Science Blogs

Blogs as one of the most widely used Web 2.0 applications, are strongly acceptable by a large number of Internet users. The educational blogs have a specific audience, purpose and goals. This research paper explores the characterization of a blog as an educational, the information related to the publicity of the blog and the criteria, by which can be characterized as scientific by adult readers. The survey findings show that the self-determination of a blog as an educational one, is not a sufficient criterion for classification it in this category. The educational blog readers pay particular attention to issues concerning the identity of the blog administrator, but also to everything related to their active participation and interaction with the blog. The educational blog readers evaluate an educational blog as scientific, based on specific criteria to which they attribute a different significance. The participation of 10 experts in the field and the contribution of the unknown online readers of educational blogs, was the cornerstone for completion this study. This research paper attempts to highlight some particular aspects of an issue, that although it is one of the most widely used in web, however it has not received similar research attention, particularly in locally but also in internationally.

My aim is to give a general overview of sources of various information on onomastic studies. Here I argue that onomastic blogs and social network groups may function as an interface between the onomastic community and the public, hence they may be particularly well suited for public outreach and science communication. I will clarify where and how we could be informed about onomastic events and publications, what kind of available sources (web pages, blogs, newsletters, Facebook and Twitter communities, bibliographies, etc.) exist, how they could be used and what kind of developments should be desirable in this field. Working in cooperation with various scientists and new media in pursuit of onomastic information improves the connectivity of onomasticians worldwide. Finally, I will address the issue of the possible onomastic future.

As the Internet emerged as an efficient channel for sending information and fostering collaborations on a global scale, this unanticipated phenomenon paved the way for a new era of science, namely e-science or digital scholarship. Massive data repositories moved online, academic publications (preprints and articles alike) became searchable across disciplinary boundaries, collaborations grew larger. But the Internet is now developing into so-called web 2.0, where active participation is replacing passive broadcasting: every user can become their own media maker and share videos, images or text. To date, the most popular form for the latter are blogs (short for web-logs). The blog format was originally used for online diaries but has rapidly evolved into a versatile publication and conversation tool. This shift is also being embraced by scientists, on a limited, albeit growing scale. First isolated, then grouped in communities, science bloggers (I use the term to include professional scientists as well as students, journalists, science amateurs, science museums, concerned groups…) have already demonstrated the potential to influence how research is done, results are communicated and the public is reached. Among the many topics that blogs discuss, I will focus here on science and the academic life, thus defining a type of “science blogging” that is effectively turning digital scholarship into conversational scholarship. But in concrete terms, how is that different? And where might this evolution be leading us? I try to shed some light on the matter in the following pages.

La controversia sulle vaccinazioni infantili si è insediata notevolmente nel panorama sociale negli ultimi anni, sia grazie ai quotidiani e alle riviste, sia per mezzo dei social network e dei blog, che stanno assumendo una collocazione incisiva nella sfera individuale degli italiani. Questa controversia coinvolge molteplici fronti: il fronte medico e degli esperti, il fronte pubblico che concerne le persone comuni e quello mediatico che si offre come fonte, spesso non imparziale, dei fatti e delle discussioni in atto. È anche a causa di questa estensione generalizzata di interesse che si rivela una buona possibilità l'ingrandimento della questione nelle regioni del Veneto e dell'Emilia-Romagna, al fine di mappare la controversia cogliendo, in particolare, le loro rispettive peculiarità.

This study addresses an open question about science bloggers’ self-perceived roles as science communicators. Previous research has investigated the roles science journalists see themselves engaging in, but such research has failed to capture the experiences of science bloggers as a broad and diverse group that is yet often very different in their practices from professional journalists. In this study, a survey of over 600 science bloggers reveals that on the broadest level, science bloggers see themselves engaging most often as explainers of science and public intellectuals. Perceived communication role depends predominantly on occupation, science communication training, blog affiliation and gender.

Abstract: This paper uses Social Network Analysis indexes to study Greek political blogs. The indexes describe bloggers’ community recommendations, centrality and bloggers’ attempt to form spheres of influence. Five Social Network Analysis indexes are used: incoming links, normalized betweenness, outgoing links, number of 1-cliques a blog belongs to, and size of blog’s ego-network. By recording 127 Greek political blogs, the paper finds that there are two distinct blog performance properties regarding connectivity: Only a few blogs serve as authority blogs having many incoming links and centrality, while a few others try to expand their influence territory by having many outgoing links and forming larger 1-cliques and ego-networks. Next, the paper associates the proposed indexes with blogs’ and users’ community activity. Authority blogs present high blog activity and users’ community activity, as well. These are recorded by large numbers of posts and comments to the blog posts, respectively. It is shown that blogs, which strive to expand their network by using many outgoing links are more likely to link to the authority blogs. Content analysis reveals that authority blogs provide news and information and promote discussion to a much higher degree compared to the overall Greek political blogosphere.

Keywords: Greek political blogs; centrality; activity; Social Network Analysis; hyperlinks; influence; content analysis