DamienLanfrey.Net

Yes, this is a new label for a series of posts I am just introducing.. (clearly, I am also symbolically pushing myself to post more)

In my research I have developed the idea of meta-organizations (enriching it from the original work of Ahrne and Brunnson - read my PhD abstract to understand a bit better what I mean), alias those organizations that exist to "facilitate diverse micro-organizational projects under a broad umbrella goal". I think this concept/ideal organizational configuration/construct works very well to explain what is happening online now, often identified with the proliferation of so-called user-generated platforms and user-generated content or UGC.
While most of Web 2.0 sites are, yes, user-generated, they are not user-governed, neither their architectures truly user-created or conceived. Yet, the organizations behind such platforms (what interests me so much) are showing some distinctive traits and cannot be so easily dismissed as typical corporate organizational behaviour. They are not the usual 'evil bureaucracies', as critical academics label them, or at least they face organizational challenges and develop organizational practices that are, in my opinion (and argument) fundamentally different (serious introduction almost finished :) ).
On the other side, optimists have praised such platforms as expressions of connectedness and listed in many ways the benefits, flexibility of being networked, peer-to-peer organizations, mass participation and loose coordination. All very nice, but this vision underestimates the role of organizing teams, founders and organizational practices (only for considering those as 'negative' when uncovered).

This series of posts will try to explain what I mean by meta-organizations, why it is, I think, a very useful concept and which traits / practices (for example monitoring and data gathering practices, incentive structures ) characterize such organizations-as-platforms (particularly in the context of Web-native platforms). Most importantly, it will be also be a way for me for enriching, developing, strengthening the concept. Or questioning it.

(I need to find a good pic to identify the topic)

I have just added/updated some content sections on the site, in particular:

PhD - For the moment containing only my full PhD table of contents and abstract, in the future some extracts.

Reading List - A selection of academic references from my collection on Mendeley, organized around key areas of my research.

More generally, I am trying to use this Web space beyond its publicness and showcase function, rather considering it an organizational mechanism able, through the persistence and fluidity of the digital, to effectively represent the evolution of my research as rich knowledge database.

Finally I had time to revamp my website after submitting my PhD (last week).. :)
While the aspect/template hasn't radically changed, back-end structure and content management are now much improved, thanks to a migration from Joomla 1.0 to Joomla 1.5. I can now easily install a variety of nifty modules that were Joomla 1.5-native, including all social media extensions (in this respect, my older site was way out of date).

Will all this help me post more often? Probably, but let's not promise too much, I see so many promising but empty blogs out there.. :)