Video Formats for the blog

We talked a few times on the old blog about the use of live streaming and podcasts as ways of developing some ideas through the blog. The one on the previous post is an example and I did one in May on behavioural economics (link here). I have been suggesting other candidates to Joe Garde, who runs the Irish Debate website. Its also worth thinking about how to develop the format in the context of this blog. In my case, I have ordered a higher definition camera, which will avoid the autofocusing that happened. Some people have also been giving tips about how to make this more engaging. Suggestions welcome as usual here, in person or by email. The use of the format for roundtable-type discussions of particular policy and academic issues is one potential development. A number of readers used to participate in informal Monday morning research meetings and it might be a good way to get something like that back. Informal impromptu seminars was another nice feature that might be rekindled using this technology. Michael Daly and I, for example, have finished a paper on unemployment that would be good to get an initial airing of.

Post Authors

Thanks to new posters Gerard O'Neill, Director of Amarach Research in Ireland and Nicolas Scharioth, a consultant with Gallup Europe. As said, we hope to widen the number of contributors and perspectives over the next few months. Suggestions, as always, very welcome.

Blog Suggestions

Thanks for suggestions so far in the comments and by email. Will develop over the next week or two. Suggestions welcome. Url will change soon also. Will also develop the sidebars. The name might possibly change again but I am keen for the name to be simple and to reflect the interdisciplinary and policy aspects of the blog. So for now, this seems a very clear 'does what it says on the tin' approach to what will be up here.

Suggestions for name

The url address is fine but I dont think "Dublin Microeconomics Blog" is going to work as a title. Answers on a postcard as to what would be a better one. Current default option is "Dublin Micro and Behavioural Blog".

Irish Debate Sessions

A few months ago, I did a session on IrishDebate.com on the implications of behavioural economics for Irish public policy. This is reproduced below. The format allows for multiple contributors etc., I am currently putting together notes for two other sessions, one on unemployment and another on the theme of "irish abroad". It is a format worth thinking about for issues at the interface of academic and policy issues.

New Blog - Dublin Microeconomics Blog

The Geary blog closed in April as can be seen by the posts below.

I have been talking to people who were interested in that blog about the best way to proceed. Both Kevin Denny and I have kept personal blogs running, Kevin posting more frequently on his than I on mine. Also, a number of us have twitter accounts. But both Kevin and myself felt that a community-blog with a similar scope to the previous one would be worth pursuing. I am working on developing a behavioural economics blog with a European policy focus and I will put something up on that soon. But I think it would be good to get a blog similar to the old one back in action.

From my point of view, having moved universities I thought it would be tricky to keep a blog going that had a UCD institutional affiliation, even if an informal one. Having said that, it would seem a waste to just get rid of the old posts and the link structures on the sidebars. So, having taken all this into consideration, it seems the best solution is simply to revamp the previous blog, keeping the previous posts and links but changing the url and title.

We will post here from now on. I will improve the design over the next couple of weeks but if you are very worried about design then this probably isn't the forum for you! The content will be very similar to the previous blog - a mix of behavioural economics, microeconomics, statistics and so on. Cross-posting from other blogs is fine.

Suggestions via the comments or through email very welcome.

100 Posts in May

As said at the start of the year, I am happy to keep this blog running. It attracts a reasonable number of hits and I regularly get emails about different things related to the posts. We will be revamping it over the summer to use a better template and to have more permanent content on the site that will be geared in different ways toward academics, policy-makers, undergraduate students and postgrads. I will also try to make better use of audio and visual materials. Suggestions for ways to improve this should be sent to me or left in the comments.

We debated before about the role blogs should play in academic and policy debate. To me, they play an important role disseminating information quickly, allowing discussion of issues that are evolving at a rapid pace, giving students a chance to see what is happening in academic and policy debates, providing ideas for journal papers and so on.

Blog Update

People sometimes ask wearily "where do you get the time to keep a blog??" with the implication being that you must have too much time on your hands. The answer is easy - it takes a few minutes a day and pays off a lot in terms of not having to send lots of individual emails to people recommending papers. Most of the research students I work with look at the blog and it helps keep information flowing around our research group. This doesnt substitute for more intense internal forums like seminars, project collaboration software and so on but I believe it is a nice and inexpensive complement,.

Also, a lot of people with interesting thoughts log-in and get some benefit from it and I regularly get sent useful mails and have interesting discussions triggered by something that was posted. So I am happy to keep this going another year at least.

I was thinking recently about whether anything should be done with the blog. A few things come to mind

- We have never really made use of the comments forum and Im not entirely sure thats a bad thing. People have said this is a shame. Suggestions welcome but this isnt a major problem for me.

- We used the blog for this once this year on a simple survey monkey experiment.We now have our own online lab facility in the group where we can do experiments. I think using the blog to post simple demonstration experiments and pilot tests with the new lab and then to post the results would be a good idea.

- I will work a bit more on the presentation of the blog. Its looking a little clunky and dated. Suggestions welcome.

- Adding more posts directed toward undergrads in psychology and economics is a priority.

- Changing the name is definitely on the cards. As someone pointed out "Geary Behaviour Centre" does have shades of 1984 about it and also doesnt really convey what the blog is about. Geary Behavioural Economics Blog is the one I am most leaning toward.

- Feel free to email or comment if you have anything to add.