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images: 5
FAQs: 1
Memos: 21
Files: 1
Groups: 2
Location: International
Work interests: History of the Research Cooperative
Affiliation/website:
Preferred contact method: Reply to post in blog/forum/group
Preferred contact language(s):
Contact: email = researchcooperative atto gmail dotto com
Favourite publications: Research Cooperative Review (RCR), Short Communications of the Research Cooperative (SCRC)
Work interests: History of the Research Cooperative
Affiliation/website:
The Research Cooperative
Preferred contact method: Reply to post in blog/forum/group
Preferred contact language(s):
Contact: email = researchcooperative atto gmail dotto com
Favourite publications: Research Cooperative Review (RCR), Short Communications of the Research Cooperative (SCRC)
Our first 100 members - a number to celebrate
Today (Monday, 22nd September 2008) we reached (and then passed) a membership number of 100. This a number to celebrate because it begins to show us how useful the Cooperative might become, internationally (see also our note on how membership numbers have increased over time).
To expand on this point, I have manually collated summary data on various aspects of the composition of our membership, based on the public record provided in member profiles (see below).
I will also comment here on other aspects of the Research Cooperative, and its future development.
1. Locations (and countries) reported in member profiles
2. Topics reported in member profiles (research interests and work areas)
3. Languages reported in member profiles
4. Our forums for offers and requests have hardly been used. I suspect that this is largely explained by the shyness of new members, who may want to see examples of offers and requests written by other members, before sending their own messages to the forum. The early examples will provide approximate templates for how to write offers and requests.
5. Suggestions for etiquette between members. So far, no problems have been reported, but now that we have 100 members and growing, the possibilities for misunderstanding will increase exponentially. We may need to start writing and then rewriting a guide to etiquette for the site. As a first comment, I would like to emphasise that unless a member has made a public offer or request in a forum, other members should not assume that an offer or request has been made simply because the person has joined the cooperative.
To contact other members directly, based on their profile information, we use various methods, but in all situations, we should be as considerate as possible.
6. Because we now have a considerable number of members, I have written a note to explaining how to search for all kinds of information inside our site. See the note 'Search methods inside the Research Cooperative'.
7. We really need the help of all members to introduce the site to friends and colleagues who are also involved with research-based writing. Some members have already sent out invitations to others, and as crator and administrator of our website, I thank them sincerely for this.
8. Experimental use of Google adwords: for a couple of months a Google adword account was set up to try increase the visibility fo the Co-op website online. This had some good effect, but was expensive. It is an approach that requires time and experience to refine for best effect.
9. We are always looking for volunteer editors and translators to edit or translate our website introduction, into further languages (see our existing translations here). We also need help to revise translations that were made previously, early in our development.
10. We would like to provide some very particular kinds of link at the Research Cooperative, namely:
11. Improvements in layout - using the tabs. Our host, Ning.com, has developed a system that allows us to freely design menu tabs for navigating to various parts of the site. I have used this to highlight some of our introduction pages written in other languages: Nihongo (i.e. Japanese), and others.
12. From October, with the help of our sponsor (to be announced), we are planning to expand our use of online advertising to bring in further members from inside Japan, and from abroad. To form a core group of members, foreign researchers and graduate students who are working in Japan may be key people to reach out to, as they (we) are often in the position of having to help our Japanese colleagues with research writing in English or other languages, and it may be useful if we can delegate some requests for such help to the Research Cooperative (we are not always able to help our colleagues, due to our own work pressures, or because we lack the specific required skills; often we are asked to mediate to help find other people to help with writing or translation).
To expand on this point, I have manually collated summary data on various aspects of the composition of our membership, based on the public record provided in member profiles (see below).
I will also comment here on other aspects of the Research Cooperative, and its future development.
1. Locations (and countries) reported in member profiles
Summary: 23 countries or autonomous regions were reported.
2. Topics reported in member profiles (research interests and work areas)
Summary: approximately 211 general or specialist interests were reported. The main disciplines or larger research areas were: agriculture, anthropology, archaeology, arts, botany, business, development, economy, ethnography, geography, history, literature, marine science, psychology, social sciences
3. Languages reported in member profiles
Summary: About 19 languages were reported, as either languages for correspondence, or as working languages. The three languages most commonly represented were English, Spanish, and Japanese, and 11 languages were represented by only one member of the Research Cooperative.
4. Our forums for offers and requests have hardly been used. I suspect that this is largely explained by the shyness of new members, who may want to see examples of offers and requests written by other members, before sending their own messages to the forum. The early examples will provide approximate templates for how to write offers and requests.
5. Suggestions for etiquette between members. So far, no problems have been reported, but now that we have 100 members and growing, the possibilities for misunderstanding will increase exponentially. We may need to start writing and then rewriting a guide to etiquette for the site. As a first comment, I would like to emphasise that unless a member has made a public offer or request in a forum, other members should not assume that an offer or request has been made simply because the person has joined the cooperative.
To contact other members directly, based on their profile information, we use various methods, but in all situations, we should be as considerate as possible.
6. Because we now have a considerable number of members, I have written a note to explaining how to search for all kinds of information inside our site. See the note 'Search methods inside the Research Cooperative'.
7. We really need the help of all members to introduce the site to friends and colleagues who are also involved with research-based writing. Some members have already sent out invitations to others, and as crator and administrator of our website, I thank them sincerely for this.
8. Experimental use of Google adwords: for a couple of months a Google adword account was set up to try increase the visibility fo the Co-op website online. This had some good effect, but was expensive. It is an approach that requires time and experience to refine for best effect.
9. We are always looking for volunteer editors and translators to edit or translate our website introduction, into further languages (see our existing translations here). We also need help to revise translations that were made previously, early in our development.
10. We would like to provide some very particular kinds of link at the Research Cooperative, namely:
(1) Links to people or organisations that previously supported us, or that are currently supporting us
(sponsors).
(2) Links to publishers who we wish to support, and especially those that have created links to our site
(reciprocal linking),
(3) Links to organisations and sources of information that may be useful for many of our members, or for
development of the Research Cooperative.
(sponsors).
(2) Links to publishers who we wish to support, and especially those that have created links to our site
(reciprocal linking),
(3) Links to organisations and sources of information that may be useful for many of our members, or for
development of the Research Cooperative.
11. Improvements in layout - using the tabs. Our host, Ning.com, has developed a system that allows us to freely design menu tabs for navigating to various parts of the site. I have used this to highlight some of our introduction pages written in other languages: Nihongo (i.e. Japanese), and others.
12. From October, with the help of our sponsor (to be announced), we are planning to expand our use of online advertising to bring in further members from inside Japan, and from abroad. To form a core group of members, foreign researchers and graduate students who are working in Japan may be key people to reach out to, as they (we) are often in the position of having to help our Japanese colleagues with research writing in English or other languages, and it may be useful if we can delegate some requests for such help to the Research Cooperative (we are not always able to help our colleagues, due to our own work pressures, or because we lack the specific required skills; often we are asked to mediate to help find other people to help with writing or translation).