The History Blogging Project

19 January 2011

This blog is about my research, on British people in occupied Germany after the war, not about me personally. But if anyone wonders why I first decided to write the blog and what motivates me to carry on posting, (ever since I published my first post on this blog in October 2005), have a look at my post on Why I write an academic history blog  on the website and blog of the History Blogging Project

The project was launched yesterday (18 January 2011) and aims to promote and support UK-based academic historians who either have a blog or are thinking of running one. In particular the project will develop a set of training materials to help postgraduate historians create, maintain and publicise a blog on their research.

If you are a postgraduate student and either have your own blog or are thinking of creating one and are not (yet) aware of the project, do get in touch with the organisers. I am sure they will be glad to hear from you.

 

Comments

[Jennios]

Hi,
The History Blogging Project website seems not be working anymore. A 404 error appears. I was wondering if you knew anything about this? Cheers.

[cwmknowles]

I'm not sure why the History Bloggin Project site isn't working. Although the project has finished I thought the website was going to stay live. I'll try to find out and let you know.

[cwmknowles]

The History Blogging Project web site is live again, so the links in the post should work.

[Cristina Costa]

The History Blogging site seems to be working but the comment box is not so I decided to post my comment to your January post "Why I write an academic history blog" here [http://www.historybloggingproject.org/2011/01/why-i-write-an-academic-history-blog/#comments]:

I would like to add two new dimensions to the discussion. One is Profile Raising. The other is the purpose of doing research.

A blog can be a great tool to profile your work and your academic identity. It not only discloses information about the topics you are exploring; it also tells me how good your ideas are. Hence, it allows others in your field to learn 'what you are capable of'. This is something a journal article can't do because a blog shows continuation of your work; the evolution of your ideas, i.e., of you maturing as an academic.

I am also a part-time student, so sometimes I do find it difficult when other academics publish about stuff I am working on. they can do it much faster because that's what they do - they are paid to do this kind of research whereas I am doing it on top of a full time job. Yet, if I don't blog about it then when I publish my PhD it will all be old news - although it will be the first time I will be talking about it in public. The blog as a medium of communication allows others to acknowledge your work in the field as you are progressing in your thoughts and writing. Of course, people could steal your ideas - but that risk has always been there - there are always people who cannot be trusted. The problem before is that finding it out was much harder. Today google helps is a bit with that. And essentially it is also about integrity and people doing the right thing. If people cite you regarding what you have written on your blog and build on that then that's already a winner. That was after all the original purpose of journals - to share knowledge more widely in a faster way so scientist could progress much faster with their discoveries. We seem to have lost that purpose today as we fight to be the first to publish something and not necessarily to share knowledge for its further advancement! (and there you go - that will be part of my PhD research) :-)

[cwmknowles]

Yes, I agree. I'd make two further points. Firstly, all posts and comments are date-stamped, so if anyone else copies what you have written you can always show you thought of it it first. (Personally I don't have a problem if anyone uses my ideas, though it's nice to have an acknowledgement).

Secondly, I recently found this blog had been cited in a book written by an established (popular) historian: Frederick Taylor's 'Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany' (London: Bloomsbury, 2011). That's great. As you say Cristina, the whole point of publishing our research, whether in a a book, a journal or electronically on a blog, is to share what we have learnt with others.