Adventures in digital academia

Melissa Terras, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Communication in UCL Information Studies, not only runs a blog about her work - she also researches how blogs are used in academic life. She explains the fascination with this immediate, boundary-bending method of communicating. 'If I am going to teach and research how web 2.0 technologies are used in the modern information environment, I feel that I really should be participating too. So two years ago I started my blog to write about my professional activities. Over this time I've built a dedicated readership and now use it as a channel for interacting with students and colleagues.  'Maintaining a blog raises many issues though, regarding the type of information you want to be out there about your work, and where to draw the professional and personal boundary. It's a careful, considered space, but one I feel that I should be participating in. Realistically, how can I demonstrate and research these tools unless I'm prepared to play with them myself' 'Along with my colleague Claire Warwick, Director of the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities, I have recently secured funding from the Joint Information Systems Committee to work with the University of Reading on a project called 'Linksphere'.