Meggie Macdonald

Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada has developed a new social networking site, specifically for academics and academic research. Called a “research matchmaker” by reporter Elizabeth Church, yaffle.ca was created in response to larger ratios of government funding for universities, a sort of quantitative result-based initiative for a discipline that is rarely defined in such objective terms.

The project has been met with praise across the country.  York University President Mamdouh Shoukri states that a competitive society needs to use its knowledge.  Project head David Yetman reports:  “Persuading faculty to look beyond the lecture hall and the library is not always straightforward.  Academic success – and tenure – is based primarly on published research, not public works, making participation in such projects entirely voluntary”.  Mr. Yetman calls Yaffle the Google of university research, something that allows researchers, students, and professors to connect, share, trade, and unite their research into work that is mutually beneficial.

Hopefully this project will catch on at other universities – currently it is only linked to Memorial University projects – so that the globalization of knowledge can be developed and augmented.