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

Promotion via Listservs
26th September 2010
Early in the development of this network it was suggested to me that sending messages to academic listservs would be an effective way to promote the Research Cooperative. I was reluctant to do this, until now, as our network was not yet well established, and it might not have seemed very relevant to Listserv subscribers. Two things have convinced me to start using listservs for promotion:

(1) when using a direct mail advertising company, the company found almost no negative feedback from the researchers receiving our message, and the positive response has been very large, giving us almost 2,000 new members.

(2) Now that we have so many members, it is easy to explain the relevance of the network to even the most specialised of Listserv groups. From now on, I will try to contact Listserv groups as much as time permits. My hope is that Research Cooperative members can do the same for Listserv groups they are members of. I am only able to reach publically listed Listserv groups, but such groups represent a small fraction of the total number of Listserv groups in existence.

Research Cooperative members are likely to have access to many Listserv groups that I can never reach. If they can contact such groups, it will be important for them to do this carefully, and in a way that makes the information relevant to each particular Listserv (for example, by pointing out that we already have members who are working in the same or closely related fields, as well as many editors and translators who may be able to help researchers in these fields).

Mailing results, 8th June - 6th July
17th July 2010
The following graph and map show visitor peaks at the Research Cooperative over the period of our mass mailing of invitations:

Tuesday 8-June: Asia/Japan, Aus/NZ, Middle East

Tuesday 22-June: USA/Can, S. America, Africa

Tuesday 6^th July: UK, W. Europe, E. Europe

The blue graph shows visitors over time; the green map shows the density of visits and from across nations.





Donations box added
19th June 2010
Today I added a donation box that leads directly to a PayPal account, from which any funds received will be transferred to a New Zealand account established for the Research Cooperative. Donations have been requested to help translate pages of the Research Cooperative into other languages. A summary of donations made will be made by the end of the year or when our goal of $USD 800 is reached, whichever comes sooner.

Our development, running and promotion costs in 2010 (not counting my time) are expected to be approximately $USD 2,000.

Support the Research Cooperative?

For enquiries or further details, contact Dr Peter Matthews (founder, Research Cooperative), email researchcooperative [at] gmail [dot] com

Invitation schedule and results
14th June 2010, Kyoto

Tuesday 8-June: Asia/Japan, Aus/NZ, Middle East

Tuesday 22-June: USA/Can, S. America, Africa

Tuesday 6^th July: UK, W. Europe, E. Europe

On Tuesday 8th June, 9,000 invitations were sent out to researchers across the Pacific, and from western to eastern Asia. Approximately 300 new members have joined as a result, and we welcome all of them! Here is screen shot showing how visitors numbers peaked:



Not all those joining received an invitation directly from the Research Cooperative. Some of our new members have kindly invited their own friends and colleagues to join, and this has helped significantly, as the response to such personal invitations is usually very good.

Over the next few weeks there will be two more mailings of 9,000 invitations each, and we hope to raise our membership numbers, and activity, significantly through the expected increase in membership.
From China, I received the following encouraging reply from a recipient of our invitation:

"Dear Dr. Peter J. Matthews,

I am writing on behalf of Dr. [ ] Director General of Institute of [ ], China. Thank for your last message introducing a scientific network for researchers, translators, editors etc..We have logged in, it is really a good help, thank you very much.

Best Regards!

Sincerely yours, [Project Officer]"


'Advanced search' with Google is now available
May 2010, Kyoto
A page for advanced search (see under the Search tab above) has been set up so that we can easily search different areas of the website, and enjoy the indexing provided by Google. If you cannot use Google pages, then our internal search system (provided by our host, Ning) might be a good alternative for you.

Promotion report
April 2010, Kyoto
This month we completed a mailing of invitations to 27,000 recipients across many disciplines and all continents, using the Medlist direct email service. This led to a doubling of our membership numbers, approximately (from around 1000 to around 2000), and there very few negative responses (people asking not to be sent mail again).

Our website search system is undergoing maintenance; please use the Google custom search panel 15th February 2010, Kyoto
Members who wish to search our network for other members, for groups, or for information, are advised to use the Google search panel located under our list of forums, and at the top of search option in our search menu (above).
NB: The Google search panel may be more effective if you include the keyword 'profile' when searching for member profiles, 'notes' when searching for information in our notes, and 'group' when searching for information from our group pages.

Our network search system (provided by Ning) is undergoing maintenance
(re-indexing) for unknown period of time (no more than a few days, I
hope).

Promotion report 12th February 2010, Kyoto
Our latest newsworthy effort has been a successful trial mailing of invitations to 1000 researchers across Europe, using the services of Medlist, a company that makes an effort to send people information they might actually want to see. A further 3000 invitations were sent out on Tuesday 8th Feb, with further good results, and many positive personal replies. We welcome the many new members who have joined as a result. Further mailings are planned over the next few weeks.

WANTED! 11th February 2010
Volunteer reporters-at-large for the Research Cooperative. Curiosity, ideas, and writing ability required. See contact details below.News topic suggestions are also welcome, even if you cannot write the news. Please contact Peter Matthews (researchcooperative-at-gmail-dot-com) for enquiries.