http://www.jobs.ac.uk/blogs/just-higher-ed/2010/01/25/social-networking-a-new-idea/ This blog provides thoughts and experiences of an academic in her first permanent role as a Lecturer in a UK university. We also include tips and advice for academic writing, teaching & learning, professional development and of course careers and job advice.  Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:59:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.5 http://www.jobs.ac.uk/blogs/just-higher-ed/2010/01/25/social-networking-a-new-idea/#comment-126 Jonathan Jarrett Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:35:32 +0000 http://www.jobs.ac.uk/blogs/just-higher-ed/?p=163#comment-126 I think that <a href="http://www.academia.edu/" rel="nofollow">academia.edu</a> may be more of a professional networking site than this, although it's difficult to tell because so far little has been filled in. It's not clear that anyone is policing content or that it couldn't easily be dragged away from its supposed mission by saturating it with non-academic material, games, music, etc. At the moment, however, it seems to largely be a world-accessible WebCT and so, while it may serve for teachers who would like to use that but whose institutions don't support it, that hardly seems like a growth market and such institutions will presumably be difficult about recognising such work as credit-worthy. So I wonder, really, whether there is a niche for this service. It seems to rely on people not being aware of its rivals... I think that academia.edu may be more of a professional networking site than this, although it’s difficult to tell because so far little has been filled in. It’s not clear that anyone is policing content or that it couldn’t easily be dragged away from its supposed mission by saturating it with non-academic material, games, music, etc. At the moment, however, it seems to largely be a world-accessible WebCT and so, while it may serve for teachers who would like to use that but whose institutions don’t support it, that hardly seems like a growth market and such institutions will presumably be difficult about recognising such work as credit-worthy. So I wonder, really, whether there is a niche for this service. It seems to rely on people not being aware of its rivals…

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