Rise of the Geoblogosphere
The Geological Society of Washington was founded in 1893, and during its 115 years of history, has seen presentations by some of the greatest geologists of all time. Over that time, the stage has been graced by the likes of Charles Walcott, Alfred Brooks, Grove Karl Gilbert, John Wesley Powell, M. King Hubbert, J. Harlen Bretz, Bailey Willis, Nelson Horatio Darton, and (more recently) Richard Fortey. It was with humility I took the podium last night to give a talk entitled "Rise of the Geoblogosphere."
My PowerPoint slideshow is online here for your viewing pleasure, but I'll also embed it here (works in Firefox, but it doesn't seem to work in Internet Explorer):
I shared examples of some of the more well-read blogs, the blogs I read regularly, specialist blogs like Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week, expedition blogs, commercially associated blogs. I discussed some trends in the geoblogosphere, including the Accretionary Wedge, Where on Google Earth?, Chris Rowan's "geopuzzles," and the PodClast.
I then discussed my own experiences with geoblogging. I started this blog in December of last year as a means of informally sharing interesting information with my students. That intended audience, however, was very quickly supplanted by a globally-dispersed readership. I don't think I really would have known how many people were reading my blog unless Ron Schott had encouraged me to turn on the comments option. I'm so pleased I did, and was gratified to see that so many people in so many places were interested in what I had to say.
When I installed a counter and Sitemeter on the blog, I got a better sense of the large number of visitors, and thus some read on the vitality of geoblogs as a medium of communication. This, it would appear, was a big deal.
Thus, when I was asked to give a talk at GSW for the first time, I thought that perhaps discussing the growth of the geoblogosphere would be a bigger contribution than, say, rehashing the research I did for my master's thesis. So I committed to giving a talk about the state of the geoblogosphere as it stands in late 2008. As many readers will know, to generate data for this talk, I conducted a survey of geobloggers, and got 47 responses. By my estimates, this is probably about 50% of the geoblogosphere as I am aware of it, and perhaps 70% of the English-language geoblogosphere.
Data from the survey occupied the rest of my presentation. The majority of my geoblogger respondents indicated that they used Blogger as their blogging platform. Most geobloggers are either graduate students, consultants in industry, university faculty (teaching + research), or educators (teaching only). Popular topics for geoblogging included geology, personal stories and anecdotes, personal research, travel, and current geological events.
I shared a map of the geoblogosphere (insofar as it was determined from my survey), which I reproduce here as a Google Map (drag it around to see the whole thing):
My PowerPoint slideshow is online here for your viewing pleasure, but I'll also embed it here (works in Firefox, but it doesn't seem to work in Internet Explorer):
Bentley Gsw Geoblogosphere V2
I began with a definition of the terms blog, blogger, blogging, and blogosphere, then added the prefix "geo-" to indicate the subset of total blogs that dealt with the earth sciences.View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.
I shared examples of some of the more well-read blogs, the blogs I read regularly, specialist blogs like Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week, expedition blogs, commercially associated blogs. I discussed some trends in the geoblogosphere, including the Accretionary Wedge, Where on Google Earth?, Chris Rowan's "geopuzzles," and the PodClast.
I then discussed my own experiences with geoblogging. I started this blog in December of last year as a means of informally sharing interesting information with my students. That intended audience, however, was very quickly supplanted by a globally-dispersed readership. I don't think I really would have known how many people were reading my blog unless Ron Schott had encouraged me to turn on the comments option. I'm so pleased I did, and was gratified to see that so many people in so many places were interested in what I had to say.
When I installed a counter and Sitemeter on the blog, I got a better sense of the large number of visitors, and thus some read on the vitality of geoblogs as a medium of communication. This, it would appear, was a big deal.
Thus, when I was asked to give a talk at GSW for the first time, I thought that perhaps discussing the growth of the geoblogosphere would be a bigger contribution than, say, rehashing the research I did for my master's thesis. So I committed to giving a talk about the state of the geoblogosphere as it stands in late 2008. As many readers will know, to generate data for this talk, I conducted a survey of geobloggers, and got 47 responses. By my estimates, this is probably about 50% of the geoblogosphere as I am aware of it, and perhaps 70% of the English-language geoblogosphere.
