pikas sla07 physicists uses of blogs

Physicists’ Uses of Blogs

Christina K. PikasSLA PAM Physics Roundtable

June 5, 2007

Note: No faculty liaison talk!

Report from the first Science Blogging Conference

State of the Physics BlogospherePre-2005Post-2005

My upcoming study

Science Blogging Conference

January 20, 2007 in Chapel Hill, NCTopicsBlogging for the benefit of teachersPromoting public understanding of

scienceHow to blogBlogging & controversies in science

Results

Series of primers/basic reviewsSuitable for undergrads?Suitable for us?http://tinyurl.com/yvhrca

How k-12 teachers use blogsTargeting content to requirements

Next Year

Saturday, January 19, 2008TopicsTeaching ScienceScience JournalismDoing science on blogs

Physics Blogosphere Pre-2005

Maybe fewer than 10 active bloggers using blogging software

Many still bloggingDistler (2002- )The Quantum Pontiff (2003- )Not Even Wrong (2004- )

2005

Quantum Diaries ProjectBloggers wanted to continueOthers wanted to comment?

Cosmic VarianceCritical Mass?

After 2005

Maybe ~300 physicist bloggers?Trackbacks on Arxiv

(http://arxiv.org/tb/recent)Many, many comments

My study

How and why do scientists blog?QualitativeContent analysis InterviewsFinishing by 1/08…

Contact Information

Christina K. Pikas, BS, MLS R.E. Gibson Library & Information Center

The Johns Hopkins UniversityApplied Physics Laboratory

Voice  443.778.4812 (Baltimore) 240.228.4812 (Washington)

E-mail Christina.Pikas@jhuapl.edu