Public Sociology in the Digital Era (UPenn)

Public Sociology in the Digital Era

Jessie Daniels, PhD University of Pennsylvania - Sociology Department

November 4, 2013

Twitter: @JessieNYC

#sociology #HigherEd #PhDchat #altmetrics

@ 365 Fifth Avenue

Twitter: @JustPublics365

www.justpublics365.commons.gc.cuny.edu

public sociology

"Academics are living in a fool's paradise if they

think they can hold on to their ivory tower.

The public is no longer prepared to subsidize

our academic pursuits. 

We have to demonstrate our public worth."

~ Michael Burawoy, 2004

legacy academic scholarship

learning from journalism

pre-21st century, analog, closed, removed from the public

sphere, monastic.

“legacy”

This was the only option for publishing.

We typed words & paragraphs on paper.

That technology had some problems.

This was “cut and paste.”

This is where we would go to find & read information.

This is how we looked things up.

Many journals or books not open & accessible.

Measuring “Impact”

How many inches?

expansion of digital technologies

changing scholarship

changing pedagogy

From ‘MOOC’ to ‘POOC’

changing activism

changing the scholar-activist

2004

Unique Visitors (each month): ~ 200,000Total Visitors (since 2007): 2.7 million

Individual Blog Posts: 1,526Comments from readers: 10,409Subscribers: 4,995Authors: 116

publishing is changing

how we measure success

is changing

‘altmetrics’metrics

New Metrics for Measuring Academic Success

“altmetrics”

21st century, digital, open, connected to the public

sphere, worldly.

“digital”

digitallegacy

funding is changing

democracycommerce

MediaCamp Workshops

for Academics, Activists

The POOC: Opening Education

videos open to anyone

readings open to anyone

Knowledge Streams

Data Maps

Data Visualizations

Infographics

Podcast Series

“metrics that matter”

Transactional Transformational

(quantitative, easier to measure)(qualitative, more difficult to

measure)

citations, downloads

collaborations

mentions on SNS, MSM

co-created projects

change to public policy

cultural, social change

Changing Landscape of Higher Ed

2004 ASA Presidential Address

zero mentions of “digital” or “Internet”

Twitter: @JessieNYC

Thank you!

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