[Air-L] Credentials

[John Postill]

Funnily enough, I too was about to stress *relevance* before reading Rasha's
latest posting below. 

As a subscriber to the Association of Internet Researchers list I am
interested in keeping up with what other Internet researchers are doing, and
this includes being able to place them and their Internet research
geographically, professionally, etc. So I look at signatures pragmatically: it
makes life easier when people remind others of their geographical location and
academic (or non-academic, as the case may be) background. 

A signature often helps to jog the memory as well (e.g. oh yes, that phd
student at Bristol university working on Twitter).  Whether a list contributor
practices snowboarding or is a fan of Ricky Gervais is not relevant to this
Internet research list. So I would encourage posters to include a relevant
signature, preferably with a link to a homepage or blog where we can learn
more about their Internet research, but I wouldn't make this mandatory. 

Thank you all for a great thread

John

Dr John Postill
C3 Research Institute (C3RI)
Sheffield Hallam University
Sheffield S1 2NU
United Kingdom
http://johnpostill.wordpress.com/


 



------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 01:39:06 PM BST
From: "Dr. Rasha Abdulla" <rasha at aucegypt.edu>
To: jeremy hunsinger <jhuns at vt.edu>Cc: air-l at aoir.org
Subject: Re: [Air-L] Credentials

> Ok, I can't resist:) One (hopefully final) reply on my part. This is
> actually a message that I've written privately to a list member in reply to
> their private message, but I think it might add some value. I want to
stress
> on two things though: 1) I never said I wanted titles to be a requirement,
> it was simply a request for people to identify themselves more; and 2) I
> never claimed academics (or those with Ph.D.s or whoever) are necessarily
> better, or more credible, or more knowledgeable than others. As I'm sure
you
> know, people will be more credible depending on their relevance to the
> matter in question. It was simply that relevance that I requested them to
> make clear. And I do not think that getting text book recommendations or
> advice on how to code content analysis is the same as talking to a stranger
> on a bus, although of course all information should be judged critically.
> Here's the message. And again thank you all for your responses, public and
> private. And special thanks to those who did include some kind of
> affiliation. To me, it adds more value and context to the message, and I
> still don't think it hurts anyone (unless people are bent on taking it in a
> negative sense).
> --------