Comments on: Andrew Keen’s head – and the shift from institutions to processes

By: Wikileaks: a sign of the mess to come « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting

Wikileaks: a sign of the mess to come « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 15:04:14 +0000

[...] the heart of the issue is the shift in the nature of trust. In the old world, trust was institutionalised but in the new world it is vested within [...]

By: Josh Davis

Josh Davis — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:36:00 +0000

Richard great article, this better helps me to understand the shifts that are taking place and I really appreciate your efforts, well done!

By: Apologies « The social media revolution (in 15 minutes)

Apologies « The social media revolution (in 15 minutes) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:35:08 +0000

[...] well as finally getting round to writing the “for the record pieces” on the shift from institutions to process and the issue of the sanctity of publication (Clay Shirky re-tweeted this which pleased me no end) [...]

By: Google v Facebook is a battle for today’s internet, not the internet of the future « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:11:37 +0000

[...] The first wave of social media (web2.0) emerged because distribution suddenly became cheap and available to all. This started to break the dominance that distribution had over content. Information could start to move about and exist in a number of different places – for example a single blog post could be found in the blog, but also an RSS reader, become an update in Facebook and LinkedIn or any place that allowed an RSS feed. The information was not shaped by a specific place or means of distribution in the same way as in the past. It is much more portable and spreadable. This has meant that processes of information sharing and connectivity have become more important. These processes are more important in defining the trust placed in a piece of information that simply the place (institution) where that piece of information originates. As I have written previously, trust is shifting from institutions to processes. [...]

By: Clay Shirky makes my day « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting

Clay Shirky makes my day « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:57:46 +0000

[...] 0 Comments Everything I bang on about concerning social media: the shift in trust from institutions to process, why its about spaces not places, why the new audience is neither an individual or a crowd but the [...]

By: richardstacy

richardstacy — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:58:06 +0000

I am obviously not as familiar as you with the peer-review process and from your description it appears far from perfect. I think you are right to point out the opportunity for social media in the academic space – almost by definitition anything which is so dependant on the concept of publication is likely to be hugely affected once the concept of publication becomes transformed. @cshirky has just tweeted about the inadequacy of the term publication – don’t know if you follow him, but if not, you should.

By: jessica mullen

jessica mullen — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:06:26 +0000

You wrote: “The closest we have come to process based truth in the Gutenberg world lies in the field of science and academia, where there has always been a well established process component inherent in publication. To be credible a scientific paper has to be peer reviewed and also be seen to be informed by, and connected to, the wider body of work within its field. In fact, scientific papers are close to the concept of information that is not shaped by a specific means of distribution.”

I agree this might be close to process based truth, though the history of peer review is important to note. It was established after World War II because of both the growth in science as well as the increase in pressure on scholars to publish. Before the war, university professors were expected mainly to teach, and publishing may have been seen as taking time away from the university. However, it became clear over time that the reputation of a university did not depend on the teaching abilities of the professors, but on the professors’ scholarly reputation. This of course leads to the current situation of “publish or perish”, where the future of a faculty member’s career (especially pre-tenure) and advancement in a field depends largely on the peer reviewed publications they publish papers in.

Peer review has not actually been proven as an effective evaluation method–one is just as likely to produce the same result in a game of chance. But this is because of the flaws in the institutions–there are no incentives to fact check, and there is extreme pressure to publish quickly to get more grant money, often resulting in shoddy work.

Social media is the true peer review, and the sooner we can get academia there, the better. Will it take a collapse of the current university system? I’m starting to hope so…

By: NY Times versus TechCrunch – a silly argument « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:21:20 +0000

[...] to recognise that social media is fundamentally different from institutionalised media. As I have said before - truth within social media is founded in process. It is crystalised in the reception of [...]

By: Something rotten in the state of Twitter Search? « Richard Stacy @ Stacy Consulting

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:59:14 +0000

[...] What is social media? « Andrew Keen’s head – and the shift from institutions to processes [...]

By: richardstacy

richardstacy — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:25:39 +0000

I don’t see the evidence that this is a cultural extinction. What’s becoming extinct are certain types of business models – so for example, while the music business is in decline, the creation and sharing of music is on the rise. The problem is that we have become accustomed to associating the means (institutions) with the ends.