phd - Pros and cons of sharing dissertation on a specialised website?

I am wondering what are the advantages/drawbacks of sharing a dissertation on a specialised website (for example Social Capital Gateway). There are a number of repositories available and they seem to be more widely known. Are these sites more for the benefit of the facilitators than the contributors (who in this case are the PhD researchers).

Answer

I doubt there are any drawbacks to posting on such a site, other than the time required.

But I also doubt there are very many advantages. I don't think very many people will look on such sites for theses. If I need something from a PhD thesis, my algorithm would be something like this:

1. 
   

   Look for published papers by the student which discuss the work.

   
   


2. 
   

   Google the student's name and thesis title.

   
   



3. 
   

   Look for the student's website.

   
   


4. 
   

   Look on the department's website.

   
   


5. 
   

   Look on the institution's library's website.

   
   


6. 
   
   

   Try to contact the student (via website or Google search) and ask if they will send me a copy.

   
   


7. 
   

   Try to contact the student's advisor and ask if they have a copy.

   
   


8. 
   

   Contact someone else I know at the institution, and ask if they can find the thesis in their library.

   
   


9. 
   

   Try to get a copy from UMI (last resort).

   
   
   

Searching other repositories would probably come somewhere between steps 8 and 9. So if you can try to make sure your thesis is findable at some earlier stage of this process, you probably don't need to bother with much more.