Labs

The response thus far to the Census of Science Bloggers (2011) has been rather remarkable, especially when you consider it started on a Friday (never a good day to announce). But it's Monday now, which means it's time for this census worker--a hat I'll be wearing for the rest of August--to get to work. The Challenge: How to circulate the Science Blogger Census to the whole of the science blogosphere in such a way that it doesn't become tedious? Having thought about it, I can't say that I've come up with a perfect solution, but I do have a plan that at least tries to minimize the pain. I would ask you, dear science blogger, to join me as a census worker and collect one census from one science blogger you personally know. You will send them a link to this very post (http://goo.gl/FzzZa) where they will find a link to the census form (http://goo.gl/2R31w) and these same instructions requesting that they do as you did--complete the census form and collect ...

Form:  Census of Science Bloggers (2011) .  Short url: http://goo.gl/2R31w Pass it on... Census data will be used to create a 2011 snapshot of science bloggers. The data will be parsed and distilled down into hopefully helpful and informative charts and tables to be posted throughout the month of September. 2000-2010 Census A portion of the data collected will also be added to the 2000-2010 census data flowchart .

Starting (or launching if you like) a much needed subreddit for science blogs: http://www.reddit.com/r/sciblogs/ Think of it as Editor's Picks for the science blogosphere. It's also an effective way to introduce science blogs to the general public. --- I love science. I love blogging. Thus, FoS is a labor of love for me. But I don't just love and enjoy FoS . I'm a fan of all science blogs. The reason for this is an open secret among science blog readers-- science blogs are the best place to get your science. For example, we are expecting, and a few weeks back my wife came home with The Vaccine Book given to her by one of her coworkers. She asked me what I thought about it. Naturally I was skeptical. I first turned to google and quickly found myself sifting through anonymous opinions in a forum. Then it occurred to me that there was probably a reason the name "Dr. Sears" sounded familiar. I'd probably read about him on a science blog. So I went to ...

Dear Science Bloggers Everywhere: We spend a lot of time composing our blog posts. This is good because content is king. But unless you are wildly popular, you are doing yourself a disservice if you don't spend a little more time smartly, efficiently and tastefully promoting your content after you post it. There are a lot of useful ways to market your latest posts, but here I want to talk about how best to submit your content to reddit.com . Reddit is a collection of topical forums known as subreddits. There are subreddits for all sorts of topics, including many of the sciences:   /r/Anthropology/ , /r/Astronomy/ , /r/biology/ , /r/chemistry/ , /r/geology/ , /r/mycology/ , /r/Ornithology/ , /r/linguistics/ , /r/PhilosophyofScience , etc . Chances are good there is a subreddit devoted to your field of study and/or the specific topic of your post. When you submit your content to reddit, don't just submit it to the main page-- /r/reddit.com/ --but instead take a minute or two...