No, not you; you’re already here in the blogosphere. I’m talking about all those physicists out there to whom “blog” sounds like something you feel compelled to do after doing too many Smirnoff shots the previous evening, rather than the place you go for the most erudite and challenging large-scale conversation in human history.
Blogs are a tool of immense power that people haven’t quite figured out how to use quite yet. Physicists, in particular, have been slow to take advantage of this new medium (with a few brave and laudable exceptions, of course). A peek at our blogroll or a visit to Mixed States would give the impression that there is a lot of physics blogging out there, which is certainly true; but “a lot” needs to be compared with the dominance of more traditional forms of communication (papers, talks, conferences, books, journalism), or the much more eager adoption of blogging by the tech community, or even within academia by law professors and social scientists. Professional physics, let’s face it, is a step removed from the concerns of most people on the street, and rather than work to overcome this barrier by making the excitement of their research more accessible, most working physicists are happy to remain relatively isolated within their research communities. Besides, blogging takes time, and who has that?
It was with Luddite preconceptions such as these in mind that I recently wrote a Back Page article for APS News, the house newsletter of the American Physical Society, on the joys of blogging. I was invited by Jennifer Ouellette, who is the assistant editor of APS News when not blogging up a storm in her own right at Cocktail Party Physics (and who was also at YearlyKos). Most people don’t know anything about blogs, and if they haven’t actually started reading them it’s quite difficult to give an accurate description. So I tried right from the start to defuse some of the most pernicious stereotypes.
I know what you’re thinking. You’ve heard of these things called “blogs,” some sort of web journals feverishly updated by pajama-wearing authors convinced that the world is in desperate need of access to their innermost thoughts. Who has time to pay attention to such frivolities? Fortunately, as serious physicists we need not worry that our lives will be affected by this latest example of overhyped cyber-enthusiasm. Just like our lives were unaffected by the advent of email and electronic preprints.
When I’m asked what blogs are all about, I start by saying they are like magazines—collections of serially presented articles (called “posts” in the blog context), published on the internet instead of in bound paper editions. Blogs are a technology for conveying information. Like magazines, blogs can be about anything. The purposes to which we choose to put this technology are nearly infinitely flexible.
I go on to talk about some of these purposes, in particular the distinct (but complementary) ideas of using blogs for technical conversations between researchers, vs. spreading news and musings about science to a wider audience, vs. random discussions about whatever you want because hey, it’s your blog.
One of the things that people really don’t quite get, until they’ve taken the plunge themselves, is how easy it is to start up a new blog. At the lowest level of effort, anyone can start a brand-new blog for free within minutes by popping over to Blogger and just signing up. Give yourself an hour or two to choose a name and a color scheme, and you’re off. If you spend another hour setting up a blogroll and remember to occasionally link to other bloggers, they will notice you and link back, and you’ll actually get visitors. If you want your visitors to join the conversation, just pop over to Haloscan to sign up for free commenting and trackbacks. (Blogger also has comments now, but I’m not so fond of their system.) Continuing your search for free services, sign up with Sitemeter so that you can obsess over how many people are visiting, and who is linking to you. Very rewarding, I promise. At a slightly higher level of ambition, you can install software like WordPress or TypePad, either on your own machine, or at some web host you pay for. That’s what we’ve done here at Cosmic Variance, since the features of WordPress are especially useful for a group blog. And then if you’re extremely ambitious, you can put a lot of work into fine-tuning the look and feel of your blog template — or make it easy for yourself and hire Lauren to do it for you.
Of course there are too many blogs out there already, so it’s not as if I’m encouraging people. Only the right people. Actually, there’s no reason why everyone can’t have multiple blogs, serving different purposes. I don’t have an especially clear view of what the blog landscape will look like ten or twenty years down the road, except that it will be substantially more active and diverse than it even is today. You don’t want to miss out, do you?
Considering the rapid expansion of the internet and all the new blogs being created, you could ask yourself:
When will the Internet become aware of itself?
🙂
or a new kernel developed Count:)
Blogging software choices on name.
I have learnt more from John Ellis, although his Typepad blogging ended, Steinberg is still alive with statements on microstate blackholes information.
Superstringtheory.com through it’s inception, it might not be possible to learn as much from a layman point of view, without that help by theoreticains and physicists who do not blog or create websites.
They helped the layperson put it together. Those with patience, and a thought about the public as a sponge, not the pizza guy wasting your time, or the person next to you on the plane who wants tell you the way it is, but who really wants to know.
What made one think that the public out there was not capable and not as intelligent? 🙂
Only the right people?
Even an education doesn’t say the moral and ethical backgrounds are sufficient are they, to warrant the “only opinion” on the human condition?
On science to monitor, for sure.:)
Of course, one can think an education and the right people, have certain qualifications to comment on society, yet, they are so young sometimes, that the learning curve just hasn’t been hit yet. Experience, and “on the job doing” possibly has something more to say about that position Sean?
I like listening and reading opinions anyway.:)Atheist, or not, as to the opinions subjectively offered. Gives us clues about the people commenting. Their “positions on life” and how they react to it.
Am I the only one who is tired of blogging ABOUT blogging, especially here at Cosmic Variance? Do you do any physics anymore, Sean?
Hi Sean,
I think its also worth pointing out that the new Google Analytics service is free and lets you obsess over your visitors even more than sitemeter. I’ve only started using it over the last two weeks, but it saps my time even further.
Joe
Imagine what follows, was it or would it be true?
Ten years ago, if one was writing up his own webpage, his friends might look at him/her wondrously and ask: “why the heck you need a webpage”.
Ten years later from now, if one would not have a blog or something like it, his friends may then look at him/her somehow slightingly and ask: “how the heck you don’t have a blog”. 🙂
Hi Joe,
I guess StatCounter.com is better than Google Analytics, isn’t it? I don’t know.
Is the internet linked to itself?
“Is the internet linked to itself?”
No… it just links to every page that doesn’t link to itself. 😉
“Am I the only one who is tired of blogging ABOUT blogging, especially here at Cosmic Variance? Do you do any physics anymore, Sean?”
I dare Sean to do a post on the physics of blogging, àla Richard Ecob. 🙂
The situation in mathematics is much bleaker. I’m not aware of any math blogs anywhere near as active and interesting as all these physics ones. There is John Baez, but his isn’t really a blog. Maybe it’s because mathematicians rarely feel qualified to comment on anything outside of their very narrow specialty.
Alternatively, I speculate here that blogging is hazardous to your academic health.
there’s also free signups from wordpress and blogsome that offer free wordpress hosting, but with somewhat less freedom than a complete install. but at least you won’t get bloggered as much.
Hi Yidun,
With statcounter it is easier to see the referal URL, google gives you nicer breakdowns like country etc. Not sure which I prefer yet.
Joe
Lieven le Bruyn’s neverending planet syndicated a long list of very interesting math blogs (as well a few physics blogs). Conversely, Planet Musings syndicates a few math blogs, along with a long list of physics ones.
Now, maybe some would argue that the math blogs on Lieven’s list aren’t as “interesting” as some of the physics blogs you currently enjoy. That, I think, is a matter of taste…
To be fair, the physics blogs on Lieven’s list are, collectively, more active (total number of posts outnumber by maybe 2-1) the math blogs.
Dunno whether that tells you about physicists versus mathematicians, or whether it tells you something about Lieven’s tastes in physics blogs.
Aaron on Jun 16th, 2006 at 11:24 pm
“Is the internet linked to itself?”
No… it just links to every page that doesn’t link to itself.
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I was just looking for the website of a hairstylist who cuts the hair of people who don’t cut their own hair.
Any links?
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