The Use of the Internet to Activate Latent Ties in Scholarly Communities

By Stephen Downes - Stephen's Web. Paul Genoni, Helen Merrick and Michele Willson: The Use of the Internet to Activate Latent Ties in Scholarly Communities, First Monday December 14, 2005

Latent contacts are those people you would contact, but for some reason, have not contacted. A natural example is the connection of podcast researchers in education; as people developed expertise in the subject the would reach out to other people in the same field, if they knew they existed. Eventually these latent contacts do make a connection, usually via blog or email. More...