On blogging

You know you are doing your proper job as a blogger when SiteMeter shows you a bunch of folks on the site for 20-40 min plus, just waiting around to enjoy the comment fireworks.

SciAm bloggers get pizzaid!

A tweet from one @robinlloyd99 indicates that the pay structure worked out for the Scientific American blogs runs a fixed $200 per month.

.@BoraZ: some networks pay more to those who bring more traffic. @sciam network doesn’t. same monthly pay for every blogger. $200

Not too shabby. I may have reached that in one or two big months at Scienceblogs.com but for the most part the paystructure there was running maybe $100-$150 per month for the DM blog, which was right around 20% or so down the traffic list. So the vast majority of Sb bloggers were not making anything near what SciAm blogs is paying. Including Sb escapees such as Myrmecos, SciCurious and Aunt Janet.

 

This is fantastic.

2010, the year of the science blog

ok, not really. But I think we’re going to look back and say that this is when scientific blogging started being mainstream activities. I view it through the blog collective lens.

Prior to 2010, Nature Network and Scienceblogs sucked up all the air. Which was cool and all but it didn’t leave a lot of room. Or there wasn’t enough of a market, so to speak.

So what happened?

Discover magazine got serious by acquiring Ed Yong and Razib and by so doing created a third-way of collectivized scienceblogging.

Then, Scienceblogs and Nature Network had major (the former) and minor (the latter) assplosions. Talent departed with various levels of spleen being vented and rancor being…rancored.

This led, inevitably perhaps, to the formation of Scientopia and Occam’s Typewriter from a core group of emigres from each of the large collectives, respectively.

In parallel Wired magazine tried the Discover Magazine blogs model and Scientific American at least laid the groundwork (i.e., hired Bora Zivkovic as community manager) for what I suspect will be another instance of the Discover Magazine blog collective model.

PLoS blogs launched…unclear to me under which model but I bet it will eventually look more like the Sb / Nat Net / Scientopia / Occam’s Typewriter type of model.

In the breech, the wily upstart LabSpaces pulled a fast move by emulating the path buried in the origins of Scienceblogs.com. They pulled together a healthy number of existing privateer blogs, created a great deal of enthusiasm and really went to town. I’d say they easily won the enthusiasm and energy title for new blog collectives.

Along with this, the model of blog collective organized by scientific topic expanded as well. The all-geo site is currently just Highly Allochthonous but going by the Twitter energy of recent geoscience meetings I see a lot of upside future. Perhaps more interestingly, The Gam joined oldtimer Deep Sea News as a second Oceans blog collective. Strong work.

So science blogging continues to grow and, more importantly, become more formalized into go-to collectives and organizations. Some commercial, some not.

I can’t help but think this is related, perhaps not causally but as a reflection of the same trends, to a growth in recognition of

The Society for Neuroscience continues to tip toe but the Twitter chatter at the 2010 meeting was much more substantial. Even the tiny (and, let us admit, conservative) College on Problems of Drug Dependence started a blog.

I see many more local Universities and research institutes using Twitter and Facebook…and even establishing blogs as part of their PR mission. PR as institutions, sure, but part of that is to brag about the science their investigators are conducting and publishing.

Last but not least, Jeremy Berg, Director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences used blogging with skill and enthusiasm to advance his agenda.

Open Comment Thread

We’re having a leetle trouble with server load over at Scientopia.

See Christina, see DrSkySkull.

So if there’s anything you have a pressing need to discuss you can do it here.

Scientopia: A new science blogging network

crossposting from DrugMonkey on Scienceblogs.com….

A brand new science blogging collective has launched itself today. I encourage you to stroll on over to http://scientopia.org/blogs and take a look-see. You may even want to save a bookmark or two.

The vision statement reads as follows:

Scientopia is a collective of people who write about science because they love to do so. It is a community, held together by mutual respect and operated by consensus, in which people can write, educate, discuss, and learn about science and the process of doing science. In this we explore the interplay between scientific issues and other parts of our lives with the shared goal of making science more accessible.

As a community, we strive to be welcoming of anyone with an interest in science and its place in our world, regardless of any feature, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, which may act or have historically acted as a barrier to full participation in science or discourses about science.

Hippie statements aside, I think you will find that Scientopia has some interesting voices lined up for your reading pleasure. So go take a look.

Now #NatNetFAIL?

A Twitt from @drisis alerted me to this post over at Nature’s blog empire. In it, one Ian Brooks muses:

Do i fit in Nature Network anymore? Is it time to consolidate and “out” myself and find a new Network to join.

I don’t know. I haven’t been around here for so long, I don’t know how Nature Network is holding up; I’ve lost touch with this place and most of the bloggers here (which I’m very sad about). I know some of the regular bloggers are frustrated with The Rules and the dreadfully slow log ins (it took me almost 2 minutes from entering The Network URL to start writing this post. That is an utterly unacceptable lag time).

Sounds a bit familiar to those of us on the ScienceBlogs.com side of the pond, doesn’t it? A vague sense of discomfort. Loss of community. “Why am I here?” reflections. And a sense that the complaints are many and varied, even if any given issue does not affect every single person. A storm is abrewing at Nature Networks, make no mistake.

