Blogging about science II

In connection to the previous post I'm delighted to see that science blogging seems to be in a healthier shape in other parts of the world.

Dr. Freeride at Adventures in Ethics and Science is involved in an upcoming conference on Science Blogging in North Carolina, January 2008 (head over to Dr. Freerides page if you're interested in attending). For me this is on the other side of the world, so I won't be there, but can I just say that I'm equally impressed and inspired and ever-so slightly jealous for not being able to go. I have no idea whether a similar community of people exists here in these parts, but I doubt it as I have never ever heard a peep about such a thing. Anyway I'm exited that it's possible to gather more than a hundred people (number of attendees still counting I suppose) for an event like this and maybe particularly excited about the number of non-bloggers attending. One thing is to get a bunch of bloggers together who already think blogging is a cool way of communicating, but taking the step outside of the blogosphere and get other people excited about what is happening here is where I think it is getting difficult.


When I was digging around on the conference web page I also found a link to this seemingly excellent book - the first ever science blogging anthology. How could I have missed it? But I did go straight to the check-out counter to buy it. I have put a link in my side bar where you can nominate posts from the science blogosphere to go in the 2007 anthology (until December 20 as far as I understand)

Blogging about Science

I promised a follow-up to my previous post on "Who reads blogs anyway - do professional scientific blogs work?"* a long time ago, and while I have been thinking quite a bit about the topic, I haven't followed through and written anything.

I wrote the post after a seminar about public outreach at which I got the impression that no one except for the bloggers themselves really cared about blogs and found them rather boring.

Since then I have been thinking about how I select the blogs I read and which blogs come across as boring to me, because yes, there are lots of blogs that don't interest me at all. My favorite online newspaper has a tendency to attach a blog to anything and everything they are writing about. Upcoming elections - let the politicians blog about their life; book fairs or movie festivals - lets get some live blogging and see what the journalists are up to; armed forces in Iraq - let's show the human side and give the soldiers their own blog; expeditions - let's talk to people while they are struggling towards the peaks of the world or crossing oceans. All good causes for blogging. I find it generally interesting to get a peak into the minds of people who affect my life and my world and that's what good interviews or feature stories are for among other things. However, I don't really follow the newspaper-based blogs and the reasons surprise me, because maybe these are some of the things we need to think about if we want people to engage in our scientific endeavours through blogs.

So what is wrong with those blogs I don't read

1) Often they are not particularly well written. Maybe the young first time soldier in Iraq is not always an exquisite writer. Fair enough, that's not why she's there. But maybe it's also a matter of not spending the time on crafting a good piece of writing because blogging conflicts with the real matter at stake. This is something that's highly relevant to me and others who blog from field work/ expeditions because we just don't have the time to do this properly. My creative juices are as good as gone when I get back to my tent after 12 hours outside in rain and wind and a dinner consisting of something that came out of a can. I have field notes to write up, expedition accounts to take care of, plans to make for tomorrow and blogging is at the very end of my to-do list. When I finally get around to it, it has become a chore I need to get out of the way as quickly as possible and at that point I'm certainly not at my wittiest.

Lesson number 1: Good blogging takes time and brain activity and must be made a priority

2) Often they become private e-mail accounts in a public space with well-wishes from parents and friends and personal comments from people at home. I have seen this in all kinds of travel/ expedition/working abroad blogs and while the occasional comment from a family member doesn't bother me, it puts me off when this is all there is. I get the feeling of entering a personal conversation where I don't belong. I like to read about peoples lives, even the mundane pieces about what they do with their days, because this is something I can relate to. I also do laundry, take my car to the garage and argue with my husband, but when it oversteps the boundary between between the generic and the private, I loose interest, and I don't care whether some blogger is making arrangements with his friends to meet when he gets back from his mountain climbing expedition.

Lesson number 2: Limit exchange of private information and arrangements in comments - use email for God's sake.

3) I lack interest in the topic and don't feel part of the community

This is where I think it becomes crucial for blogging about our own research. I think it takes some extraordinary good writing to get me interested in life behind the scenes at a movie festival or in the holy halls of my government. I think it takes writing at a level the average blogger is just not capable of/ interested in investing the time in, because I'm not all that interested in neither movie making nor national politics. This doesn't mean these blogs shouldn't exist, it just means that I won't read them. The reason I do read academic blogs to name an example, is that here I find a community where I can listen to conversations and speak freely about topics I find that most people in my everyday life don't want to talk about all the time. So why would anyone be interested in a scientific blog if it is not giving the feeling of belonging to some sort of wider community and to some degree triggers interests this person has already. This is where I think mine/ our research blog is failing miserably. There might be people out there who have a penchant for the part of the world where the research is carried out and an interest in the scientific questions, but we do not give our readers any feeling of being invited into a whole new world of cool people who share their interests.

