APA Looking for Blog Editor (updated)
The American Philosophical Association (APA) will be starting a blog and is conducting a search for its editor:
Ha ha ha, APA. Thanks for the invitation.
According to an email from APA Executive Director Amy Ferrer:
The blog will give the APA a major presence in the blogosphere, while helping to serve the mission of the association and providing a forum for the APA to disseminate important information and publicly address the membership on critical issues.
The blog will include a wide variety of content: newsworthy philosophical achievements and successes, topics of philosophical interest, current events outside of philosophy, issues concerning the profession, information about APA events and activities, posts about APA grant-funded projects, and more.
The blog will have a lead editor, assisted by a team of associate editors and members of the APA staff who will serve as managing editors. The editorial team will oversee the blog and its content, working closely with an advisory team and APA leadership. The APA will provide stipends for lead and associate editors.
We now invite applications for the position of lead editor. Applicants for lead editor should be established philosophers with appropriate experience, and must be members of the association. Applications must include a cover letter, a short curriculum vitae (three pages maximum), and a brief statement describing the applicant’s approach to running the blog.
More details here.
UPDATE: In the comments below, Fritz J. McDonald makes some suggestions about what the APA Blog should be like. Further discussion of this is welcome.
I have two suggestions for the editors of this blog. (1) Avoid editorializing. On matters of controversy–like, say, the proper interpretation of academic freedom–I think would be best for writers on an APA-supported blog to avoid taking stances on issues where there might be substantial disagreement among APA members. Official statements of the APA are approved by the board of officers. This seems like a good system–the board of officers is there to represent members of the APA and they are elected by APA members. If the APA is going to take a stance on a controversial matter, it should come from the board and not the APA blog. If the APA publishes a blog and its editors are taking stances on controversial issues, that is at least a form of tacit approval by the APA of the stances of the editors. (2) Do not allow anonymous comments. It would be best if APA members are required to sign into their APA accounts to post on the blog. I think it would be highly unlikely that there would be many problems with inappropriate comments if all of the comments are published under the author’s name. If the APA blog does allow anonymous comments, that would likely mean that the blog editors will be burdened with dealing with a substantial number of inappropriate comments, and it also means that the blog editors might have to take stances on political or personal issues in deciding what comments to delete.
An APA blog presumably shouldn’t editorialize too much, sure. But too many restrictions, red tape, and so on could keep it from being a blog people want to visit and engage with. A mere repository of links and basic news without a voice, for example, won’t get many people engaged in the comments or stimulate self-reflection on our profession. Justin has a fine thing going here with Daily Nous. I hope an APA blog doesn’t detract from it, unless the new blog is of similar quality and value to the profession.
I don’t have high hopes. Largely following up on Josh May’s valuable insight about the voice of a blog, if there isn’t a compellingly different quality to the content that the APA will be posting and delivering on its blog from the myriad other blogs that cover and comment on the profession, I’m not sure what its official presence on the blogosphere will add except for its official status. But maybe I’m wrong and the person who is chosen to be its editor will make it sing.