The last little while has seen an amazing proliferation of science blogging communities. Scientopia, Guardian Science Blogs and PLoS Blogs are only the three most recent that I know of.
I think it's great -- the more the merrier I say. Of course, as networks take up more and more space in the science blogging ecosystem it seems to me that independent bloggers might feel isolated or under pressure or neglected some how. I don't think that will be a huge problem as independents will continue to thrive in niches large and small and will continue to draw audiences to what they have to say. Ultimately, many of them will have opportunities to join networks and they will continue to choose what's best for them.
So, yes, the ecosystem for science blogging is shifting and evolving.
What I also find interesting is that this clumping into networks doesn't seem to be happening the same way in other domains. Maybe I'm just ignorant, but is there a thriving ecosystem of accountant blogging networks? MBA? Architects? I don't think so.
Or more to the point: Why no proliferation of librarian blogging networks?
Sure, there's Library Journal's bloggers, but beyond that not much. Oh sure, there are a few group blogs too, like Library Garden or In the Library with the Lead Pipe.
But no shift in the ecosystem. There are certainly a huge number of independant blogs that could potentially be poached and organized and gathered. Sure, there's not the mainstream interest in library and information science issues that there is in science, which is part of what's propelling the shifts in that ecosystem. But there is some and certainly there will be a lot of interest in such a project within the library community.
I find it curious that we haven't seen those same ecosystem shifts.
Why haven't the professional societies jumped in and started recruiting blogging stables? Why haven't key vendors sponsored communities? Why haven't we self-organized into our own collectives?
I certainly don't have any answers. I'm not even certain that the questions themselves are that interesting to begin with. Maybe the answer is just, "The library blogosphere is fine like it is."
What about all of you out there...
- Is this a good idea?
- What would the advantages be to having this soft of community?
- How about disadvantages?
- Would it make it easier for, say, academic librarians to reach faculty and students if we had a blogging community that had a certain critical mass?
- How about other part of the librarian blogging community?
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I'm a fan of code4lib's blog aggregator. It allows me to have a single point of entry to many blogs of interest to me. Of course, it has a very specific focus and leaves out many relevant blogs.
I'm not sure if there's an added benefit to having a specific community website versus an aggregation?
Sara, I think the advantages of a community versus an aggregation revolve around cohesiveness and selectivity. Cohesiveness in that all the members of the community know that they are members and can cooperate or collaborate within that community. Selectivity in the sense that various kinds of diversity within the community can be maintained as well as deciding what kind of optimal size is best.