Research presence

Inspired by a posting by Justin on his blog concerning social presence, I've been thinking about the importance of awareness, presence and connectedness in the context of my research. Perhaps we could call this research presence. Seems quite appropriate: to what extent are people aware of my research and of my contributions? Do I have a presence in the research community and do I feel present? And am I connected to the right people, the state-of-the art in terms of results and the right theories.

I have to say that the answer for the present is no. Having taken some time off for family reasons, I feel that I am less present than I was before. Why? I am less aware of what is going on and I have simply forgotten some of the things that I learned earlier - you know the feeling, you find an interesting paper on the web, you go to download it for future reference, only to find not only is it stored in your library, but you've annotated it with your comments!

I've been less present in terms of my blog postings, my participation in the weekly Skype sessions with fellow students and in discussions with colleagues at EUN. Perhaps more importantly, I have not yet got into the habit of writing down my thoughts as I read and observe - an essential activity for research presence.

It may not be New Year but it is an opportune moment to set myself a resolution to address this, starting here. Justin's posting is excellent and got me thinking about theory. He has a research presence, going beyond his social presence and connecteness by articulating his thoughts on research, encouraging his reader to enter into a dialogue with him. An essential part of his own reification process.