[Sigia-l] IA research?

[Dave]

Is all academics research?

Is research what adds value or is it the structure of academia
pressing against theories of practice in an open arena not as
corrupted as the practice arena on politics or economics (notice I
said "not as", and not "not").

I think what I would love to see more of is not academic level user
research, but more theorizing and postulating at that level, more
examples explored within that freedom.

I'm not saying that we don't need validative research happening and
that it isn't a good source of inspiration, I think my reaction is
tied to the drive to validate our own work through validative research
in academia when we all know that "it depends" and that it really is
so much about "gut feel". We are such a subjective profession, why do
we want to change the qualitative nature of our profession into
something quantitative anyway? Is this the separation from the
aesthetic? Why make that separation?

-- dave