Hi Vince,

Your blogs on healthcare providers has given me much of think about in terms of the impact social media will have on patient privacy. Technology has changed medicine in so many ways and it would be great for doctors to have open online discussions to solve medical needs. I think the public could benefit tremendously from this type of communication as well, but retaining healthcare privacy rights are an issue. Perhaps in the future, patients will sign a waiver to allow research and discussion to take place on social media? And, as the generations that grew up with social media become older, the sharing of medical information will be ubiquitous in the culture.

This is a very interesting community to examine. Psychologists rely heavily on the exchange of information through databases, journals, conferences, and dissertations. As a psychology student during my undergraduate education, the information I had available seemed very static and, at times, difficult to find and obtain. I often found myself frustrated as I was searching for information on my research interest. I recall my advisor telling me about a website where someone had illegally uploaded a significant amount of scientific journal articles for free access. I was shocked and understood the legal implications but I also couldn’t help but find it irreverently heroic, like a Robin Hood for us scholars. I started to fantasize about a much more open and free space for information sharing among psychologists. What if there was a place to access everything?

Soon after, a paper that I had submitted to a publisher was rejected. My advisor tried to comfort me by saying that “it was only because the findings weren’t interesting enough for the publisher”. That made me wonder where all the boring stuff goes? Where can I read papers without significant results? Where can I find the papers that never get published? How would the direction of research change if the mediums of sharing were less competitive? Could such a means be created that still safeguarded the integrity of academic research but shared the work that didn’t make the cut into academic journals? Or would it just become like Reddit or Wikipedia, a place that everyone visits but has questionable standards?

Illiad and other academic interlibrary loaning systems have been very helpful in expanding the accessible content to individuals enrolled in or working at an academic institution and I have heavily relied on this service. I think it would be a huge benefit to academic information communities to make the rejected papers available and easily searchable on a database.

Hi Vince,

I grew up in Hawaii and love tiki bars! There is a cool one in downtown San Diego called False Idol. The Dukes chain in Hawaii and LA have cool mai tai glasses that you can purchase, too. Also, have you read any Hawaiian history? It’s really interesting and goes back thousands of years from their voyage from Tahiti and beyond. The culture in Hawaii is embedded with Hawaiian myths and legends, and those are also really interesting to read as well.

Those are good definitions that may become part of the framework of your lit review. I wonder if each group seeks information differently….