I also enjoyed the comments that emerged in the wake of Ian’s post. Recall the sorts of snootery mooted about by these NatNet folks about the tawdry interest of Sb bloggers in their….traffic? Not to mention their difficulties with our lack of civility? And accusations that there ‘just isn’t enough science at Scienceblogs.com, wot, wot old chap’?

Well now they are irritated by the Science-only dictum, bridling against the limits on cursing, complaining about a perceived pusillanimity of NPG about the infamous English Libel law and demanding, DEMANDING I SAY, their traffix stats. STAT!

All there in the comments and original post. Heck, even Henry Gee (you remember SpittleFest, right?) is whining about how he feels sadly unwelcome after his (female as it happens) boss chastised him for pissing on her carpet posting a (no doubt hilarious) blog entry about rejecting a manuscript on his iPhone from the loo.

[sidebar: I love the fact you can reference comments at NatNet now, bang up job on that at least.]

Brooks has more opinionating on Nature Networks here.

Oh and final note, Ian? You are no PhysioProf.

#IOweBora, do you?

By now many of you have read Bora Zivkovic’s lengthy Op/Ed on the history and future of scientific blogging. This was written upon the sad occasion of his departure from blogging at ScienceBlogs.com. An impromptu tribute to Bora popped up on blogs and Twitter.

The central themes are the essence of Bora. That he encouraged a nascent blogger. Connected them with the greater blog community. Sent them their first traffic. Etc. And from the more established folks the themes of improving their blogging-through “bloggable” alerts, link fests, carnivals and more. Bora created the Open Laboratory end-of-year print summaries of the best-in-blogging. He and another collaborator put what is now the go-to meeting of the year for online science communication, SciOnline.

These themes are but the tip of the iceberg because of course every person has an individual story, even if only in 140 characters or less.

Together this evidence reveals the central place Bora Zivkovic occupies when it comes to scientific communication online. It also reveals the deep appreciation many have for his efforts.

Abel Pharmboy notes on his new blog that there is still a disconnect between Bora’s labors and his ability to make a living from what he does. Abel suggests that it is time for the community to step up and deliver a more tangible appreciation for Bora.

let’s take “I Owe Bora” to a new and literal level. Lots of you know that he has been in a bit of financial difficulty and I know that he’s too proud to ask for help. In standing for his principles, he’s giving up over $100/month from ScienceBlogs and the network is still two months behind on their payments. Several people have asked me how they might help out The Blogfather. So, I’d like to put up a PayPal donation button for all of us to show our appreciation to Bora and put our money where our mouths are (and tweets and posts are).

I agree completely.Go over to Abel’s post or just click this link.

Notes for the day

More or less still on strike over at Scienceblogs even though PZ says things are moving along nicely.

Abel Pharmboy packed up Terra Sigillata and moved to a new wordpress blog abelpharmboy.wordpress.com

Johns Wilkins and Lynch are still grinding their axes of disgruntlement. A year later? Dudes, get a grip.

Yesterday’s illumination about Innovium as the VC firm behind Scienceblogs.com was certainly instructive. I doubt that it has any real impact on my decision making with respect to the home of the DrugMonkey blog but it does put some things into perspective.

PhysioProf did a book review? whut?

Ed Yong had his genes screened by 23andme and dishes up an excellent report on the process and interpretive issues.

In which I belatedly pick up on something in the Scienceblogs.com saga

Ran across a link to this press release dated 7/24/2010.

About Innovium Media Properties Corp.

Innovium’s venture investment portfolio is devoted to Seed Media Group LLC, a private media and technology company focused on the professional and consumer science markets. Seed’s award winning brands include Seed® (www.seedmagazine.com) and ScienceBlogs® (www.scienceblogs.com). Innovium trades under the symbol IN on the TSX Venture Exchange (“TSX-V”) and IH7 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (“FWB”).

Huh that’s funny. It has been going on since, well, at least since June 2008.

Oh, there’s a website for http://www.innovium.ca/.

Press releases..press releases. Hmm, here is one from 2005:

September 08, 2005
INNOVIUM CAPITAL CORP. REPORTS
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER DR. JAMES WATSON JOINS SEED MEDIA GROUP
Toronto … Innovium Capital Corp. reports that one of its investments, Seed Media Group, announced
yesterday the appointment of Dr. James Watson as Special Advisor to the Board. Dr. Watson received
the Nobel Prize for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA.
James Watson holds honorary degrees from 33 universities including Harvard..

So pretty much from the beginning then. Egg on my face. Guess I should have known a little something about the place I was blogging for, eh? My bad.

Okay, this puts me right out of my depth but I think this is the chart for the stock valuation of the Innovium Media Properties Corp

ScienceBlogs.com Bloggers go on strike

PZ Myers is on strike. And when the Big Dog strikes, eeeeaaaverybody strikes. Even Greg Laden.