Lesson number 3: Pick your audience, link to other blogs and make an effort to provide access to a wider community than just your own blog.

Kjerstin at PlusUltra who responded to the original post also brings up an important point

"....On the other, I've come across a gazillion science blogs, and most of them just seem to share science news that they pick up from journals and newspapers, which is not what I'm looking for in an academic blog. The science blogs that I read, are the ones that let me see how the research and the thinking is done from the inside, and what the scientist finds interesting about it. Unfortunately, most academics feel compelled to blog pseudonymously, so they can't be specific about their research. That's why I think your blog project sounds interesting".

Lesson number 4: To make a scientific blog interesting one must be able to be share scientific details about the work in progress

The blog project in question is a project blog written together with colleagues, so it is not entirely up to me how it is framed, but I think I am beginning to get some of the mechanics for making that kind of project/research blogging work and to understand some of the reasons why the blog doesn't seem successful to me as it is. I have been toying with the idea of a private research blog under my real name as well for a while, as a way of exploring my own thought process. I think it would be easier to play around with new ideas if I didn't have to confer with a panel of fellow contributors and also if I didn't have to simultaneously market a specific research project to a funding agency (which is also part of the mission for the existing blog). That is also one of the reasons why I'm thinking about what a blog can do that other media can't and how/ if it would be possible to integrate such a blog into teaching activities. Earth scientists are not generally huge on blogging and I have yet to meet someone who has taken blogging into an earth science class room, but that's of course not the same as it can't or shouldn't be done.

Who reads blogs anyway? Do professional scientific blogs work?

As some of you may remember I have been blogging under my real name as an outreach activity from one of the research projects I'm involved in. I have been meaning to get back to that and discuss my experience and what we have learned from it, but didn't find the right angle to discuss it from, until yesterday. I was at a one day "Public outreach for scientists" course where invited speakers were brought in to teach us about how to promote scientific stories in various electronic media and how to work with journalists. An extraordinary opportunity and an eyeopening experience. Participation was optional, the number of participants limited and there was a waiting list to get on the course, so my immediate reaction would be that the people who were there were interested in working with the media one way or another. I would also think that most people there would be open to nontraditional means of communication to/ with the public.

Some of us had experience with scientific blogging from field work, data collection or expeditions to remote parts of the globe and eventually we got into discussing how those blogs could ideally be framed, who is the audience, what should be our goals in terms of readership etc. All fine. We are all fairly new in this arena, and learning as we go along. Even with experience from more personal academic blogging I think I have a lot to learn about how to use a professional blog. The discussion took place mainly between people who already had scientific blogs, which shouldn't come as a surprise, but when others started to chime in it DID surprise me how negative and demeaning their comments were. Some of the most common comments seems to be "Blogs are boring", "why would anyone read blogs", "when would they do so?", "so, you mean that people read blogs when they are supposed to be working", "who reads blogs anyway?", "kids?".

Are you surprised? I am. But I have heard these and similar comments from enough people in scientific fields (at this meeting and elsewhere) to speculate why it is people think blogs don't work. I should say that none of these comments were related to any particular blog and I doubt any of the commenters have seen the research blog in question before commenting. I tried to explain what it is I think blogs can do that other media cannot. That we have a chance to show how we do science while we're doing it and where our shared knowledge actually comes from. That we make science accessible to anyone who are interested and that people can talk to us if they want to. That even if no one ever visits our blog it forces us to reflect on our own work in a way that's rare in science but which might eventually help us communicate our science, goals and visions better in any media or any setting. I think they somehow saw the point in using blogs as a self-development tool, but self-development is not highly rated in the sciences.

What do you think? Does professional, scientific blogs make sense or should those of us who absolutely must share our dirty laundry with the world stick to write personal blogs for our friends and shut up about it? Is the blog media worth using for scientific communication and would anyone ever read? Is it the scientific dorks who are behind and should just get in the loop and follow up on what has happened in the blogosphere during the past 5-ish years or are we as bloggers just at the extreme forefront of things and should wait for other people to tag along?

Please share your opinions. I will get back to this topic, but would really like to hear what you have to say first.

