Blogging
clock | September 26, 2006Sure, this year they are not paying for my trip, but last year was fun for many other reasons...
Continuing reporting from Greensboro...
Friday noonish:
Dave Hoggart, Ruby Sienrich and I had a great time in our session:
Dave was talking about the vibrant local Greensboro blogging community - the one that gave its city the nickname Blogsboro (by an LATimes writer). Dave's personal story is a great example of the way a blogging community can work. About a year ago, Dave's wife Jinny got diagnosed with breast cancer. Dave blogged about it. Suddenly, local bloggers decided to do something about…
clock | September 26, 2006I understand that this year's ConvergeSouth will be different in theme and format from last year's, but that does not mean it is not going to be full of interesting people and conversations...
Here's a little bit more about ConvergeSouth, session by session:
Friday morning:
Michael Moran started off the Friday morning with a session on the effect bloggers have around the world, particularly in countries where freedom of speech and freedom of press do not exist even on paper. The prime example, of course, was Hoder, a blogger who started the Iranian blogging revolution, keeping the Iranian…
clock | September 26, 2006Hey, it was fun last year, I bet it will be fun this year, on October 14th...
You can see some pictures from ConvergeSouth here, here, here and here. For now, here's a few that prove that I was there:
This is just before our sessions started: L-to-R (but not politically) me, Ruby and Dave.
Chatting after Tiffany's session.
Waiting for Atrios (who got lost on campus) on Saturday morning.
Adrian and I used to be next door neighbors and saw each other walking our dogs. It never occured to us to mention blogging. What a surprise when we bumped into each other at ConvergeSouth: "What are you…
clock | September 26, 2006ConvergeSouth06 is on October 14th. So, in anticipation of the event, I will repost, in rapid succession, my coverage of the last year's ConvergeSouth (October 7-8, 2005). Perhaps this will whet your appetite and you'll decide to register (for free) and show up this year. Here is the first of eleven posts...
Taking a little break between the end of the ConvergeSouth conference and dinner, enjoying Dave's hospitality, here's just a quick post on the conference - apparently there is something wrong with my online access back at home, so I may not be able to blog tonight once I get there.
My…
clock | September 24, 2006Daniel Collins of Down To Earth blog, did a little research on the power law as it applies to the recent and current standing of various (mostly science) blogs, with some interesting obervations about the edge effects, the gradual lowering of the slope, and the slow move of the cut-off point towards the right.
The main points:
- science blogosphere is still young, growing and developing.
- the power-law works only for the high-ranked blogs, i.e., the "B/C-list", and breaks down for superpopular blogs as well as low-ranked blogs.
- we play the Red Queen game, i.e., each one of us needs to…
clock | September 23, 2006The 83rd edition of the Tar Heel Tavern, the blog carnival of NC blogging, is up on Poetic Acceptance.
Shortly before I moved here to Seed, Erin took over the management of the carnival and did a great job updating and beautifying the homepage and the archives.
Although I have hosted Tar Heel Tavern five times before, I have not done so since I quit managing it. So, to make up for the lost time, I will be hosting next week, on October 1st, right here. Send your entries by midnight Eastern Time on Saturday at: Coturnix1 AT aol DOT com.
Then, on October 14th, I hope to see a lot of you in…
clock | September 22, 2006
The 2007 Triangle Science Blogging Conference will be a day-long conference Saturday, January 20, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. This is a free, open and public event for bloggers, scientists, science educators and anyone interested in discussing science on the Internet.
The conference is organized by Anton Zuiker, Brian Russell, Paul Jones and myself (you may remember I have been pushing for something like this for a while now).
You can get all the information on the conference wiki, where you can also register for free.
For all the news and developments, check out the Blogtogether blog.…
clock | September 21, 2006Right after last year's ConvergeSouth I tried to get my school to let me teach a class on blogging. Posted on October 13, 2005 here and again on January 16, 2006 here.
Somewhat related to the whole ConvergeSouth experience. I've been pitching a blogging course to my school for a while now (not NCSU, but a community college where I teach). It's been slow and disheartening so far. Nobody knows what blogging is. Also, there is a rule that one needs to have an appropriate degree for a class. In the case of a blogging class, this would mean, or so they said, either journalism school or computer…
clock | September 20, 2006In light of the recent outburst of blogging about diversity provoked by the all-white meeting of bloggers with Bill Clinton, it is interesting to take a look at Simon Owen's new informal survey of the diversity in various bligging niches. Go take a look and let Simon know what you think. Also, compare his findings with the last three years of Blogads surveys which do not explicitely ask for "race", but have additional interesting questions (each year had different questions, though, so check all three). Also, see what Dave says about the survey.
clock | September 19, 2006Unfortunately, not in my neighborhood any more, the First Year Teacher gets portrayed, quite positively, in USA Today in an article about teachers-bloggers.
clock | September 19, 2006This June 01, 2005 post from Science And Politics has been reposted (with mild edits) at several different places by me and others, including on June 01, 2005 on Idea Consultants and on June 10, 2005 on DailyKos. This post, in some way, turned me into some kind of carnival "guru"....
