The public presentation of self is identity work, but the networked practices by which scholars build a name and reputation for their work differ from the practices and strategies used - and recognized - within the academy. This presentation explores Bonnie Stewart's dissertation research into how networked scholars circulate identity and reputation in networked publics.

1. Networked identities
vs.
institutional identities
@bonstewart
University of Prince Edward Island
Social Media & Society
2013
Scholars in the Open:

2. Higher education:
multiple axes of change
knowledge scarcity
knowledge abundance
open practices
public funding
marketization
closed practices

3. False binary –
both are reputational economies
Networked
scholarly
practices
institutional
scholarly
practices

4. Academic Reputation
Those who work within the academy become
very skilled at judging the stuff of reputations.
Where has the person’s work been published,
what claims of priority in discovery have they
established, how often have they been cited,
how and where reviewed, what prizes won,
what institutional ties earned, what
organizations led?
(Willinsky, 2010, p. 297).

5. What counts?

6. Not just new tools, but new literacies
h"p://www.flickr.com/photos/rofi/2647699204/

7. Participatory culture = new ethos
“Paradigm cases of new literacies have
both new “technical stuff” (digitality) and
new “ethos stuff”…what is central to new
literacies is not the fact that we can now
“look up information online” or write essays
using a word processor rather than a pen…
but rather, that they mobilize very different
kinds of values and priorities and
sensibilities.”
- Knobel & Lankshear (2007)

8. Identities for a new ethos:
open, public learner/educators

9. Differing sensibilities & legitimacy
practices
Institutions Networks
product-focused process-focused
mastery participation
bounded by time/space always accessible
hierarchical ties peer-to-peer ties
plagiarism crowdsourcing
authority in role authority in reputation
audience = scholars audience = world

10. Differing/conflicting credibility
strategies

11. “Me, Inc.”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/4880623547

12. Networked Publics
• Multiple, overlapping, global networks
• Always public, always accessible
• Different audiences all in plain sight
• Identities are persistent, replicable, scalable &
searchable

13. …that awkward moment when you realize
that your students – or your VP, or the person
whose article you just trashed – follow you on
Twitter.
Context Collapse

14. • How are status and reputations
developed, circulated, and
understood among participants in
scholarly networked publics?
• What practices and cues do
networked scholars utilize to build and
‘read’ reputations for open, public
scholarly work?
Research Focus

15. Thank you.
@bonstewart