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Census of the Science Blogosphere 2000 to 2010

Looking at the recent network centric attempts at visualizing the science blogosphere, I've been inspired to create a bubble motion chart of science blogs for the last decade. The chart will analyze/visualize Location (i.e. blogger, wordpress, scienceblogs.com, etc.), Type (network, independent, etc.), Gender and Anonymity over the last decade.

To participate, complete the following survey. The survey is divided into years, so if you only started blogging this year, simply scroll down to 2010 and complete that year's information only. Alternatively, if you've been blogging the entire decade, complete each section for each year you've been blogging.

Confidentiality: At the end of the survey I ask for your current URL. I'll use this information to clean-up the data set and drill down in those cases where your blogging arrangement is a unique Type (i.e. Group Blogs, etc.), but I will not publish it. I will, however, make the raw data minus the URL submissions publicly available so others will have an opportunity to use it in their own analyses. Again, your URL will not be published.

Questions Help:

- Platform/Independent/Network/Group Blog - I have limited the presets to what I presume will be the top 7 responses in this category. The presets are not meant to be all encompassing. Please utilize the "Other" option to designate your blogging platform, network or group if not already listed. (Note: This question refers to "location" and not "software" so if you're blogging at Wordpress (i.e. http://sciencetrio.wordpress.com/) then select Wordpress, if your blog is powered by Wordpress but you are publishing on your own domain name (i.e. http://blog.coturnix.org/) select Own Domain.

- XX or XY - Complete only the section that applies, leaving the other blank.

- Byline - Only check Pseudonym if you blog(ged) anonymously, and only for those years when that was the case. If/When you've not blogged under a pseudonym, leave blank.

- Current URL - Please enter your blog's full web address (http://...). This information will be kept confidential/never published.

9/29 10/4 Update: To further illustrate the hoped for outcome, I've created a down and dirty motion chart using the data from the first 66 112 responses. Be sure to play around with the many controls to get a sense of the full potential.





Notes: We can reuse this data again and again in the coming years by combining it with data from future surveys (2011, 2012, 2013…) and so on and so forth going forward, making this an annual census of science blogs.

Comments

  1. I blog under a persona, but not anonymously. My blog does identify me on the about page, but I blog under a "psuedonym". I clicked the psuedonym button. --just fyi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is it too late to suggest additional questions? There's been discussion of racial/ethnic diversity (or lack thereof) in science blogging as well gender diversity (or lack thereof), and I'd quite like to know more about sexual identity diversity, too. And it would be nice to have information on occupation—scientist (and field?), science writer, interested layperson, &c.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @amoebamike: I meant for the pseudonym question to track anonymity. I probably should have worded it better.

    @Jeremy: It's never too late, but I tried to keep this first survey (of time) relatively simple, quick and straightforward. For what you're suggesting an end of year survey with focus on a single point in time would work better, as it would be a larger set of questions, but each only asked once. I'll take your suggested questions under advisement.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, good idea! You'll find three entries under my IP, but each has a unique URL.

    ReplyDelete

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