The state of the Geoblogosphere – geoscience communication in the social web

Science blogs are new and rapidly evolving media in the social web. In the last years, several hundred geoscience professionals and students have started their own Earth science blogs. Serious concerns exist about the credibility of scientific blogs but until now, no info has been published on the geoblogosphere’s motivation and the writer’s societal and scientific backgrounds. Here we present data from an online survey with 78 participants and from analysis of more than 200 Earth science blogs.

Full article here: http://www.geonetzwerk.org/2011/10/04/the-state-of-the-geoblogosphere-geoscience-communication-in-the-social-web/

The Top of the Blogs: Geoblogosphere's weekly reviews

Geobulletin now has a new 'weekly review' page, a summary of the Geoblogosphere's weekly blogging activity.
The 'weekly review' page shows the top 10 most active and most visited blogs. It gives a rough overview on the topics treated in geoblogs by listing the most frequently used keywords and the places and stratigraphic ages most often used in blog posts. Further, it shows a list of the Geoblogosphere's top 10 blog posts based on the visits tracked at geobulletin.org.

Geobulletin - News from the Geoblogosphere

The last days I have worked on the new version of Geoblogosphere News which has several new and nice functions:

• First, I always found it a bit painful to type the long geoblog-stratzigraphy.net URL, so I decided to give the tool an own domain. Because every nice domain name containing geoblog etc. seems to be already sold, I bought geobulletin.org which is now the new home for Geoblogosphere News. Therefore Geoblogosphere News is now:
  
  Geobulletin: News from the Geoblogosphere

• The pages are now completely redesigned and I hope you like the new design..
• As the new LOGIN link indicates there are some new community functions. Those of you who have an OpenID (e.g. blogger or wordpress URL) can login without registration and can start playing with geobulletin.
• OpenID URLs are also used to verify a blog's owner and I plan to give you more possibilities to change the metadata of your blog.
• After login you can choose 'favorite' blog posts by clicking on a little heart icon shown after each post. These favorites are used to generate a RSS feed which you can in turn use to include it in your blogging environment.
• There is a -still experimental- DOSSIER section which can be used to give excellent posts on some 'hot topics' an own section.
  I have created 6 main categories, but this structure can be changed of course..
• I will not show google ads any more. The 2 $ monthly didn't even cover Geoblogosphere News' hosting costs ;)
  
• Well and there has been many, many code cleanups and changes etc, I therefore assume geobulletin will be a bit buggy. This is why I have added the small red 'alpha' to the headline.

The ScienceBlogs exodus and the holy land for geoblogs

Since ScienceBlogs have announced to host a Pepsi blog, Eruptions, Laelaps and Highly Allochthonous thought about leaving ScienceBlogs and are now looking for an alternative host for their blogs.

Of course there are a variety of possible hosts and many of us geobloggers use for example standard wordpress or blogger services. But in comparison with ScienceBlogs these are evil and infected with all kind of perverted blogs. I personally feel good here at blogger, however since my last Turkey visit I realised that this platform is blocked in some countries because of the many pornographic blogs there. And this stinks of course..

So where should a good geoblog go? I have also been asked if stratigraphy.net or Geoblogosphere News could offer a blogging platform. The answer is no, but maybe another purely scientific host like Nature Network would be the holy land for geoblogs?

Should I stay or should I go now..?

Improving the Geoblogosphere's Alexa Ranking

Did you know about Alexa? It is an Amazon company which provides -among other services- a web site "traffic rank" as a measure for a web site's or blog's importance. Beneath Google's Page Rank it is one of the most influential rankings, as it is often used to estimate the "value" of a site or blog. The Rank gives the position of a web site within the popularity hierarchy of the web. That means the higher the number, the less popular your site is. Google for example has an Alexa Rank of #14..

I was a bit disappointed to discover that Geoblogosphere News' Alexa ranking was higher than 5 Mio!!. And also most geoblogs I have checked have an Alexa rank which imho does not at all reflect their real value.

To check how your or other geoblogs is ranked by Alexa, you can visit the list at Geoblogosphere News at: http://geoblogs.stratigraphy.net/?action=list. Click on the question mark icon and you will see the Alexa Ranking and other information there.
Alternatively, you can also just visit the Alexa site and enter the URL you are interested in there.