Lifting the veil

I recently figured out who someone I only know from the Internet is in real life. I don't consider myself a stalker type and would never dream of outing anyone against their will, but I couldn't resist the temptation of Google. What happened was that I was immensely impressed by this persons accomplishments and while that was not surprising given what I already knew about this persons alter ego, I think my reaction was somewhat surprising. I was not only impressed but also immediately felt that this person was completely out of my league and I would never be able to compete with someone so succesful. Up until that minute I knew that this person experienced the same struggles as I do and that was exactly the reason in the first place for both of us being in this particular Internet forum. Why is it that as soon as people get a name and a face and a CV I suddenly think they are unapproachable, scarily successful and dealing with everything in a much more elegant way than I do, while I am convinced they are just like me despite all successes as long as they present themselves as an avatar with a fantasy name? Isn't that a little sad?

I sometimes give away my real email or my real name and location to people I've connected with in the blogosphere or internetfora. I almost expect people to google me if they get hold of my name by chance (not because I'm hugely interesting, but because Google is a huge temptation for the curious mind). But I never thought about how getting access to my real life info could change anybodys perception of me (it is really quite harmless, I have never been a sumo wrestler or anything really surprising).

Looks like I'm really far away from my true home

Who would have known?

Thanks to PropterDoc for leading me astray.

You Belong in New Zealand

Good on ya, mate You're the best looking one of the bunch Though you're often forgotten... You're quite proud of who you are

What English Speaking Country Are You?

Talking about science in the public

Remember, I talked about the blog we are going to have in one of the research projects I'm involved with. It's up and running now, but still only contains a few entries. With this blog being pseudonymous and all I am not going to link to it, at least not yet, but I do want to talk a bit about it here. Especially after I found this link yesterday where a freelance science writer and blogger here in my neck of the woods explains why she thinks we should change the way we think about science in the media. Her main points are that science has an oddly distinguished status in the news media, that it's only found worthy of mentioning after major discoveries have been made and that the general public knows too little about the scientific process before the results hits the headlines. I wholeheartedly agree. If I hadn't become a research scientist/academic I would probably have gone into either teaching at a lower level or into public outreach, and if there is one thing I hope to be able to change as a scientist it is to demystify the process.

It frustrates me daily that my own family and friends know so little about what I am doing , that the world of scientific research is so foreign to most people, that one is perceived as either extraordinarily bright and intelligent or remarkably different. I want people to know about the time, effort and money behind scientific results, the tedious collection of data, the careful analysis and heated discussions that are also part of the process, or the competition for grants, people and status. I am disheartened when the breaking news of my field fills the TV screen in a simplified and wrongish way. Not because journalists shouldn't talk about science, or because they should know all the minutiae, but because people are not offered any insight into where the results come from and why they are complex and two-sided.

When we first talked about having a blog for the research project it was as part of an extensive outreach package for a project that already has attained a bit of publicity. Apparently the blog as a medium has become so commonplace that every decent large collaborative project ought to have a blog these days. Nobody really talked about what should go on the blog until fairly late in the process. Most people involved seemed to think along the lines of reporting results/ field specific facts/ background and then we hope someone joins in and creates a discussion. What I wanted to do was to write about the day to day process on a more personalised level - provide a peak behind the curtain so to speak. I wanted to use this opportunity to talk about what happens before, during and after the research project, the people, the logistics, the After some discussion other group members seemed to come around to the idea, so that is the focus of the blog now. As I said it is early days and I don't know whether we will generate an audience or what an audience will gain from the blog, but I do think it is a different way of communicating science and I wish we would all try out more new avenues when it comes to public outreach.

Blogosphere spring cleaning

As you may have noticed I have been adding some more links to the blog. I have also removed a few that didn't work anymore and generally thought a bit more about who I want to link to and why. Generally I will link to you if I read your blog regularly or if you link to me. I also link to some fellow postdocs who post on the "what's up postdoc" carnivals. If you read my blog and would like your link in the side bar, let me know.

When I started blogging two years ago (on another blog) I was a lonely and frustrated graduate student desperate for contact to someone/ anyone in the circus that is academia who were not my advisors. I cast my net wide and joined organisations and fora, listservs, groups and networks and searched for blogs, diaries, real life stories and anything I would come across. I still read some of the blogs I came across during this frantic search for connection and company, others have disappeared or I have lost interest and others I have come back to. Most of the blogs I was able to dig up were written by people living in the US or Canada, and at the time blogging seemed to be a foreign concept to most people where I was. Since then blogging has exploded here and while I have no intentions of cutting out my fave blogs from other parts of the world, it would be nice to meet people from my region too. While my focus is not on factual research, I often wish I knew about more blogging people in my own field, and I have tailored my new links list so that it reflects my location, work and general interests a bit better than the old one did.

