Hi

Just wanted an opinion on this really but since beginning my PhD I have found myself increasingly using blogs as a sort of means to test out some of my ideas and additionally a place to save some images and links that will prove useful in my research. Is it a good idea to put some of my ideas out there so publicly in terms of plagiarism, or is it best to keep them largely to myself until I perhaps publish them at some future stage? I am presenting a conference paper in a couple of weeks and have just written a blog post which condenses the ideas in this - is it best to keep this one private until after the conference or am I just being a bit paranoid? Any advice would be much welcome.

Thanks

I think it's ok to put general ideas out there so people can read and get to know your work especially if someone reads it before the conference it would give you something to talk to them about. It's good to have a presence and be known for your work so a blog is a good idea to publicise yourself which is the key to getting on in academia. I wouldn't put your full results out there as you need to be careful incase someone runs off with your work as you never know before you publish it so no you're not being paranoid.

It's natural to be protective of your work. I used to take my laptop everywhere when I carried it with me as I didn't want to risk losing it especially as it had my whole thesis on it!

My sup is a bit crazy over keeping all research private - she even gets me to hold back on conferences, and leave the 'juicy' bits for publication. She's been burned in the past though, so I imagine that's why. It has taught me to be really cautious about telling anyone what I'm doing specifically - I've even had one girl trying to copy some of my research which is a bit scary.

Anyway, can you make the blog private (I have no idea on technology!) or how about using microsoft one note?

Hold back the actual research. Talk over ideas. But never give away the seed-corn. It may be more valuable than you realise. All those of us who've had experience of copyright theft are very wary of sharing real intellectual property, and there's a lot of theft on the internet.