PhD theses at most Dutch universities are accompanied by a list of propositions. According to doctorate regulations (at least those of TU Delft, I don’t think it applies to all Dutch unis), they must be defendable and opposable. In Delft, (thanks to @svdburg for all of this info by the way, see below) at least six of the propositions are not supposed to be directly related to the research subject, and two of them may be slightly playful. PhD committee members are allowed to ask questions about the propositions.
Felienne Hermans (@Felienne) has started – in my view – a great tradition when she wrote seperate blogposts explaining each one of her propositions. Using #tweetprop as # for Twitter, she launched each one of them into the world. In Project #tweetprop she explains the how and why.
Her example has since been followed by @RolfHut, in Dutch: http://geekomdathetkan.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/dr-hut-komt-eraan-maar-eerst-10-stellingen/, by Eric Bouwers (@EricBouwers): http://ericbouwers.blogspot.nl/2013/06/defending-propositions.html, and by Sander van der Burg (@svdburg), in one long blogpost: http://sandervanderburg.blogspot.nl/2013/06/my-phd-thesis-propositions-and-some.html .
Ten propositions gives you ten potential blogposts, which should probably write themselves, so to speak, as they are on topics that you care about, and on which you probably have an opinion. Why not write them down, and get some traffic going to your blog?
Granted, defending your PhD thesis is – for most people anyway – a once in a lifetime event, so you can only pull this stunt once. But it might just be the trick to get you started with blogging. And tweeting of course, how else are people going to know about your contribution to #tweetprop…? 😉
I think this has the makings of a great tradition, if you agree, spread the word!
RoyMeijer 