The Open Dissertation

Last week, Prof Hacker Lee Skallerup Bessette drove to Virginia Commonwealth University to livetweet the thesis defense of Laura Gogia (in some circles better known by her Twitter handle @GoogleGuacamole). The hashtag used was #GoGoDoc.

Some observers started asking if this was a new trend. I mentioned Bonnie Stewart’s (@bonstewart) thesis, part of which was livestreamed on Google Hangouts and livetweeted as #DrBon. I learned about different trends emerging regarding the “open” dissertation def...