Deutsche Gesellschaft für Online-Forschung - D.G.O.F. e.V. i.G.
 
GOR 98
Abstracts

Ihre Wahl:
 
GOR Home
 
Übersicht
 
  --
 
  ++
 
 
    
Science Communication and Internet Discussion Groups:
Are there any Returns for Science?

 
Uwe Matzat
 
ICS / Department of Sociology
University of Groningen
Grote Rozenstr. 31
NL-9712 TG Groningen
T.: +31 ( 050 ) 3 63 62 60
F.: +31 ( 050 ) 3 63 62 26
U.Matzat@PPSW.RUG.NL
 
Stichworte: sociology of science, computer-mediated communication, Internet Discussion Groups, invisible college
 
Usenet Newsgroups and Mailing Lists are nowadays used by scientists out of every discipline for their work. The use of these Internet Discussion Groups (IDGs) goes along with a variety of different expectations about the benefits that these groups can have for scientists. The majority of scientists remains somehow sceptical if any benefits at all can be obtained. Computer-enthusiasts predict that IDGs will change the communication structure of science because the access to "invisible college"-networks will no longer be restricted to a small minority of famous top researchers within a field. Others expect a "peripherality effect". IDGs will offer some information and contact benefits that are of special importance to peripheral scientists.
This paper gives an overview of the different hypotheses about the effects of IDGs for science communication that can be found in the literature. It reviews the (sparse) empirical evidence for or against these hypotheses. Moreover, an ongoing study is presented that tries to test the hypotheses systematically. The data of this study contain information about the communication behaviour of Dutch and English scientists out of 8 disciplines within the natural and social sciences in 1998 -inclusive their use of IDGs. However, the presented empirical results are very preliminary because the data analysis could not yet include all respondents’ data.
  


 
 
© 1998 GOR Team | Webmaster: rg