time management & research...

I've been reading a nice little book on time managment recently. One paragraph in there refers to bears as examples, and one of the examples points at claiming/planning enough time for a new project to develop/ripen.

Schaffen Sie sich zeitliche Schutzräume, "Zeithöhlen", in denen Sie nicht von dringenden Aufgaben gehetzt werden, sondern einmal mit innerer Ruhe über ihre Zukunft nachdenknen können. [translates roughly as: "create protected time-pockets "time-cavities" in which you're not hounded by urgent tasks but can think about your future peacefully"]

So this got me thinking about a project I've been watching recently, that is Alexander Knorr's blog and webpage. He's got all his fieldnotes online, the whole writing process happens online etc.

He describes this as follows:

The project is 'open research' in several dimensions. My website and weblog simultaneously serve multiple purposes: they are my notebook, writing desk and multimedia online filing system, they maintain world/webwide communication about the ongoing project with fellow scientists, they present my project to a wider public, and -- above all -- both constitute a part of the communication and interaction with the members of "my cyberian tribe". Website and weblog accompanying the project constitute a fusion between spheres, which normally are well seperated in anthropological research: field-data, informal scientific discussion, public-relations work, and a part of the field itself. This diverse groups have access to the same dynamic and interactive material, which contains some risks: What appears perfectly sound to e.g. a game-modder may seem awkward to a scientist and vice versa. My reputation in the modding-community as well as in the scientific community may be at stake -- a fellow-modder jokingly already named me "teh intellectuale" (int. missp. for "THE Intellectual").

I wonder how this shapes his research, how he's influenced by it - and also how he's seen by other scholars doing stuff like that. I can't hide it: I'm fascinated, but also I wonder if we don't really need these "time-pockets" at all...