User talk:Neddanison

Do not restore previous pages to their former style without discussion. Wikipedia is not your private forum and you do not have a right to single-handedly determine what it should say. Especially not to flatter your former professors. It is a cooperative endeavor. If you restore pages to a previous (and very biased) state without comment it will be reported and you may be blocked. --

(Ned Danison writing:) Do I dare engage this anonymous editor by responding? What you say is true, I don't have the right to determine the final state of Kecskes' biography. It appears only a few people have an interest in this particular biography, and their (his? her?) interest seems mostly vindictive. Neddanison (talk) 16:52, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Ned, here's a few links that might put the situation in perspective.

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Loathing-Academic-Conferences/8804/

http://thenoisychannel.com/2009/08/02/are-academic-conferences-broken-can-we-fix-them/

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/professional-development/professional-networking/PRO_PNT/214072-9179533

These were chosen quickly and I'm sure there are better ones. Essentially there is an entire "mini-industry" where far away conferences woo far away speakers. It's win-win for everyone as the academics can tell their peers that they are "a speaker in (far away country X)" and the conference organizers can advertise that they have a speaker "coming all the way from (far away country Y)." An illusion of importance is perpetuated by both sides. However, when the speaker is from a third tier university, and is not invited to speak at conferences at nearby locations such as say Boston, New York City, Washington DC and the many prestigious schools in the NE USA, then the actual situation becomes clear. As a minor but published author persons like Kecskes can attend these conferences and write the expenses off their taxes as a business expense for promoting their books.Bobbee.girl (talk) 10:01, 31 August 2010 (UTC)