Social and Scientific Implications of

Science Blogging

Janet D. Stemwedel

Department of Philosophy

San José State University

dr.freeride@gmail.com

Scientific communication as essential to scientific practice

• Sharing results

• Articulating theories

• Training new scientists

Scientific communication as essential to scientific practice

• Asking non-scientists for resources

• Sharing vital information with the public

• Shaping general scientific education

Scientific communication through traditional channels

Peer reviewed literature

• Back and forth between scientists

• Long timescale

• Incentive to be secretive about findings, methods

• Competing interests of peer reviewers

Scientific communication through traditional channels

Conference presentations

• Back and forth between scientists

• Shorter timescale, but ephemeral

• Those not at the conference aren’t generally part of the conversation

Scientific communication through traditional channels

Press releases/popular presentations

• Not much back and forth between scientists and lay audience

• At the mercy of science journalists

• Challenges of “framing” to communicate effectively

Knowledge-building requires good communication.

• Objectivity achieved by comparing results/interpretations with many other scientists, trying to screen out biases.(H.E. Longino, Science as Social Knowledge, 1990)

• Many scientific questions require interdisciplinary approaches.

• Avoiding duplication, dead-ends.

Worries about traditional channels of communication

• Comes at culmination of research project, not while it is being conducted

• What is reported reflects the biases of reviewers and journal editors

• Amount of information that isn’t reported (especially what didn’t work)

Promising features of blogs

• Back and forth on a short timescale (through comments, discussions on other blogs)

• Less ephemeral than non-virtual conversations

• Potential to involve people from many places, disciplines, backgrounds

Promising features of blogs

• Free of some pitfalls of peer review (e.g., conservative tendencies with respect to judging new findings)

• Quality control?• A window into scientific knowledge

building as a process (vs. “finished” knowledge)

Community functioning within the tribe of science

• Training in theory, instrumentation, experimental strategies, etc.

• Within the community, who do we pay attention to? (vs. Mertonian norm of universality)

• Mentoring (on grant-writing, manuscripts, setting and solving problems, how to be a good scientist)

• Engagement with collaborators• Engagement with competitors

Community functioning within the tribe of science

Talking explicitly about scientist-to-scientist interactions frequently ignored or done in private.

Huge challenge to prospective scientists to grasp the nature of the community they’ll be joining!

Blogs as windows into the workings of scientific

communities.• What is it like to be a scientist in a

particular field, work setting, career stage, geographical location, etc?

• Is there anyone else like me?(Ability to build a virtual community in the absence of critical mass for a “real” community.)

Blogs as windows into the workings of scientific

communities.

• How prevalent is this practice?

• Do others in the community find this practice as problematic as I do?

• How could things be different?

Blogging as a different kind of conversation.

• Audience of the willing– Will anyone read this?– Anyone can read this!

Echo chamber vs. pitched battled

• Option to control disclosure of personal details– Who’s an authority?– Risk of getting dooced

Can blogs shift the culture?

• Competitions between individuals for scarce resources vs. cooperation on a joint goal (increasing and improving shared body of knowledge)

• Starting to take mentoring seriously

• Regularizing discussions of community norms and structures

Interaction with the larger society

• “Audience of the willing” means non-scientists can read scientists’ blogs -- cultivating interest among non-experts

• Direct communication (rather than filtering through a journalist, competing for column space or air time

• Lay readers have access to scientists of whom they can ask questions

Interaction with the larger society

• Ongoing discussions that reveal science as a process

• Transparency (hard work, not cheating and wasting our money)

• Scientists revealed as humans with lives outside the lab

Interaction with the larger society

Engagement between scientists and non-scientists may:

• Change how non-scientists understand science and scientists

• Change how scientists understand their own tribe

• Expand our sense of community

Scientists, not blogs, hold the key to the future of science

Any tool can be a weapon if you hold it right. -- Ani Di Franco

BUT blogs can make it easier to find and engage with like-minded members of your tribe with whom to steer things in a better direction.