Data from the survey occupied the rest of my presentation. The majority of my geoblogger respondents indicated that they used Blogger as their blogging platform. Most geobloggers are either graduate students, consultants in industry, university faculty (teaching + research), or educators (teaching only). Popular topics for geoblogging included geology, personal stories and anecdotes, personal research, travel, and current geological events.
I shared a map of the geoblogosphere (insofar as it was determined from my survey), which I reproduce here as a Google Map (drag it around to see the whole thing):
As you can see, the geographic distribution of geobloggers is strongly Anglo-centric, and very strongly focused on the United States of America.
I then presented data about when my survey respondents began their blogs, and pointed out the explosive growth in the geoblogosphere over the past two years in particular. Taking a page from Andrew, I compared this explosive growth to the Cambrian "explosion" of animal diversification. (This was a big hit with the GSW audience!) Next, I offered a plot of how many posts each geoblog had posted compared to its length of existence. The average rate of posting was about one post every couple of days, though the spread of data indicates some real outliers too: some blogs have been around for a couple of years with relatively few posts, while others enthusiastically put up multiple posts per day (like Laelaps, for instance).
In my survey, I had asked geobloggers what they like about the geoblogosphere, what they dislike, and why they blog in the first place. The answers to these questions were the final pieces of information I presented, both in the form of "word clouds" and histograms. Geoblogger respondents indicated overwhelmingly that they enjoyed the geoblogosphere's sense of community, as well as access to news, perspectives, and insights that they might have otherwise missed. Some comments from the survey:
- "Once I graduated from Graduate school it was tough to really hang out with an entire group of people who like to talk about geology...the geoblogosphere is like a group of friends who like to talk geology...I just wish there was such thing as cyber-beer to go along with the blog-o-sphere ."
- "It's an expanding, welcoming community. You get to experience all sorts of fieldtrips and research through the eyes of other geologists."
- "I have met many professionals in the process of blogging who have given me lots of great help and advice. It has served as a great introduction to specialists I wouldn't otherwise be in touch with."
- "The geoblogosphere connects together a community that otherwise only gets together at a meeting or two per year."
As far as dislikes, there were fewer responses, and many respondents simply said "I like it. No problems." A few offered criticism along the lines of "there's too many blogs; they're too dispersed." Interestingly, the second-most-common complaint was that there weren't enough geobloggers; these respondents felt that more geoscientists should get in on the game. Some comments from the survey:
- "It has grown so much and so fast. It is difficult to keep up."
- "Another issue which may arise is priority of ideas. There are now written records of what, in the past, would have been "debates over a beer". Will this lead to debates about who originated an idea, or who has priority on a description?"
As for why geobloggers bother with blogging, the most common response was that they wanted to share information and perspectives with others, followed closely by the sense of connecting with other interested individuals and public outreach. A significant minority also mentioned the pleasure they take in the act of writing, or a desire to practice/improve their writing skills. Some comments from the survey on why geobloggers blog:
- "Narcissism"
- "It's a good outlet for my geological musings, and can really help to jumpstart a day of geo-thinkin'..."
- "An increasingly effective method of public outreach, which is part of my responsibilities as a publicly funded researcher; a way of clarifying my own thoughts on geological topics and issues."
- "Stop mom from emailing me for news all the time"
- "Cogito Ergo Blogo"
- "I like to share what I think is interesting but don't like 'bothering' people. I see blogging as the modern equivalent of the person who tacks magazine/newspaper articles outside their office, but with a much bigger/wider audience."
I concluded the talk with an image of the (non-geo-)blogosphere (as depicted by Discover magazine a few years back) and some thoughts about what I personally would like to see in the future: more geobloggers more evenly distributed over the planet Earth, including voices from major metropolitan areas, hinterlands, and in particular China. I also would like to see some geoscience/policy blogging, and more blogs coming out of the US Geological Survey.
I would like to thank everyone who took the time to contribute their perspective to the survey, and to the gracious members of the GSW audience last night at the Cosmos Club. Thanks!
18 Comments:
Thanks Callan - sounds like a great talk, and a great representation of the GBS.
