ResearchGATE Science Meets Social Networking
When you first hear the name, you start thinking of some government scandal involving research scientists and politicians. I found out, though, that this is actually a serious endeavor by scientists and scholars to match up with one another in related fields of research and collaborate on projects. They’re calling it “Science 2.0.”
Sound familiar?
Basically, ResearchGATE appears to be hoping to restore some of the Internet back to it’s original purpose: connecting academics from around the world in an instant, collaborative way of communication.
This social network site focuses on academia and aims to provide not only communications between far-flung researchers and scientists, but also to give basic tools for collaboration. These include things like academic paper exchanges, video and graphic sharing tools, and more.
So it’s beyond just being Facebook for scientists, it’s a real networking tool with collaboration built-in. Signup is free and most basic services come at no charge. User profiles can include academic papers, research notes, and so forth.
Because of the site’s focus, it’s not likely that many of the users are non-academics, so unlike using the heavily populated social networking sites like Myspace, Professor Bob won’t have to get a hundred PMs a day from “LustyLady224.” This means that scientists can actually connect with other scientists.
ResearchGATE was started by three computer science and medical doctors in the U.S. and Germany.
So far, this idea seems to be working. Forums around academia are talking about ResearchGATE, so don’t be surprised if it catches on at universities and labs across the world.
