(For other years, see Co-op Diary Archive)

Top page has been reorganised

December 2nd, 2011

Our network mission statement has been placed in a wide panel at top of the page. This made it possible to bring the new member photos closer to the top, and to add a side panel giving hints on how to explore the network. When I greet new members with a personal message, I often ask them to start by exploring the network. There is a lot to find here now, for anyone who is seriously interested in research communication.

Our printed network brochure has been translated into Japanese, and Editage is now preparing the layout and proofs. When printed copies are available, we can start sending them to institutions and individuals around Japan.

Our host Ning.com has raised the price for hosting our network

June 23rd, 2011

From July 20th, the annual cost for our Ning Plus hosting subscription will be $239.90. This is just a few dollars more than previously, and is not too much. Ning services have improved a lot in the last 12 months.

Since opening a donation panel on our top page, several months ago, we have received zero donations. The network creator and chief administrator will continue to cover our running costs.

Compounding disasters and a possible role for the Research Cooperative

April 3rd, 2011

This network is largely maintained from a desk in Japan. Fortunately, the Osaka-Kyoto region was not directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami on 11th March, 2011 (the Tohoku Disaster), but longer-term effects are expected. (Tohoku is the wider region in northern Japan where the series of earthquakes and tsunami began on 11th March). The energy industry in Japan an elsewhere has been selling a legal drug that leads to an ever increasing demand for more of the same drug. Instead of investing in energy use reduction, the push has been to develop ever more reasons for people to consume electricity and justify the existence of the nuclear power plants. This makes short-term economic sense (for a consumption-led model of human development), but now we face a long-term reduction in energy supplies, withdrawal symptoms, and large areas of unusable farmland in a part of Japan where rural industries dominated.

The compounding effects of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear contamination are only just beginning to reveal themselves.

The hope of many in Japan is that we can learn from this and change the way we live. If there are not long-term consequences for the whole country, then those who were directly affected will have good reason to complain. Leadership for change in the aims of social and economic development is unlikely to come from entrenched political organisations. There are many NPOs and NGOs in Japan that will continue to work creatively to support the communities affected, and to promote more active discussion of how the country can respond in the long-term. In all of this there are many lessons to be learned for people around the world, and there is a real need for outside researchers to look at what is happening in Japan. Our network can help by hosting communication support projects where participants (members of our network) are able to offer support for research, translation, editing, and publishing efforts related to the Tohoku Disaster.

Please join our project "Volunteers for Communication: Japan Focus Group" or contact me (Peter Matthews, email researchcooperative at gmail.com) to discuss this further.

A short holiday

March 9th, 2011

Last month I traveled to New Zealand with my family and had a short island holiday far from computers and the internet. As hoped, the network continued to operate well enough in my absence, though many new members had to wait several days before their memberships were approved. While I rested, our contact in Ghana, Tulasi Mathias, worked hard to draw in new members, and we now have a good core of members from across Ghana. Having such local support makes a huge difference to how well we can develop our network in different countries. We definitely need volunteer supporters in many locations, and any offers with help to promote the network are welcome. Please contact me (Dr Peter Matthews) with this address: researchcooperative at gmail dot com.

Network development and promotion

January 30th, 2011

This month I have been working on the following:

1. Negotiation with a French-English translator to introduce more network content in French.

2. Negotiation with a media studies student in Ghana about ways to promote the network in Ghana.

3. Negotiation with a respondent to our recent publicity in the Japan Times (who may be able to help with translation of network content into Japanese and German).

4. Retooling the network main menu.

5. Revision of the Research Cooperative brochure for reprinting by Editage, our sponsor in practical matters.

6. Discussion with the Ning help desk about the sudden failure of our 'Simple' search functions in early January. The help desk has told me that this problem has been seen in many networks hosted by Ning, and they are pressing for attention from Ning engineers. Meanwhile, the advanced profile search and Google search pages can still be used. It is good that we can use Google as an alternative system for our network. The Ning system is in many ways superior, when it works.

7. Establishing a page for the Co-op Press Centre and Archive (previous Co-op News can be reached through this page).

8. Today I created a country page for Aotearoa NZ, and invited all Co-op members known to be based in NZ to join. Any Co-op member can join any of our country pages, according to his or her geographic and work interests.

See news archive for all years