Getting Web Work Recognized

...by tenure/promotion committees, I mean. I'm going to join the 20-some-odd people who are congratulating AKMA on his recommendation from the faculty for a promotion to full professor. He says that "[t]he committee explicitly signaled approval for my scholarship and my technology work, and indicated that they hoped Seabury could arrange my responsibilities so as to take full advantage of my strengths." [my emphasis]. Could it be that online presence and electronic publishing are finally getting recognized as important? Or are theological seminaries just more with-it?

Seriously, I think that the legitimization of online scholarship is starting at the small-school level--small, private, liberal-arts schools and small state schools, perhaps. I think Research I schools will be the last to really appreciate blogging and other kinds of electronic publishing. Sure, Harvard Law's got blogs, and blogs are also being enthusiastically received for student writing at other places too, but would a blog--or publications in electronic journals only--get a person any esteem from an institution? One thing I've always found interesting is that Glenn Reynolds' UT faculty page makes no mention of Reynolds' having the #1 blog on the internet. He gets over 100,000 hits per day from all over the world. Why don't they mention that kind of influence? Perhaps Reynolds doesn't want it mentioned; I thought of that.

Anyway...must get back to preparing for class tomorrow. I have a paper on electronic scholarly publishing that I'm planning to rework and publish here. It's one of my summer goals. :-)