0.26 Underpinnings of the social edition  (Page 22/32)

How could we incorporate these findings into PReE? In answering that question we were effectively reconceptualizing PReE as social software , “loosely defined” by Tom Coates as software that “supports, extends, or derives added value from, human social behaviour” (2005: n. pag.). If we could outline the common elements of the social networking tools we wished to incorporate, the task of combining them could be more streamlined. For Ralph Gross and Alessandro Acquisti, the feature common to all social networking applications is the ability to create a user-generated identity (or “profile”) for other users to peruse “with the intention of contacting or being contacted by others” (2005: 71). Acknowledging the importance of identity, Judith Donath and danah body have proposed that “a core set of assumptions” underlie all social networking applications, all of which emphasize the notion of making connections, that “there is a need for people to make more connections, that using a network of existing connections is the best way to do so, and that making this easy to do is a great benefit” (2004: 71).

5.2.1. identity and evaluation

The “Digital Footprints” report prepared by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that “one in ten internet users have a job that requires them to self-promote or market their name online,” and that “voluntarily posted text, images, audio, and video has become a cornerstone of engagement with Web 2.0 applications” to the point that “being ‘findable and knowable’ online is often considered an asset in participatory culture where one’s personal reputation is increasingly influenced by information others encounter online” (Madden et al. 2007: iii, 4). Similar assertions have been made by other scholars: Andreas Girgensohn and Alison Lee suggest that one of the benefits of creating an maintaining a profile on a social networking site is the opportunity to create a “persistent and verifiable identity” (2002: 137), whereas danah boyd and Nicole B. Ellison note that “what makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks” (2007: n. pag.).

Given the importance expert readers place on markers of authority such as credentials and past publications, it is in the individual’s best interest to exert some control over his or her online identity. The ability to create and maintain an online profile as part of PReE allows users to include the kind of information expert readers look for when evaluating the value of research material.

5.2.2. connections and communication

Expert readers learn about new ideas and develop existing ones by engaging in scholarly communication with their peers and colleagues. Online, these readers participate in discussion forums, mailing lists, and use commenting tools on blogs and other social networking sites. As Kathleen Fitzpatrick observes:

Scholars operate in a range of conversations, from classroom conversations with students to conference conversations with colleagues; scholars need to have available to them not simply the library model of texts circulating amongst individual readers but also the coffee house model of public reading and debate. This interconnection of individual nodes into a collective fabric is, of course, the strength of the network, which not only physically binds individual machines but also has the ability to bring together the users of those machines, at their separate workstations, into one communal whole. (2007: n. pag.)