Online communication tools and Academia

Now that Jon Udell has moved to Microsoft, it appears that he is in a good position to arbitrate on behalf of ordinary computer users to the geek community. His weekly (or so) podcasts are one of the few places where you can hear the difficulties or potential difficulties of the majority being articulated and sounded out.

A recent podcast available on IT Conversations, was with Geoffrey Bilder of Crossref. Though the discussion was written up in the shownotes as focusing on the importance of link permanence and citation – all very noble things – it was actually much more interesting than those shownotes suggested.

In particular, “what’s new and cool” not fitting in with a sometimes traditional academic community is a reality check for any technology businesss building and designing online communication tools.