Meanwhile I discovered a website which explained how this ranking works: it is dependent on the number of users visiting your site which have the Alexa Toolbar installed! After I installed the toolbar in my browser, the ranking significantly improved..

So it seems quite easy to improve the geoblogosphere's Alexa ranking. Just install the Alexa Toolbar and simply visit geoblogs. If a number of geobloggers would do that, the geoblogosphere's Alexa ranking and overall visibility of geoblogs would significantly improve!

Some new Geoblogosphere News functions: blog overview, ping

I have added some new features to Geoblogosphere News:
The blog list now shows a info icon+link (example) which will direct you to a short blog information page, which lists the blog info Geoblogosphere News holds e.g. feed Url, latest post title and date etc.
Additionally this page has a PING link, which allows you to trigger a visit of Geoblogosphere News at your blog feed.

New geoblog survey

Lutz Geissler, Callan Bentley and myself have prepared a new survey which aims to collect representative data on the geoblogosphere. The ultimate goal is to prepare a manuscript and submit it to an international geo journal to spread the spirit of the geoblogosphere.

The survey will be online until the first of November 2009. First results will be presented at the AGU fall meeting by Callan.

Summer of geoblogs

During the summer the geoblogosphere has significantly grown. Geobologosphere News has added 44(!) new geoblogs to it's list since June 2009, here is the list:

Louisville Area Fossils
Daily Fossil
El pantano del Purussaurus (The Purussaurus Swamp)
Malaysian Triassic Blog
Charonosaurus's Diary
Associazione Paleontologica Parmense Italiana
Carnosauria
Jurassic Italia Blog
Chuck Bailey's Blog
Oblate Spheroid
Eat. Sleep. Geology.
PETROLEUM GEOLOGY زمین شناسی نفت
Sedimentary Soliloquy
Teaching the Earth Sciences
Wooster Geologists
Wry Heat
SuperRaptor's Paleo Blog
Paleotrails Project
RMDRC paleo lab
Thom Holmes Prehistoria - more than dinosaurs
Central Arizona Geology Club
Environment and Geology
JOIDES Resolution blogs
Geology in the West Country
Utah Geological Survey - blog
UnEarthedTees' Geology News
SDSU Geological Sciences - Department Blog
Honduras Geology
Blog Geologia UFC
Lusodinos- Dinossauros de Portugal
Geopedrados
Dinosaurios (el cuaderno de Godzillin)
ALT-SOCIEDADE DE HISTORIA NATURAL
Geopark Araripe
PALEONTOGRAFIA: Paleontologia em evidencia
Grupo Paleo. Blog de Paleontologia.
Las cronicas de Pabluratops
Riparian Rap
Ammonoidea
Geosfera
La Taberna del Drunkerosteus
Mundo Neandertal
Mesozoico
Jovenes Paleoilustradores

News from the Geoblogoshere News

This is just a short update on the latest changes of Geoblogoshere News.

• Geoblogosphere News now shows the latest Geoblog articles from the current week, before it just took the latest 100 or something enties from it's index.
• You can now check older blog articles by following the link '>>last week>>' which is a bit hidden on the bottom of the page.
• Blogs are now categorized by language and by clicking on one of the languages listed on the top of the page you'll see blog articles of the selected language only.
• There is a News Feed available at http://geoblogs.stratigraphy.net/feed.php.
• The list of blogs is growing .. check http://geoblogs.stratigraphy.net/?action=list !
  

Geoblogosphere aggregator

I have started a new experiment to test my ageparser tool: I will try to determine the 'chronostratigraphic pulse' of the geoblogosphere which I intend to publish monthly.

As a starting point I have created a geoblogosphere aggregator, which collects titles, urls etc from the RSS feed of as may geoblogs as possible, basically those blogs listed here in geoberg.de. Check it out.. new blogs can be entered by visitors themselves. The next step will be to add stratigraphic information which will be extracted automatically from the blog content. If you are interested how this works visit my agesearch toy..

