Middle distance scholarship?

The Open Laboratory is a Lulu-published book, after the fashion of celebrity edited “Best X writing of 2007″ but consisting of writing culled only from science blogs. It’s the first time I’ve seen this kind of volume, though I am sure there’s plenty of others. It makes me think about the possibility of a “middle distance” in scholarly work, in between the day to day chatter of blogs and discussion, and the longterm, uphill battle of journal article and book writing. I like to think that all this blogging might eventually result in something CV-worthy… if not watertight. I also don’t mind that this particular kind of volume isn’t open access–it’s materials obviously were to begin with, but I think (or at least I would hope) that the editorial work involved is worth the price. Edited by Bora of “blog around the clock.” Best of social science and humanities blogging (2007) anyone?

Christopher Kelty does anthropological and historical research on science and technology, free and open source software, intellectual property and open access, the history of software, and the ethics and politics of nanotechnology. He also teaches classes about all of these things. From 2001 to 2008 he was assistant professor of anthropology at Rice University, in Houston, TX. He know teaches at UCLA and splits his time between the Information Studies department, the Anthropology Department and the Center for Society and Genetics.