A Copyfighter’s Musings

…. We are watching. But we are not waiting.”

Berkman Center Executive Director John Palfrey mentioned the new Harvard blogs initiative at his blog today. It got a nice mention at the Washington Post, too. John says:

“We’re convinced that blogging, evangelized by Dave [Winer] and others here, can help spread the wealth of knowledge from school to school; from student to student; and from elsewhere into Harvard and vice-versa. The Web, e-mail and other basic Net-based apps generally have had this effect to some extent. But not in a wholly satisfying manner. I wouldn’t bet again blogs making the next big step forward.”

I would love to see Harvard “wake up” in this way. As a student, I would love to use blogs to engage other students and professors from all around the university. And, after yesterday’s experience with the blogosphere, I am even more excited about what a fully blogging Harvard would be like. This would be particularly important for Harvard’s current curricular review and recent curricular reforms. Basically, students like myself find out about changes after they’ve been made, and we generally find out about them from The Harvard Crimson, not the university itself. Our student government has hardly any communication with the student body; they’re essentially like high school student government, in that they yell at you to vote for about a week and then stay the hell away from you. The format of the UC’s webpage has finally been updated, but it still has no useful information (and still doesn’t reflect changes in UC offices). It’s a joke.

I would love it if, when curricular changes are debated, the UC wrote something on a blog, advocating their position(s). And I’d like it if I could read administrators and professors opinions. I wish the debates would take place in the open in an easily accessible way. Perhaps blogging could help make that happen.

Filed by Derek Slater at 5:12 pm under General news
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