Content

- shaping my PhD focus
- ideas from other fields (which has a bad side as well - it's difficult to keep focus)
- lots of inspiration, ideas and regular feedback on small things

3. Network

- NETWORK!!!
- bridging hierarchies and borders - blogging brought me into contact with people that a PhD student would only dream talking with
- being invited (to speak, to contribute, to review)

4. Methodology

- blogging screws everything up :) researcher vs. blogger - hard choices and researcher influence

Posted by lefimova at January 28, 2005 12:34 PM

Comments

Good to *meet* you Lilia. I've had you 'rolled for a while now, and this is exciting for me to get you to "myself" (let me be selfish for a moment!).

I am interested in conducting an ethnography among bloggers, in similar fashion to what I understand your work to do--a geographically-oriented ethnography that focuses on a time-space model.

What work I'm doing right now in a research design class emphasizes a couple of things that are both encouraging and frightening:

ethnography works "best" for the particpant/observer (encouraging)

ethnographers need to interact on several scales (fine and coarse grain) with their subjects (possibly encouraging? also difficult?)

ethnographers *might* need to work in real time with their subjects (truly an obstacle)

ethnographers *should* work with their subjects and not necessarily the artifacts produced BY their subjects (ooof--not encouraging)

Because I believe ethnography to allow for things like Heisenberg's Uncertainty (which was nicely explained tonight on Numb3rs!) which would account for my own influence on what I'm studying, this is less of a problem; however, the problems I list above make it hard for me to follow an ethnographic model without messing with it a little.

Blognography?

Posted by: madeline at January 28, 2005 10:55 PM

welcome! i'm looking forward to getting to you know better thru blogging. i've often wondered if the blogging medium can work to make those types on connections. i'm new at the blog game, and i'm trying to let go of my devotion to the print culture and dedication to the traditional classroom setting. and, the more i blog, the better i feel.

i've managed to turn my passion into a research area: hip-hop. i'm aware of the relationship between hip-hop and technology and plan to use this class, with its focus on network theory, to explore those connections. i know there's something there. i just have to learn the vocab to articulate my theories. until then, i'll be blogging away.

anyway, i just wanted to drop a line and say, "hello."

Posted by: elisa at January 30, 2005 05:22 PM