Science bloggers have always had a strong sense of community. Ever since their craft caught on in the early years of the new millennium, they have worked together to share news and knowledge and stir important debates. There are group blogs like The Panda’s Thumb and The Last Word on Nothing, but more recently there has also been a proliferation of blog networks hosted by science magazines, journals, and even a newspaper. Seed Media Group was the first to assemble bloggers into such a collective when in launched ScienceBlogs.com in 2006, but other publications quickly followed suit. Today, Discover, The Guardian, National Geographic, Nature, PLoS, Popular Science, Scientific American and Wired host similar communities. In this session, we’ll discuss why science bloggers tend to band together, the advantages of joining a blog network, the role that networks play in the larger field of science communication, and what the future holds of these collectives.
