More on academic blogging from the Chronicle from grad student blogger Rebecca A. Goetz. It is a pretty good piece, and on-target.

She rightly notes:

Academics who blog and assemble carnivals can perform thought experiments and try out ideas quickly without going through the conventional publications or conference process. They can also comment on areas outside of their expertise or current research. If they like, and I’ve been known to do this myself, they can be a bit silly on their blogs too, letting off steam at the end of a long week.

In short, I find that blogging makes my work better. What isn’t to like about that?

Indeed.

Ultimately blogging is, to me, about more reading, thinking and writing. How can that be a bad thing for anyone, let alone someone in academia?

And her advice to hiring committees is correct:

The meaning and purpose behind a blog is, of course, in the eye of a blogger. For every blogger who posts only serious scholarly material, there will be many more bloggers like me who mix the personal and the professional in fun and quirky ways. My advice to job committees: If you have a blogger in your pool, give the candidacy serious consideration. Job seekers who blog are thoughtful, interesting people who are fascinated by the possibilities that this new medium has for enhancing their personal and professional lives. Do not fear the blog; embrace it. You’ll be glad you did.

Of course, despite their likely political leanings, academics are a conservative lot by nature when it comes to the way they conduct their professional lives. My guess is that general acceptance of blogging (or a web presence in general) is, at least in part, a generational issue.

The good news is that a lot of older faculty don’t automatically Google people.

And setting aside all seriousness, the line “don’t fear the blog” makes me think that it is time for a remake of “Don’t Fear the Reaper”:

Of course, any serious scholar noting the silliness in the above portion of the post would probably think “shouldn’t Taylor be doing some serious work instead of composing lyrics?” (Of course, if you read the lyrics, you can discern that it didn’t take me all that long).

The answer would be “yes”–I have a book and an article that both are calling for my attention (and some grading), but if it makes anyone feel better, I was writing this post while I was eating lunch–but now it is time to brew some coffee and go back to writing on Colombian democracy.

h/t: Daniel Drezner.