If You Build It, Will They Come? How Researchers Perceive and Use Web 2.0

Abstract

Over the past 15 years, the web has transformed the way we seek and use information. In the last 5 years in particular a set of innovative techniques collectively termed web 2.0 have enabled people to become producers as well as consumers of information.It has been suggested that these relatively easy-to-use tools, and the behaviours which underpin their use, have enormous potential for scholarly researchers, enabling them to communicate their research and its findings more rapidly, broadly and effectively than ever before.This report is based on a study commissioned by the Research Information Network to investigate whether such aspirations are being realised. It seeks to improve our currently limited understanding of whether, and if so how, researchers are making use of various web 2.0 tools in the course of their work, the factors that encourage or inhibit adoption, and researchers attitudes towards web 2.0 and other forms of communication.