Stephen Downes

This post announces the closing of the Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC), the self-described "world's first and oldest academic social network". It will also be the final year of the final year of the HASTAC Scholars, the student version of the network. "A social network is costly and tremendously complex to run and, after more than 25 years, is no longer sustainable.  Rather than let HASTAC dwindle and die, we are sunsetting it with dignity and enormous pride in a quarter century of thinking together about, through, with, and sometimes against new technologies and their application in society." I don't see why running a network is so 'costly and complex' - real networks, like (say) the RSS blogging network - are decentralized and distribute cost and complexity across participants, rather than being centrally managed. See also: Cathy Davidson: How to Lead an Academic Social Network.