{"id":2365,"date":"2014-01-31T16:36:17","date_gmt":"2014-01-31T16:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2014-01-31T16:36:17","modified_gmt":"2014-01-31T16:36:17","slug":"new-year-new-direction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive-irsg.bcs.org\/informer\/?p=2365","title":{"rendered":"New year, new direction?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The start of a new year is always a good time to reflect on the role and impact of groups such as ours, and ask the question ‘ why are we here?’ For many of us on the IRSG committee<\/a>, the answer is simple: to promote the dissemination of IR knowledge and best practice in all its forms, and to create connections between communities so that research results are visible to practitioners and challenges faced by practitioners are visible to researchers.\u00a0 But are we delivering on this objective? Do our activities and outputs truly reflect the interests of our members? And how far should we go in understanding those interests?<\/p>\n

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Perhaps we should start with ourselves, i.e. the committee itself. We\u2019ve always been a very academic bunch, which of course is no bad thing in itself, and no doubt reflects the vibrant IR research community across Europe. But did you know that the composition of the membership tells a different story? A brief review of job titles in the IRSG members\u2019 database would seem to indicate that the proportion of academics may in fact be as low as 10%, with practitioners making up 70% or more (the remaining 20% did not list a job title).<\/p>\n

I\u2019d often suspected that practitioners may indeed be the majority, but never to this extent. Which rather begs the question: does our programme of activities and outputs adequately recognise this composition, or does it perhaps reflect our own individual preferences? In particular, does our events programme (e.g. ECIR<\/a>, ICTIR<\/a>, FDIA<\/a>, Search Solutions<\/a>, etc.) align with the interests of the majority? Or does it not matter, as long as those that do step forward act to promote our goals in whatever way they can? Either way, it feels like a missed opportunity if we don\u2019t at least try to understand better the need as interests of the wider membership, and to take those into account when planning our activities for 2014 and beyond.<\/p>\n

So, with that in mind, I\u2019d like to hear your thoughts on whether we\u2019re getting it right. In particular:<\/p>\n