1.3.5 Increasing sharing and collaboration among universities and students, Edward Fox
As more and more ETDs become available at universities or
through their agents, more and more students will draw upon the emerging
digital library of ETDs. This will make it easier for students to learn of the
work of other students. Contact is quite feasible since many ETDs include email
addresses and other contact information, of faculty helpers/advisors at least
if it is not feasible to track down a graduating student author. Once contact
is made, it is possible to have further discussion of references, application
of methodologies, reuse of datasets, and extension of prior work, as well as
investigation of remaining open problems. This may lead to friendships,
collaborations, joint publications, and other benefits. Such may expand beyond
student-student relationships to also include faculty, groups, laboratory
teams, and other communities.