Own Webpage?

[PinkPsychologist]

Hi guys,

I'm torn between setting up a basic website (wordpress static pages with, maybe, a blog?) and just continuously updating LinkedIn etc? The internet, i.e. other people with blogs, seems to think it is a good idea. However, the reality is that between my department page, the publications and researchgate, all the important stuff is already available online somewhere. I would probably use it to add some background information on projects but again, that is all online. I can recruit participants through twitter and have to use the university server for any online experiments, so linking back to that is not a priority. The few reviews I compose could potentially be published (i.e. not going to waste it on a blog) and new publications go straight on twitter in my case, so....why do PhD students have websites? I don't want to make a fool of myself for getting one but people seem to find it useful, and in a way I can see why having a central place for everything could be handy. 

Any experiences, advice or a good joke?

[TakeruK]

I think it's really useful for graduate students to have their own website. You have so much more control over the design and content than LinkedIn. I do not use LinkedIn at all. 

My website is the first hit on Google when you search my name plus my field. In my field, this is the most common way to find someone---you want to be able to search their name plus either their school or their field and find more information about them. Maybe you saw their name on a paper, or a poster at a conference, or briefly met them at a talk. Or you heard someone else mention a paper by them and you want to find more information. 

One thing other users of LinkedIn tells me is that if you are logged into your account and view another person's profile, the other person will know who viewed their profile? Websites are a little more anonymous. But if LinkedIn has all of the information you want to display anyways, then perhaps there is no need to create a separate thing.

Other reasons I like hosting my own website instead of going through LinkedIn etc.

1. I can customize the look to be the way I want
2. I own my own data, not hosted through a third party commercial entity. (My website is hosted by my department's servers, so it also looks a little more legit to be a URL like dept.school.edu/~TakeruK)
3. The pages on my site are an intro with my picture and contact info, a page dedicated to explaining my research in accessible terms, a CV page, a bio page and a list of publications (with links to journal websites for my articles). 
4. I also use my website to put up a PDF of my poster or some slides from a talk when I'm at a conference in case someone wants to view it more closely (or someone who can't travel wants to see).
5. And I also use the non-public (i.e. linked) parts of my website as a way to upload files for collaborators to download (although I don't do this with confidential or proprietary stuff of course).
6. I don't have this yet, but I know many other people host their codes or other useful science products for the community to use through their website (although nowadays, there are more and more other services such as git).

Overall, I also really like having a website because it's a space on the Internet that I can carve out and claim as my own. It's a tiny tiny insignificant part of the Internet for sure, but it's mine!

[Eigen]

I also like having my own website. That said, I don't like most templates- I wrote mine from scratch. 

It gives me a place I can post items of interest, keep a digital CV, and direct people to for more information. It helps control my digital footprint, too. 

Reclaim Hosting is a great place to start- it's designed specifically for faculty and students looking to make a persona/professional webpage. Run by a couple of faculty members that occasionally get grants to subsidize the cost of hosting, and are really helpful. 

[PinkPsychologist]

Thanks for the replies, guys! 

I think it's really useful for graduate students to have their own website. You have so much more control over the design and content than LinkedIn. I do not use LinkedIn at all. 

My website is the first hit on Google when you search my name plus my field. In my field, this is the most common way to find someone---you want to be able to search their name plus either their school or their field and find more information about them. Maybe you saw their name on a paper, or a poster at a conference, or briefly met them at a talk. Or you heard someone else mention a paper by them and you want to find more information. 

One thing other users of LinkedIn tells me is that if you are logged into your account and view another person's profile, the other person will know who viewed their profile? Websites are a little more anonymous. But if LinkedIn has all of the information you want to display anyways, then perhaps there is no need to create a separate thing.

Other reasons I like hosting my own website instead of going through LinkedIn etc.

1. I can customize the look to be the way I want
2. I own my own data, not hosted through a third party commercial entity. (My website is hosted by my department's servers, so it also looks a little more legit to be a URL like dept.school.edu/~TakeruK)
3. The pages on my site are an intro with my picture and contact info, a page dedicated to explaining my research in accessible terms, a CV page, a bio page and a list of publications (with links to journal websites for my articles). 
4. I also use my website to put up a PDF of my poster or some slides from a talk when I'm at a conference in case someone wants to view it more closely (or someone who can't travel wants to see).
5. And I also use the non-public (i.e. linked) parts of my website as a way to upload files for collaborators to download (although I don't do this with confidential or proprietary stuff of course).
6. I don't have this yet, but I know many other people host their codes or other useful science products for the community to use through their website (although nowadays, there are more and more other services such as git).

Overall, I also really like having a website because it's a space on the Internet that I can carve out and claim as my own. It's a tiny tiny insignificant part of the Internet for sure, but it's mine!

Agreed on LinkedIn, I hate it with a passion. You can switch of the "viewed profiles" feature, by the way. I use researchgate for most things, better layout and I can upload my publications and see who downloaded/cited them. LinkedIn is a nice way to provide tons of unnecessary information on my research experience, which is nice for applications and I can show off course certificates for extra qualifications, though. My code goes straight on github (easier to import for others) and/or OSF (pretty much required for some projects). 

That being said, I can absolutely see why it would be useful in your case. My university pesters us until we put our recommends that we add CV, publications, etc. to our department profile, so that's covered. I think it might be a nice way to pull everything together, as your post would suggest. Just wondering if that's useful, in my case.

I also like having my own website. That said, I don't like most templates- I wrote mine from scratch. 

It gives me a place I can post items of interest, keep a digital CV, and direct people to for more information. It helps control my digital footprint, too. 

Reclaim Hosting is a great place to start- it's designed specifically for faculty and students looking to make a persona/professional webpage. Run by a couple of faculty members that occasionally get grants to subsidize the cost of hosting, and are really helpful. 

Thanks for suggesting Reclaim Hosting, I hadn't heard of them before! I considered writing it up from scratch but I think I would be lazy to update it regularly in that case. Being as neurotic as I am, I cleaned up my digital footprint before I even applied for my undergrad and somehow managed to maintain it. Unless there is some revenge porn with my name on it floating around (doesn't seem to be the case), I'm only another academic who loves dogs and books. 

Think I might set it up to displays the 3D versions of results for some past projects. 

 

Either way, thanks for the advice!