Actually, PZ lays out the case that this is about the complaints that affect all of the Scienceblogs.com bloggers pretty well:

The key problem is one of communication. The bloggers here are almost entirely in the dark about what’s going on behind the scenes, and we get news indirectly and by rumor. We’ve had almost no technical support for over a year; when we do hear what changes are being made, it’s almost always trivial tweaks to support advertising. We report bugs, we get back silence. We see the ads that appear on site getting cheesier and cheesier. We don’t know what’s happening, and there is no mechanism and no effort made to enlighten us.

That’ll do for starters.

What I’m wondering is who is going to break the picket line? Will they bring in scabs???

Like George Motherfucking Will

Who, btw, is a dumbass. Just so we’re clear on that. I cut my political teeth in part by reading that guy’s column in the local paper. It was amazing. Each and every freaking time I would read through it, nodding along with most of his points. And then right at the end he would reach a conclusion that was 90 or 180 degrees off from where his chain of evidence and logic brought me. It took me quite awhile to catch on to the Republican strategy of talking points. Of saying wtf-ever that either made sense or didn’t just so long as they hammered the talking points at the end. Heck, they probably hadn’t fully cottoned on to what they were doing back then.

Anyway…

Let’s return to the fact that I read his column, and Erma Bombeck and Doonesbury and a whole bunch of other national content, in my local paper.

How? The power of syndication, right? An Op/Ed content provider in the heyday of print newsmedia dreamed of going into nationwide syndication. They started out as local blovitards of some sort and if they caught sufficient attention, other newspapers around the country would want to reprint their stuff. If you lived in the hinterlands of the US, you didn’t have to subscribe to BigCityPaper and have it delivered a day late in the mail or some shit. You could access that content in your local, preferred venue.

Whatever passes for web syndication is not this. Or at least, the dead-tree model of Op/Ed syndication is not a default goal of the bloggers of my acquaintance. In the science / medicine areas anyway.

There is at least one fence-sitting blog friend of ours at DM that is absolutely perfect for old-style Op/Ed syndication. I wonder if it is on this person’s radar screen that this is the perfect solution? Is there a mechanism for this? One thinks not. The only paying blog-collective gigs I’m aware of in the science-y arena are still on the old model of in-house talent. They are not overtly on the model of paying for a post from a high-profile blogger that will appear on websites everywhere. Like George Motherfucking Will’s column.

Who knows. Maybe I should have asked Bora. Maybe this model does exist and I’m just unaware of it. I wonder if my blog holmes is aware of any such?

Blog collective

I put up what is possibly the trolliest title I’ve ever come up with over on Sb DrugMonkey today. I did want to talk about Big Mechanism grants and the mind space the scientist has to be in to consider them. As a Project Director anyway. (And no, I’m not currently considering being a PD or similar insanity, thank you.)

In the current upheaval of ScienceBlogs, however, I’m seeing a trend by which if people are thinking “blog collective” they are thinking inward toward their respective -ology domains.

The re-launch of geoblog Highly Allochthonous is a case in point. Notice the domain name “all-geo.org”? Gee, I wonder who they are intending to collectivize? Also see the genomesunzipped collective started by Daniel MacArthur who may or may not be closing his Sb shop (hasn’t said, so far as I know).

In this they follow the Deep Sea News folks who left ScienceBlogs.com, well, an age ago in internet time.

juniorprof jumped the gun over at my Sb post and suggested I should form a blog collective.

Well, well. I think a Drugmonkey-led collective would be pretty cool. NIH biz and neuroscience perhaps? A key point would be recruiting writedit (IMHO).

Yeah. I have no interest in doing any heavy lifting. No Program Director of Bloggy Collectives for me. I have to say though, from where I’m pondering now, the idea of a collective focused on my blog interests holds little appeal. Don’t get me wrong, I tend to haunt these kinds of blogs preferentially. Grant game, careerism, academia. And I do wish there were a few more substance abuse blogs focused on the research side. But those are not the only people I want to associate with in a blog collective. I love the breadth of ScienceBlogs. I was a reader long before I was a contributor. The approach (in addition to specific blogs) was the hook for me as a reader.

So I’d want a little bit of that liberal arts tradition in any collective that I could envision as being attractive.

dubbin around

Looking at the old blogroll I don’t know whether to be sad about the ones that have gone silent, wonder why I never read some of the still active ones or boggle that so many ARE still blogging. Including YHN I suppose.

If you want to be amused, and you are new to this old site, go back and read PhysioProfs comments and then eventually his blog entries.

SciCurious has posted some thoughts on her departure from ScinceBlogs. It may enhance understanding for some readers.

Getting around to long neglected problems with the house means not seeing the twerps most of the day- tradeoffs are supposed to be for the workweek, dammit.

Status dramaticus

The joy has even gone out of FWDAOTI.

Sigh.

It isn’t me, I’m fine. But some folks I’ve come to really like are being distressed by Blogheaval Essbefail. Coolio folks are making exits…yeah, they are only going to be a bookmark away. I know.

But there will be distance. Schism. Loss.

Some utter dumbass claimed Sb was no different than Facebook or Twitter. Just a platform to anonymously support personal wankery. Really? I feel sorry for such an empty soul.