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ScienceBlogs

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ScienceBlogs
Type of site
Virtual community
HeadquartersNew York
OwnerScienceBlogs, LLC
Created bySeed Media Group
URLscienceblogs.com
CommercialNo

ScienceBlogs is an invitation-only blog network and virtual community. It was created by Seed Media Group in 2006 to enhance the public understanding of science.[1] As of February 2009, ScienceBlogs hosted 75 blogs dedicated to various fields of research. Each blog has its own theme, specialty, and author(s) and is not subject to editorial control. Authors include active scientists working in industry, universities and medical schools as well as college professors, physicians, professional writers, graduate students, and post-docs.

According to Technorati, as of 2007-07-07, ScienceBlogs had an "authority" of 9,581 and its number of inbound links ranks it 37th among blogs worldwide.[2] Pharyngula, as of 2010-05-21, is the highest-ranked blog on the network, with an "authority" of 747. "Pharyngula Technorati Ranking". Technorati, Inc. Retrieved 2010-05-21. As of 2008-03-14, Quantcast charts it as having over 1.1 million monthly unique visitors, 65% of whom are from the United States.[3]

History

ScienceBlogs was launched in January 2006 with 15 blogs on the network. For the launch blogs, Seed invited some of the best-known independent science bloggers and allowed them to blog about whichever subjects they wished.[4] Revenue was generated through advertisements sold to companies who wished to attract "bright, curious consumers who buy products like automobiles, books, cellphones, computers, liquor, music and watches." [5]

As a result of the free rein given to bloggers and the incentive to increase traffic, bloggers on the network often discuss hot topics such as politics and religion in addition to science. These topics frequently incite heated arguments in the comment threads and bloggers on the network sometimes get into arguments with each other over a series of posts.[4]

ScienceBlogs and Seed received some notable awards at the end of their first year of activity, including the 2006 UTNE Independent Press Award for Best Science/Technology Coverage being granted to Seed, in large part due to the success of ScienceBlogs. Additionally, two blogs on the network received Weblog awards: Pharyngula for Best Science Blog and Respectful Insolence for Best Medical/Health Issues Blog.

The creators of ScienceBlogs have expanded their collection of hosted blogs in three major waves, supplemented by individual additions along the way. Some of the most trafficked blogs include Pharyngula, Respectful Insolence, Good Math Bad Math, Deltoid, Cognitive Daily, Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) and On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess.

ScienceBlogs launched a German-language edition of the site, ScienceBlogs.de, in 2008 in partnership with Hubert Burda Media. As of February 2010, the site hosted 32 blogs [6]. ScienceBlogs Brazil debuted in March of 2009 with 23 Portuguese language blogs.

In June 2010, ScienceBlogs started a blog which was run by PepsiCo. This lead to backlash by many of the bloggers on scienceblogs who considered this to be an unethical mix of advertising and journalism.[7][8] Many bloggers left including Rebecca Skloot. Subsequently other bloggers, such as Bora Zivkovic also left although they did not attribute their leaving directly to the Pepsi including. By the middle of July approximately a quarter of the bloggers had left ScienceBlogs. Subsequently, some bloggers such as PZ Myers announced they were going on strike as part of a general feeling that the people running Seed had failed to respond to concerns surrounding the Pepsi incident or following problems.[9]

Content

ScienceBlogs consists of ten channels, or categories, of blog entries. Each blog author decides what channel his or her individual post belongs in, and each post is indexed accordingly on the main page. The categories are:

See also

References

  1. ^ "About ScienceBlogs". Retrieved 2007-07-27.
  2. ^ "ScienceBlogs Technorati Ranking". Technorati, Inc. Retrieved 2007-07-07.
  3. ^ "ScienceBlogs Quantcast Ranking". Retrieved 2008-03-14.
  4. ^ a b Pass the politics, please: Science blogs peppered with commentary
  5. ^ Science Blogs as a Vehicle for Upscale Ads
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/jul/07/scienceblogs-blogging-pepsi
  8. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/jul/09/seed-editorial-independence-scienceblogs
  9. ^ http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/07/pharyngula_on_strike.php
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