Online Scientific Social Networking Hits Research and Higher Education

Academici Press Release 07/03/05

During the past two years, one of the fastest growing business trends on the internet has been social networking, with over 20 million registered users on the top five on-line social networks. Now eggheads are getting their own exclusive club. British start-up company academici Ltd., is launching the first networking platform exclusive to higher education and scientific research at www.academici.com.

Prof Dr Markus Vinzent (University of Birmingham), one of the founders of academici, states “Academici is about networking with academics and researchers across continents and about content, facilitating (free of charge) the exchange of ideas, discussing research findings.” Prof Vinzent expects academici to thrive where, according to him internet portals and websites fail: by virtue of the interaction of and communication between its members.

Academics often work worlds apart even when in the same location. University websites have not necessarily been designed to facilitate co-operation. Academici has been set up to promote co-operation across disciplines. Klaas Brumann, Head of Countries at Academici, is convinced that the network will help to overcome these so-called “structural holes”. Mr Brumann points out that a key feature of this network, the fact that membership is free, will facilitate networking for people in higher education and scientific research institutes.

Dr Jonathan Grix, co-founder of ‘academici’, believes that such software “can function as a form of intranet for local, national or international societies by linking all members of a given society with one another on an interactive platform, thereby producing an on-line community with the potential to generate social capital between members”. The opportunities for cross-fertilisation between academic disciplines and cross-disciplinary collaboration are unlimited.

Leading academics and scientists are now joining ‘academici. The Virtual Academy’ at www.academici.com. The Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany, is one of the first to sign up a “corporate membership”. A number of scholarly societies and scientific publishers have committed to moderate academic forums and publishing boards on www.academici.com, the launch of which will be announced by Academici within the next few weeks.

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