Blog War: Harvard vs. Stanford
Posted on March 26th, 2007 in Uncategorized | 8 Comments »
Someone sent me a list of Harvard blogs to prove that there are, in fact, more than two Harvard profs who blog.
Here it is:
Econ prof Greg Mankiw
Jeffrey Nesson’s cyberlaw blog
John Palfrey’s Berkman Center blog
Jonathan Zittrain’s blog (arguably doesn’t count, as it is Oxford-branded)
Toby Stock’s HLS admissions blog
The Kennedy School Library blog (last updated, last November)*
That’s six. Blogs. At Harvard.
Surely there must be more. (And in fact there are.)
Just out of curiosity, I Googled “Stanford university” and “blog” and got a ton of relevant hitsâand the blogs there are really interesting.
For example:
The World Association of International Studies economics blog
The Stanford University Libraries Blog
The Stanford Social Innovation Review blog
A whole bunch of blogs at Stanford’s Center for Internet and Society
Lawrence Lessig’s blog
The Stanford University Press blog
A whole bunch of blogs at the Stanford School of Medicine
I could go on and on, but you get the point. The institution of the blog seems to have taken deeper root at Harvard’s west coast rival than it has in Cambridge.
Why are so many more people blogging at Stanford than at Harvard? Is it because Stanford appreciates the Net in a way that Harvard does not? Because Harvard’s professors are older than Stanford’s and don’t get this newfangled technology? Is it because Harvard doesn’t foster a climate where the free exchange of opinions and ideas is encouraged, but is instead discouraged and punished? Is it because Harvard’s culture resists change?
Not to pat myself on the back, but why is it that the most topical blog about life at Harvard is written by someone who neither goes there nor works there?
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* A poster informs that the Kennedy School library blog can be found here, and has been recently updated. Thanks for the info.
8 Responses
3/26/2007 11:20 pm
Richard,
You obviously think about the social and academic value of blogs. It sounds like a good topic for a book, or at least an indepth article in the Atlantic.
You may have a point in showing that Harvard faculty are not up to date on this latest form of technological exchange of ideas. I wonder how many Harvard faculty have even a web-site, or have a recent CV on a web-site, or use e-mail.
But the comparison with Stanford may be unfair, or with MIT. More techie faculty should be expected to use technology more than humanists, no? Perhaps the relevant comparison is within similar professions.
I wonder if there is a generational effect here. Is the faculty at Harvard older on average than the faculty at Stanford? Does this vary by school?
Maybe the technological lag of Harvard faculty is indicative of other ways in which that University is out of touch with the times.
3/27/2007 9:37 am
Hello,
This is Annie Jo from the Kennedy School Library. I just wanted to note that you are linking to our old blog and that post from last November states that the blog has moved to here:
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/library/blog/
It was updated a few days ago.
3/27/2007 9:45 am
Thanks, Annie Joâappreciate the info. You’ll see that the post has now been amended.
3/27/2007 11:49 am
Richard,
You could also add the conservative physics blog by Assistant Professor in the Physics department, Lubos Motl, who certainly maintains an active blog.
http://motls.blogspot.com/
I know other poster’s have pointed this one out before.
3/27/2007 4:53 pm
You mean, Charlie Nesson, right?
Million Dollar Charlie.
3/27/2007 8:36 pm
I’m reposting a comment I made further down, since it’s still relevant and you never responded.
Is anyone but you agitating for Harvard faculty blogs? (Not saying it’s not an interesting idea, but it does seem to be kind of an SITD-only cause. Your question presumes that Faust would want to encourage faculty to blog… I suspect this will be a low priority, if a priority at all.)
Speaking of which, how many blogs do you read every day? Can you be more specific about the kind of blogs you’d like to see Harvard faculty do? Stuff integrated into classes, or not?… Curious.
I’m playing devil’s advocate a bit here, but is it realistic to ask or encourage faculty to blog, without making it a part of academic/tenure evaluations? Is it currently part of academic/tenure evaluations?
4/3/2024 2:49 pm
Most Harvard faculty have some sort of web presence though it is usually not updated by them. Each department handles its own website and has information about its faculty there (with name, title, brief vita). Some departments have more developed sites for their faculty with links to published works, full vitas, etc.
Having worked for a variety of Harvard faculty members as a faculty assistant, I can say that majority of faculty do not update their own websites. They hand of information to their assistant, who may or may not have time or training, to update a site.
All Harvard faculty have e-mail addresses, they’re required to, and the vast majority check them regularly. Those that don’t check e-mail regularly, are usually the same faculty who let their voice mail boxes fill up, and forget to check their mailx box for new correspondance. Faculty who do that range from junior to emeritus.
2/11/2024 7:47 pm
stimulating and informative, but would make something more on this topic?