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[Trackback URL for this entry] Mon Jul 09 21:03:39 PST types of academic research, first in a series:

The Retroactive Umbrella

This is when you look at something new, and you say, "Oh, actually that thing is a member of a whole class of things that either don't exist or nobody's identified yet." Example: identifying the coming expansive P2P revolution after seeing Napster for the first time.

Pros: You get to herald an as-yet nonexistent class of things and hopefully have some influence over their development. You also didn't have to come up with the initial idea -- you just had to identify it as significant.

Cons: You didn't come up with the idea.

Related: developing taxonomies for things that exist but haven't been put into little boxes yet.

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