[Air-L] Credentials

[Meryl Krieger]

I've been mostly lurking through this thread, partly because I'm in the
middle of final revisions (yay for posting, will send an announcement to
y'all when my wonderful chair signs the bottom line...) partly because I've
been thinking where I stand on this.

This has been a fascinating conversation about the culture of internet
research - coming from an anthropologist I can't resist thinking about it
this way. But I have to say, knowing where in the world, literally, someone
is situated is pretty important to me, because it gives me a sense of where
different kinds of expertise are developing, and frankly as a researcher
that's helpful.

Personally I don't care what someone's technical credentials are. I'm
someone in the humanities who got into technology as sort of a fluke, and my
skills come from practical experience and the couple courses I managed to
squeeze in while doing my doctoral coursework and and while I've been
researching and writing. It is interesting, however, to see where people
come from in their expertise on that topic.

Bungee jumping, while fascinating *grin* (mostly because I'm too chicken to
do it) doesn't give me anything scholarly to chew on, though when I start
meeting folks at conferences it'll be a great conversation starter.

Seriously, this may just need to be a live and let live situation, where we
all occasionally weigh in and debate it - pretty healthy discussion for a
growing, interdisciplinary group such as ours. I love that this has been
civil and yet many people have different stances on this.

With that in mind, I'll sign off with relevant credentials, and hope to
continue this conversation at some point over a beer or similar beverage...

Cheers!

J. Meryl Krieger
(almost!) Ph.D., Folklore & Ethnomusicology, Indiana University
Associate Instructor, Department of Communication & Culture
Adjunct Instructor, Ivy Tech Community College
kriegerj at indiana.edu
On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 11:11 AM, John Postill <jpostill at usa.net> wrote:

> 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).
> > --------
>
>
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