Member Blogs: A bit of an Experiment!

We thought we would try something different and publish individual thoughts from our members via their own blogs hosted here at The Collaborative.

The thinking is that as a collaborative network of practitioners who are also applied researchers, Member Blogs can be beneficial for several reasons:

• Diversity of Thought: Each of our members comes with a unique perspective, influenced by their specific area of research, professional background, personal experiences, and cultural context. By publishing individual ideas, The Collaborative as a platform benefits from a rich tapestry of diverse thoughts, thereby enhancing its value and comprehensiveness.
• Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Even within a field, the nuances of specializations can be vast. By sharing ideas in one space, members from different disciplines or sub-disciplines can find intersections, potentially leading to innovative interdisciplinary research and solutions.
• Peer Review & Feedback: The Collaborative can act as an informal peer review system. By posting their thoughts, members expose their ideas to critique, feedback, and suggestions from their peers. This process can refine their thoughts and improve the quality of both their research and their professional practice.

• Building a Community-of-Practice: A common platform fosters a sense of community. It allows members to support each other, understand what others are working on, and collaborate more efficiently.
• Wider Audience: By combining their individual audiences into a single platform, there's potential to reach a broader readership than if each member were to publish independently.
• Rapid Knowledge Dissemination: The pace of academic publishing can be slow. By sharing preliminary findings, insights, or hypotheses here on The Collaborative, member can rapidly disseminate and exchange knowledge.
• Personal Branding & Recognition: Even within a collaborative setting, individual members can establish their reputation and personal brand. They can be recognized for their specific contributions, and it helps them prepare for a world where academic and professional branding is becoming increasingly crucial.

• Improved Learning: Explaining one's thoughts and ideas to peers can be an excellent way to clarify one's understanding. The process of writing for a wider audience forces a person to distill complex ideas into more accessible language.
• Resource Sharing: Beyond just sharing thoughts, The Collaborative can be a place to share resources, such as data sets, tools, methodologies, or even opportunities like conferences, workshops, and funding sources.
• Staying Updated: Given the rapidly evolving nature of many disciplines, being in a space where everyone is sharing their latest findings and understandings ensures that all members stay updated on the latest advancements.
• Encouraging a Collaborative Spirit: Sharing on a common platform instills a culture of collaboration rather than competition. In the long run, this can lead to more holistic and comprehensive solutions to complex problems, which is what we are all about...its our Why!

First Member Blog up, will be The Art of Data Governance by Malcolm Fraser, who is exploring the application of Action Reseach into the realm of Data Governance, Data Product Design, Platform Ecosystems and Data Collaboratives.