This presentation was used as part of the blogging section in the workshop we ran on 27 May 2011 for the programme: Blogs, Twitter, Wikis and other web-based tools: Collaborating and building your online presence at Imperial College London

1. Blogging Have you read a blog before? Has anyone written a blog post before?

2. An online diary, with entries (known as posts) written in reverse chronological order. It is possible to post text as well as embed other content (such as images or videos or tweets from your Twitter account). What is a blog?

3. Serendipity Web services such as Technorati or Google Blog Search Blog portals Blog Scholar Academic Blog portal Science Blogging Scientific blog networks Nature Network Occam’s Typewriter How do I find blogs (to read)?

4. Free Web-based (though can host on local server) Easy to set up Flexible (post content whenever you want) Enables engagement with a community by two way conversations/discussions Can be open to invited members only or open to all Improves your writing; teaches you to write for ‘non-specialists’ who may or may not be ‘the public’ Interactivity with other social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Delicious) Advantages of blogging

5. Quite informal Need to blog regularly (which takes time) Challenging to engage people in discussion Open (though can be closed) Disadvantages

6. How is blogging being used in science, business and/or higher education As part of the actual research Fano varieties and Extreme Laurent Polynomials Parallel to research Leaves on the Line To engage in science communication Reciprocal Space Science writing Not Exactly Rocket Science

7. Case study: “In which I set up a collaboration between a biologist, a farmer and a chimeric chicken” “How did Sanders find me? “My search brought up several related blogs and articles but yours was the only one that was easy to read yet contained enough technical information (and diagrams) to answer my questions,” he says. “You also were the easiest to contact.”” Yong, E. (2010) In which I set up a collaboration between a biologist, a farmer and a chimeric chicken. Not Exactly Rocket Science. Weblog. [Online] Available from: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/09/11/in- which-i-set-up-a-collaboration-between-a-biologist-a-farmer-and-a- chimeric-chicken/ [Accessed 26 May 2011].

8. Stephen Curry Legal and ethical issues: Blog case study:

9. Blogging guidelines Do I have time to blog regularly? Who am I blogging for? What do I want to blog about? What should I not blog about? Where should I blog? Am I blogging as an individual or as part of a group? Do I want to link in other social media services such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn? Am I sharing data? Do I have the right to? Do I want to license it? What is the archival policy of the blogging software I am using? Do I need to back up data?

10. Set up an account with WordPress.com Your personal blog will be private but shared with the group and programme team Customise your blog Add an image Set up your sidebar with widgets Identify a blog or two in your field to follow and add them to your blogroll Write your first three blog posts I will demonstrate instructions also in your WordPress handout Practical blogging workshop

11. Imperial College London (2011) Blogs, Twitter, wikis and other web-based tools. [Video] Available from: [http://vimeo.com/user4690689/libraryweb20] http://technorati.com/ http://blogsearch.google.com/ http://www.blogscholar.com/ http://www.academicblogs.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#The_Academic_Blog_Portal Scientific blog networks http://network.nature.com/ http://occamstypewriter.org/ http://scienceblogging.org/ http://coates.ma.ic.ac.uk/fanosearch/ http://www.andrewjaffe.net/blog/ http://occamstypewriter.org/scurry/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/ References