And I can see the slideshow just fine in IE7, Windows XP Pro, service pack 3. Have to click for each slide change, which is how it looks like it's set up.
Thanks again.
That sounds like an interesting topic to discuss, also sounds like you had fun putting it together.
This whole .ppt presentation on blogs is also an interesting proposition. I can see the possibility of people putting up conference talks... eventually.
I think Ron had a talk at GSA in Denver last year related to geology and blogging as well.
Anyway, great job Callan. The talk sounded quite interesting.
Glad to see that SlideShare worked out for you as well!
Indeed a nice presentation! What I am curious about is, how did the audience respond to the topic of geoblogging and was there any feedback or discussion about it?
It's interesting to see that the three blogs from Germany are all from the east. It's not there is no geology and mining in the west... ;-)
Lost Geologist,
Yes, the talk generated a fair bit of discussion, including several questions I couldn't answer (e.g. "What is the value for students to have access to new outcrops versus what is the detriment of not seeing two geologists arguing in front of the outcrop about its correct interpretation?") Several geologists expressed concern at the lack of oversight, and the pitfalls that could present. Another geologist asked me about how long it takes to blog each day, and what happens if you don't post for a while ("Nothing! Blogs don't rot!"). A new post-doctoral researcher at the University of Maryland asked me about what I thought would be the benefits of peer-reviewed journals hosting discussions on their websites... So there were lots of ideas tossed around. I felt good at prompting that discussion.
Callan ... this is a fantastic summary! Thanks for doing all that.
I'm confused by this question:
"What is the value for students to have access to new outcrops versus what is the detriment of not seeing two geologists arguing in front of the outcrop about its correct interpretation?"
It sounds like the questioner thinks that blogs replace field trips. (They don't, and they might lead to opportunities to see two geologists argue in front of an outcrop, if the blog introduces geologists to unknown outcrops or to geologists they wouldn't otherwise have met.)
Hi Kim,
Yeah, the questioner was wondering exactly that: whether geoblogs' "exotic field trips" aspect was the sort of thing that would replace a traditional field trip or augment it. Additionally, he saw a huge value in visiting an actual outcrop and seeing how, when presented with identical facts, two geologists could offer different interpretations. That sort of thing is valuable to students, he was saying, and he was concerned that potentially that wouldn't come through in a blog presentation of a field trip.
-Callan
One thing that may come through in some field-trip-type postings, is some good locations to find some good outcrops to go argue about!
Callan-
thanks for taking this effort.
cheers
Hi Callan,
You fogot me! so may be for your next presentation in South america, especifically Peru three geobloggers writte post regulary, in spanish, I know one guy from Chili and another from Argentina. May be count for future presentations.
Thanks for sharing your ppt.
Lukysh
To answer Dave S., Ron's proposed session became a poster session at last year's GSA meeting.
Callan, thanks for sharing your work here. I can't quite read your geoblogic time scale--can you point us to a bigger version?
As for the issue of "there's too many blogs; they're too dispersed", Chris at Highly Allochthonous has set up a aggregator at Google Allego. For those that don't use RSS aggregators/readers, this could be helpful.
Lukysh,
I didn't "forget" you (at least I don't think I did)... I was only plotting those geobloggers who participated in my survey, and if you didn't log on and give me some data, I couldn't include your info. Good to know you're out there, though.
Andrew,
Try clicking on the "full screen" button in the lower right corner of the Slideshare viewer. Or if that's still not high enough res, I can e-mail you the whole PPT... Happy to do so; Just say so if you want it.
Chris M,
I've got a shared list too, which has a few more added than Chris Rowan's, and has one less than Chris's too (one that annoyed me with a negative tone and too little geology). You're welcome to access it here.
Lukysh, I've recently posted about a translation widget that could be added to your site - and others - for increased readership from other languages. You can now read my blog in Arabic, if you want to!
Callan and Chris M,
as mentioned by Ralph I posted a list of 97 geoblogs. Maybe you find some new ones in that list. Unfortunately, the list is in German, to date. I will translate it in some days...
I donated some hours of my night, and... here is it - the categorized list of 97 geoblogs in English: geoblogs.geoberg.de.
If you have some remarks and additions, please let me know.
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