This research project investigated the experiences of academics and researchers using blogs to support their practice. The three research questions were: to identify the academics' and researchers' motivations for beginning and maintaining a blog, the contribution of blogging to their learning in the profession, and the challenges experienced. The research questions were investigated using several methods. Five datasets were collected from 26 participants. A questionnaire was first administered to collect background information about the bloggers, and was analysed quantitatively. Then, an initial unstructured interview of one open-ended question was conducted by email. The unstructured interview was analysed using descriptive phenomenology. A follow-on semi-structured interview was conducted and analysed by applying thematic analysis. Blog content was collected in parallel: textual extracts were analysed using discourse analysis and visual extracts by applying thematic/saliency analysis. Results revealed varied reasons for beginning a blog. For example, the blog can be used as a repository of 'half-baked' ideas. Blogging contributed to the academics' and researchers' learning in the profession in multiple ways. Academic bloggers, for example, can quickly reach a wider audience compared to other forms of academic publishing. Among the challenges, there were concerns over managing confidential information in public, and intellectual property issues. Regarding the methodological contribution of the research, suggestions on strategies for mixing and matching different research methods for data collection and analysis have been provided. An empirically-grounded framework of blog use in academia and research has been derived based on research findings and scholarship models in the literature. The framework describes how characteristics of digital scholarship such as openness and sharing, are manifested through blogging. The framework can be used to guide academics and researchers who are interested in taking up blogging as a scholarly practice. Finally, empirically-grounded guidelines on using blogs in academia and research have been derived. The guidelines were evaluated by four practitioners. Future work includes recruiting more practitioners to evaluate the guidelines.

Τα ιστολόγια αποτελούν πλέον ένα αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι της καθημερινής διαδικτυακής μας ζωής. Τα εμπιστευόμαστε τόσο για την ψυχαγωγία μας αλλά ακόμη περισσότερο για την ενημέρωσή μας. Μέσα στην πληθώρα των ιστολογίων και των άρθρων, καθώς και στον περιορισμένο χρόνο της καθημερινή μας ζωής, έχει δημιουργηθεί η ανάγκη για την παρουσίαση πληροφορίας η οποία ανταποκρίνεται στο προσωπικό μας γούστο, στις προτιμήσεις μας και στις ανάγκες μας. Έτσι, καθορίστηκε το θέμα της συγκεκριμένης διπλωματικής εργασίας ως η δημιουργία ενός συστήματος πρότασης άρθρων και παρακολούθησης ιστολογίων για την υπηρεσία Blogger, με τίτλο «The Researcher». Το σύστημα προσφέρει δυνατότητες παρακολούθησης ιστολογίων, ανάγνωσης άρθρων με βάση κάποιες προ-καθορισμένες κατηγορίες, πρότασης ιστολογίων και άρθρων για τον κάθε χρήστη ξεχωριστά με βάση το προφίλ του και τις προτιμήσεις του, καθώς και αναζήτηση στον ιστό ή τοπικά για άρθρα με βάση κάποια keywords. Το σύστημα έχει δημιουργηθεί με τέτοιο τρόπο έτσι ώστε οι περισσότερες λειτουργίες να είναι αυτοματοποιημένες και να μην χρειάζεται την επέμβαση του χρήστη. Πέρα από τη συμπλήρωση του προφίλ του, δεν χρειάζονται περαιτέρω κινήσεις από αυτόν καθώς το σύστημα καταγράφει και αναλύει τις κινήσεις του, έτσι ώστε να διαμορφωθούν αναλόγως τα αποτελέσματα των προτάσεων. Εδώ έγκεινται και οι καινοτομίες του συστήματος. Το σύστημα προτάσεων του «The Researcher», συμπεριλαμβάνει τον συνδυασμό διαφόρων recommendation τεχνικών με τελικό στόχο την εμφάνιση των άρθρων που πραγματικά ενδιαφέρουν το χρήστη. Το σύστημα χαρακτηρίζεται από δυναμικότητα, καθώς δεν σταματάει να μαθαίνει αλλά εξελίσσεται συνεχώς, καταγράφοντας και αφομοιώνοντας κάθε αλλαγή στα patterns των κινήσεων των χρηστών. / Blogs have become an essential part of our daily internet routine. We trust them both for our entertainment and even more for our information. Among the plethora of blogs and articles and the limited free time of our daily life, there has been created the need to view only the information that corresponds to our personal tastes and needs. The object of this thesis is to create a recommender system which will adapt the information individually on every user. The system takes account the user’s profile and his reading pattern, so it can propose to him only the information that he is most likely to read and like. The system provides capabilities such as reading the latest blog posts, reading articles from predefined categories, proposing articles and blogs for each user based on his profile and his preferences and searching the web or the system for blog posts based on some keywords. The system is set up in such a way that most functions are automated and does not require user intervention. The users aren't required to take any other action than completing their profile. The system records and analyzes their movements in order for the results to be customized accordingly. Here lie the system innovations. The system's proposal engine includes a combination of different recommendation techniques with the aim to show the articles that really interest the user. The system is characterized by its dynamic form as it never stops learning. It is constantly evolving as it records and assimilates any changes in the movement patterns of users.