I have deliberately searched the blogosphere for some new links to people in my geographical area and of course Danish, Swedish and Norwegian graduate students, professors and science geeks are blogging too. I have also chosen to be more flexible regarding language and allow links to blogs fully or partly written in Scandinavian languages as well. If you belong in any of these categories and read my blog I'd be happy to link to you too. I think it would be nice to have blogosphere friends on this side of the pond as well.

I have also been searching for people in my broader research field. I have added a few link to earth science people who blog about research, work, life or all of it. Blogging doesn't seem to be particularly big with people in my field, but maybe that just makes it all the easier to connect with the few brave ones out there.

Other than that I have been playing around with technorati and their new "tag cloud" feature, but I can't get the cloud to show on my page. If anyone has tried this and made it work I'd love to hear what you did. I can only get a link to the cloud on the technorati page, but not show it directly on my blog. WTF?

ETA: Thanks to nice and helpful technorati people the tag cloud problem is now magically solved. Thanks.

The real me

As seen everywhere today. Apparently I'm a Junkie Monkey. Who knew? Thanks to ScienceWoman for directing me to another procrastination tool.

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Why I blog

As a way to think about my work, the way I do it and what I want to come from it. I don't think blogging adds directly to my scientific progress, but I do think my writing here helps me identify what is important for me and deal with the obstacles I meet along the road. I also benefit significantly from the inspiration I get from other bloggers, especially those who are further ahead in the game than I. Blogging allows me to take time to ponder on how I want my life to be, which direction I want my career to take and how to get to where I wish to be. Maybe being more aware of my wishes and goals also makes me a better scientist - eventually.

As a way to articulate unfinished or unpolished thoughts on the work I do, the career I have chosen and other aspects of life. Sometimes I say something in a meeting or to a person that I already talked about here and get surprised at how easily I manage to express my thoughts on the subject. I think the blog also works as a sort of trial run and helps me be more precise when I express my opinions on some thing or other.

As a way to share experiences with a community of equally-minded people. Most of my close friends are not academics, and there are many things I don't feel comfortable discussing with my colleagues (at least not as long as my long-term position is unsecured and some of us might be competitors for jobs). I also think that by letting my experiences become part of the information accessible to everyone, maybe they will come in handy for someone out there who is going through something similar.

And why pseudonymously?

To protect the innocent. This blog does not only offer a window into my life, but also to many other's who don't know they are appearing here and who have not chosen this kind of exposure.

To protect my workplace and everybody associated with it. The feeling one gets from reading blogs and other academic websites/ discussion forums is that the similarities between institutions are greater than the differences. Archetypical PIs, administrators, advisers, professors, students, postdocs and staff researchers seem to populate academia and research institutes around the globe. I don't think it would make any positive difference if the exact location of my workplace and the identities of the people I work with was known. I think blogs are interesting on a general level, not because I need to know exactly who the nice boss or the angry coworker is.

To keep the blog off a Google search on my real name. This is a personal space and not a part of my professional identity. I don't want this page to show up in Google if I apply for a grant or a job or is looking for collaborators for a research project. It is not so much about hiding the other way around. There are people reading this blog who know me in real life, and others I have never met, but who I have shared emails and pictures with previously. If you happen to find out who I am or where I am I don't mind all that much, but it would be nice if you let me know that you're reading.

This post will be moved to the sidebar as a permalink when it drops off the page.

Catching up

As a first attempt to make up for my missed comments I want to thank

Dr. Lisa and Sleek Otter who wished me safe travels and good luck when I was going to see Fiancé in Germany before we moved in together

Breena Ronan who said something nice about my teaching

ScienceWoman who commented on my workspace and my lack of accomplishment on to-do lists

PropterDoc and anonymous who chimed in on the discussion about Life as a Postdoc

Dr. Brazen Hussy who also commented on the to-do list

Anonymous who said some nice words about my photos of the Arctic winter

ScienceWoman, Ms.PhD, Zuska and anonymous who commented on "What does a postdoc do?" Zuska also has a comment and link to this post on her own blog.

and Ms.PhD who was my first commenter on sheeps and boots and everything.

Hope you come back!

Beginners mistake - so sorry for not replying to your comments

So here I have been thinking what I should do to get anybody to comment on my blog. Today I switched to beta and on the first page when I signed in I got a list of comments to moderate. I feel more than a wee bit stupid right now. Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful comments. I will get back to you.

I can't believe I never even checked what the "moderate comments" tab was for. I have disabled it now, and hope your comments will show up when you post.

I well get better. Promise.