Currently listed blogs are:

• A Long Way To Go (http://geophysikstudent.blogspot.com/)
• A Thin Section (http://athinsection.blogspot.com/)
• About Geology (http://geology.about.com/)
• Accidental Remediation (http://shortgeologist.blogspot.com)
• Active Margin (http://jrepka.blogspot.com/)
• Al my faults are stress related (http://shearsensibility.blogspot.com/)
• Alberta Vertebrate Palaeontological Association-Blog (http://albertavertebratepalaeo.blogspot.com/)
• Antimonite (http://antimonite.blogsome.com/)
• Apparent Dip (http://apparentdip.blogspot.com/)
• Arctic and Alpine (http://coldgeomorph.blogspot.com/)
• Arizona Geology (http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/)
• Ask Dr. Vector (http://drvector.blogspot.com/)
• Bio/Rocks (http://bio-rocks.blogspot.com/)
• Branner Blog (http://www.stanford.edu/group/branner/cgi-bin/wordpress/)
• Chinleana (http://chinleana.blogspot.com/)
• Christie at the Cape (http://christieatthecape.blogspot.com/)
• Coherent Lighthouse (http://coherentlight.blogspot.com)
• Cryology and Co. (http://rockglacier.blogspot.com/)
• Dave Hone’s Archosaur Musings (http://archosaurmusings.wordpress.com/)
• Dave’s Landslide Blog (http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/)
• Dino Frey’s Weblog (http://dinofrey.wordpress.com/)
• Dinochick (http://paleochick.blogspot.com/)
• Dracovenator (http://dracovenator.blogspot.com/)
• Earth Insight Cache (http://earthinsightcache.blogspot.com/)
• Earth Learning Idea (http://earthlearningidea.blogspot.com/)
• Earth Sciences and Maps Library Blog (http://blogs.lib.berkeley.edu/eart.php)
• Echinoblog (http://www.echinoblog.blogspot.com/)
• ECRIS & CEVP (http://magmatism.blogspot.com/)
• Ediacarian (http://ediacaran.blogspot.com/)
• EffJot (http://blog.effjot.net/)
• En Morrenas (http://enmorrenas.wordpress.com/)
• Eruptions (http://eruptions.wordpress.com/)
• eTrilobite (http://www.etrilobite.com/)
• Geo Slice (http://www.aegarizona.blogspot.com/)
• geoberg.de-Blog (http://www.geoberg.de/blog)
• GeoCosas (http://geocosas.wordpress.com/)
• GeoEcology (http://ohiogeologyandbiodiversity.blogspot.com/)
• GeoLibros (http://www.geolibros.blogspot.com/)
• geolismus.de (http://www.geolismus.de)
• Geologia online (http://geologyonline.splinder.com/)
• Geologic Froth (http://www.geofroth.blogspot.com/)
• Geological Musing in the Taconic Mountains (http://gmcgeology.blogspot.com/)
• Geology Happens (http://geologyhappens.blogspot.com/)
• Geology Joe (http://www.geologyjoe.blogspot.com/)
• Geology News (http://geology.com/news/)
• Geology News (http://geology.rockbandit.net)
• Geomorphic Hazards (http://geohazards.blogspot.com/)
• GeoPrac.net (http://www.geoprac.net/)
• Geotripper (http://geotripper.blogspot.com/)
• goodSchist (http://www.goodschist.com)
• Green Gabbro (http://scienceblogs.com/greengabbro/)
• Gunnars Geo-Blog (http://amphibol.blogspot.com/)
• Harmonic Tremors (http://harmonictremors.blogspot.com/)
• Highly Allochthonous (http://scienceblogs.com/highlyallochthonous/)
• Hindered Settling (http://zsylvester.blogspot.com/)
• Hypo-theses (http://hypocentre.wordpress.com/)
• In Terra Veritas (http://in-terra-veritas.blogspot.com/)
• Investigación GeoPaleoBiológica en Somosaguas (http://investigacionensomosaguas.blogspot.com/)
• James’ Empty Blog (http://julesandjames.blogspot.com/)
• Laelaps (http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/)
• Landslides under Microscope (http://landslides-gib.blogspot.com/)
• Looking for Detachement (http://highway8a.blogspot.com/)
• Lounge of the Lab Lemming (http://lablemminglounge.blogspot.com/)
• Magma Cum Laude (http://magmacumlaude.blogspot.com/)
• Más Allá de Somosaguas (http://mas-alla-de-somosaguas.blogspot.com/)
• MiGeo (http://migeo.blogspot.com/)
