Modern Use
The concept of invisible college was developed in the sociology of science by Diane Crane (1972) building on Derek J. de Solla Price's work on citation networks. It is related, but significantly different, from other concepts of expert communities, such as 'Epistemic communities' (Haas, 1992) or Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998). Recently, the concept was applied to the global network of communications among scientists by Caroline S. Wagner in The New Invisible College: Science for Development (Brookings 2008). It was also referred to in Clay Shirky's book Cognitive Surplus
In fiction it is mentioned in the novel The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown, and was the inspiration for the Unseen University in the works of Terry Pratchett.
Read more about this topic: Invisible College
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—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)
“The near explains the far. The drop is a small ocean. A man is related to all nature. This perception of the worth of the vulgar is fruitful in discoveries. Goethe, in this very thing the most modern of the moderns, has shown us, as none ever did, the genius of the ancients.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)