A Textbook of Australian Rural Health
Ellen McIntyre, PHC RIS
 The commonality and diversity in rural health as outlined in this publication will guide the reader in their explorations and encounters with rural Australia . Rural health students, educators and professionals will find this national Australian resource useful in highlighting practical and important areas of rural health to assist them in their study and work. It covers key concepts in practice including: population health and capacity; health service models and workforce; competencies in rural practice; and new innovations such as eHealth. Essential materials such as a glossary, definitions, learning activities and other resources further add to the completeness of this book.
Written by a who's who of rural health academics and clinicians, this rural health textbook describes the shared experiences, understandings and actions of rural health professionals. It seeks to engage the reader to bring together their learning with practical application through case-based and self-directed learning. In addition, there are an abundance of resources and references that further enhance the scope of materials on Australian rural health.
Sponsored by the Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN) and funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing, this textbook can be found at <http://www.arhen.org.au/>.
Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything
Eleanor Jackson Bowers, PHC RIS
 It's not hard to get carried away in the enthusiasm of the moment in reading this book on the how the changes bought about by Web 2.0 technologies are transforming the world.
“the read only internet of yesterday is becoming a place where the knowledge, resources and computing power of billions of people are coming together into a massive collective force. Energised through blogs, wikis, chat rooms, personal broadcasting and other forms of peer to peer creation and communication, this utterly decentralized and amorphous force increasingly self organizes to provide its own news, entertainment and services.” p12
The authors describe a new way of doing business based on openness and transparency, horizontal rather than hierarchical organisation, challenges to the way intellectual property works, and harnessing a global talent pool. They give numerous examples of mass collaboration in business and in scientific research where multitudes of creative individuals collaboratively contribute to the design of a product, find a solution to a problem, analyse a huge data set or write a book. Wikipedia is the great example.
It set me to thinking about how we could adapt these ideas in primary health care research. The PHC RIS research impact study showed how social interaction and involving many people in a research project was the key to enhancing research impact. How could this be supported through Wikinomics business models?
In a thought experiment I speculated on mass collaboration in an open research project with a wiki to collectively refine a research topic; peer input into the research design; lots of ideas and peer critique in the data analysis; a collaboratively written report; and lots of interested people to use and disseminate the findings. Ok, it probably wouldn't work. What about confidentiality? And who would own the findings and claim impact for their university? Who would fund it? But there is a place for books like this to stimulate our imagination and suggest new possibilities.
The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods
Eleanor Jackson Bowers, PHC RIS
 A primary health care research blog though, there's an idea. This is one of the ideas presented in The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. Nina Wakefield and Kris Cohen present the concept of blogging by researchers in the course of a research project. The blog provides a journal about how the research is unfolding which can test ideas as they arise, inform participants on progress, gather input and comments from potential users, unite dispersed research teams, comment on the literature and other research and cross link their site with other websites and resources. The ability for readers to input comments has the potential to develop the dialogue and social networks on which successful research application rests. The authors propose blogs as new ‘third place' for academic discourse.
The Sage Handbook on Online Research Methods is a wide ranging book. Unlike Wikinomics, it is written for a professional audience and addresses research topics with depth and breadth. It gives practical advice on research methods for online survey design and online focus groups and addresses many new ways of doing research such as analysing social networks using email, using data from social networking sites and virtual ethnography in multi user virtual environments.
It addresses specialist areas of research methodology including data mining, statistical modelling, using geographical data and social network analysis and devotes chapters to ethical and legal issues in internet research and how these can be overcome.
Expanding our conceptualisation of research in an age of mass collaboration is a challenge, particularly as the distinction between researchers, participants, policy makers, organisational stakeholders and research users begins to blur and our technologies develop faster than our ethical and legal guidelines. This book is a valuable source which brings together current thinking and experience, technical expertise and research methodology and is a valuable addition to any research department's library.
References
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams (2008) Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything. Penguin, New York.
Nigel Fielding, Raymond M Lee and Grant Blank (eds) (2008) The Sage Handbook of Online Research Methods. SAGE, London.
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