• Mineraland Chile (http://mineraland.blogspot.com/)
• Nölogic (http://schmunda.blogspot.com)
• Natural History Now! (http://naturalhistorynow.blogspot.com/)
• Nimravid (http://nimravid.wordpress.com/)
• NOVA Geoblog (http://nvcc.edu/home/cbentley/geoblog)
• Oakland Geology (http://oaklandgeology.wordpress.com/)
• Olelog (http://my.opera.com/nielsol/blog/)
• Ontario-geofish (http://ontario-geofish.blogspot.com/)
• Ordinary High Water Mark (http://ohwm.blogspot.com/)
• Palaeoblog (http://palaeoblog.blogspot.com/)
• Palaeoentomology & Insect Evolution (http://palaeoentomology.blogspot.com/)
• Paleo Errata (http://paleoerrata.blogspot.com/)
• Paleozapping (http://paleozapping.blogspot.com/)
• Pools and Riffles (http://poolsandriffles.blogspot.com/)
• proreg news (http://proregnews.blogspot.com/)
• Ramblings of a Geologist (http://blog.case.edu/katherine.allen/)
• Real Climate (http://www.realclimate.org)
• Reel Geology (http://reelgeology.blogspot.com/)
• Reporting on a Revolution (http://suvratk.blogspot.com/)
• Ripples in Sand (http://ripplesinsand.blogspot.com/)
• Rising to the Occasion (http://risingtotheoccassion.blogspot.com/)
• Rocks & Minerals (http://mineral-rock.blogspot.com/)
• Sarah at KU (http://semionotus.blogspot.com/)
• Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week (http://svpow.wordpress.com)
• Sedimentary Basins and Petroleum Geology (http://basintectonics.blogspot.com/)
• SEG Geo-Mentoring (http://geo-mentoring.blogspot.com/)
• Sismordia (http://sismordia.blogspot.com/)
• Slightly Diktytaxitic (http://tomhinterberger.com/blog/)
• Southern Exposure (http://rarely-tidy.blogspot.com/)
• Stratamodel Blog (http://www.stratamodel.com/blog/)
• Stratigraphy.net Internals (http://stratigraphynet.blogspot.com/)
• Ten Million Years of Solitude (http://tenmillionyearsofsolitude.blogspot.com/)
• Terra incognita (http://terraincognita.blogsome.com/)
• The Accretionary Wedge (http://theaccretionarywedge.wordpress.com/)
• The Dragon’s Tales (http://thedragonstales.blogspot.com/)
• The Dynamic Earth (http://dynamic-earth.blogspot.com/)
• The Geo Factor (http://thegeofactor.com/)
• The GeoChristian (http://geochristian.wordpress.com)
• The Great Southern California ShakeOut (http://greatsocalshakeout.blogspot.com/)
• The Hairy Museum of Natural History (http://www.hmnh.org/)
• The Life of Madygen (http://triassiccritters.blogspot.com/)
• The Limonit Blog (http://limonit.wordpress.com/)
• The Loom (http://www.scienceblogs.com/loom/)
• The Lost Geologist (http://lostgeologist.blogspot.com/)
• The Musings of a Life-Long Scholar (http://a-life-long-scholar.blogspot.com)
• The Open Source Paleontologist (http://openpaleo.blogspot.com/)
• The Volcanism Blog (http://volcanism.wordpress.com)
• Tierra de Dinosaurios (http://colectivosalas.blogspot.com/)
• Triloblog (http://triloblog.blogspot.com/)
• Uncommon Vistas (http://uncommonvistas.wordpress.com/)
• Volcano Summer (http://volcanosummer.wordpress.com/)
• When Pigs Fly returns (http://whenpigsfly-returns.blogspot.com/)
• Why I hate Theropods (http://whyihatetheropods.blogspot.com/)

Status of the Geoblogosphere

Here is a really good analysis on the current status of the geoblogosphere, an initiative of the NOVA geoblog.
Interestingly, the majority of geo bloggers are students, folowed by faculty staff and industry employees. And if you take the numbers on slide 27 and weight bloggers with 'professional background' with against the rest you get a ratio of approx. 1:1!

What does this mean for science communication in the age of web 2.0? At least it shows that not only paleontologists are late adopters ;)

P.S.: A very good compilation of geoblogs can be found at geoberg.de which offers a categorized list of geoblogs.