What is a blog carnival?
A blog carnival is a blog-post that contains links to posts on other blogs. How does that differ from a linkfest, or for that matter from most of the stuff that early blogs (and many blogs today) routinely did? In the early days of blogs, there was no original content - blogs WERE…
clock | September 18, 2006Sorry for scarce posting Monday - I hope you liked that long re-post from 11am, long enough to be sufficient reading for one day.
Anton has posted the summary of the Blogger MeetUp. I really like to have this kind of semi-structured meetup once a month. I was impressed by wiki.com - it is simple enough for a compidiot like me to set up and use. And Lyceum, whle still being developed, looks like a promising platform for a classroom multi-blogging use.
Then, I went to Top Of The Hill and had a couple of beers with my fellow ScienceBloggers Orac and Abel. That was fun - I have not met Orac…
clock | September 17, 2006The coooolest thing ever!
My son's science teacher broke his shoulder so he had to be out for two weeks (he's the one who was instrumental in the district adopting the science textbook I like, and he teaches evolution "straight-up").
During that time, they had a substitute teacher. She gave them their first assignment - to find something interesting science-related and write a short report.
Then, she started listing which sources are legit and which are not. Then, my son raised his hand and asked if they were allowed to find information on science blogs, for instance on one his Dad writes…
clock | September 17, 2006Tar HeelTavern #82 is up on Mel's Kitchen.
Don't forget to come to the first Chapel Hill - Carrboro blogger meetup tomorrow in the Library at 7pm. You don't have to be a blogger - being a reader and/or commenter or someone interested in blogging is enough - it is a very open group.
And don't forget to register (for free!) for the October 14th ConvergeSouth.
clock | September 16, 2006From Ed Cone, via Steve Rubel, through Shel Israel, we find that Charlene Li published a new study of blog use and discovered that a quarter of Generation Y reads blogs, which is twice as much as Generation X and three times as much as Boomers (which generation was Generation F and, once the Generation Z of my kids grows up, will there be another generation after them at all, or do we start using the Greek alphabet instead?).
MySpace is for highschoolers. Facebook is for college students (who tolerate, for now, a small number of highschoolers, grad students, faculty and staff, but may leave…
clock | September 16, 2006Don't know, but we can test this hypothesis.
Go to Cognitive Daily and/or Uncertain Principles and take the test (and read what they have to say about it, each from his own perspective).
It is just the essay part of the test. You get the prompt. You write. After 20 minutes (you are typing - kids who write with pencils get 25 minutes), it is over. You can choose to submit your essay or not once you are done.
Dave and Chad will score the results and have the essays graded by professionals (English teachers, hopefully some real-life SAT scorers), as well as blog-readers. Then, they…
clock | September 16, 2006Eva of Easternblot has written an article about science blogging that is very good.
In the article, she interviews Tara Smith, PZ Myers, the Trio Fantasticus of the Inkycircus, Carl Zimmer and Oliver Morton.
The article appears in the latest issue of Hypothesis Journal and you can download the article here (pdf)
At the bottom, there is a short list of other interesting science blogs and one of the titles looks vaguely familiar...
clock | September 14, 2006I hope you can come to ConvergeSouth06. If you are interested in the Facebook session and if you have access to Facebook, join the Group Facebook at ConvergeSouth06.
Technorati Tag: ConvergeSouth
clock | September 14, 2006We are about to start the new blogging season in the Triangle, beginning with the regular Chapel Hill-Carboro meetups. The first meetup will be next Monday in the downstairs conference room of the Chapel Hill Public Library at 7 p.m. There will be wifi, and two presentations (Jameson on Lyceum, Roy on wiki.com).
After that, the next Meetup will be on Thursday 5 October at Open Eye Cafe at 6 p.m. (moving to Tyler's Tap Room at 7).
We'll try this meetup schedule for the next couple of months:
* First Thursdays for social drinks and chatting.
* Third Mondays for presentations and…