Morning all,
Here is a rundown of the story I mentioned last night in which blogging was used as a technical review tool:
December 2, 2010: Science publishes an article in which the author claims that they have discovered a "microbe [which] seems to be able to replace phosphorus with arsenic in some of its basic cellular processes." (Abstract available here) The article generates a huge amount of press and the conclusion is repeated continuously in the popular media.
December 4, 2010: Dr. Rosie Redfield writes a blog post in which she heavily critiques the methodology used and conclusions drawn by the article's authors.
December 5-15, 2010: The blog post picks up steam. Notice the large number of comments posted. The original author responses to Redfield's criticism. Redfield writes to Science, and the story of the concerns is picked up by Nature.
December 16, 2010: Redfield replies to the original authors response on her blog, and discussion on the blog continues.
January, 2012: After spending a year attempting to repeat the experiment, Redfield releases a response which has been submitted to Science, but also has been released publicly in the hopes of "open-source peer review". Commentary on the article picks up immediately.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Hacking the Academy & Online-Only Peer-Reviewed Journal PLoS ONE
GEDIs,
Here is the link to Dr. C's mention of "Hacking the Academy"
Also, PLoS ONE is a new take on academic publishing- a completely online journal. Given that most published research is out of date by the time it gets published in the traditional manner, PLoS has created a system that makes information available quicker. Moreover, and very innovative, PLoS also allows the articles to peer-reviewed openly after its publication. All published articles have a "comment" option that allows for discussion even after its initial publication.
- Adam
Hacked Blog Site Video
Hello everyone,
Here is the Jim Groom video that discusses the hacked blog sites. I watched the first 20 minutes or so and found it quite entertaining and informative. However since the site is back up (?), this video may not be very pertinent anymore.
Yet another interesting article on blogging....
Hey, GEDIs -- Folks have been posting some useful info about blogging here on our eBulletin Board. Here's another: "How blogs changed everything" by Scott Rosenberg is an '09 post that is worth a read.
Free Software for Teachers [A Gateway]
This website was started by a Maine high-school teacher. He has compiled a tremendous amount of free teaching software and the sites they are found on. Most of it is for young students in grades K-12, though there are plenty of sites available for teachers here at VT. Check out his blog roll, too.
Responsible Blogging
http://www.washingtonea.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=945:policy-for-responsible-blogging&catid=140:legal-publications&Itemid=86
I would like to discuss the issue of "responsible blogging". The above link leads to a list that I found to be helpful. I also found many more of those lists: with 10 things to not do in writing a blog, 15 things to remember when blogging, etc... For me, it is important to know who is the blogger (yet if they need to cloak themselves into another personality due to serious security reasons then it is OK not to reveal real name, etc.. just tell me why you are writing, objectives, etc...). There are some excellent examples of bloggers particularly in the advocacy/human rights field that contribute greatly to the discussion of human rights, and democracy.
Here are some examples from my world of the Middle East.
http://www.arabawy.org/blog/
http://baheyya.blogspot.com/
http://www.juancole.com/
http://www.sandmonkey.org/
However, blogging can also be a way to promote or pass on "mis-information" and taken at face value can cause some issues. I was confronted once during a workshop in Egypt with a participant insisting that he read on a blog that the US Constitution determines that the US President has to be a Protestant. It took about 15 minutes to bring up an electronic copy of the US Constitution, translate the relevant sections and convince the participant that indeed the document is silent on the issue of the religion of the US President.
I use this to illustrate that blogging while it can be an amazing informative tool. It can be a tool to even help organize people to act and advocate for a cause, yet if not used in a responsible manner (posting mis-information), it can cause some havoc.
Thanks.
I would like to discuss the issue of "responsible blogging". The above link leads to a list that I found to be helpful. I also found many more of those lists: with 10 things to not do in writing a blog, 15 things to remember when blogging, etc... For me, it is important to know who is the blogger (yet if they need to cloak themselves into another personality due to serious security reasons then it is OK not to reveal real name, etc.. just tell me why you are writing, objectives, etc...). There are some excellent examples of bloggers particularly in the advocacy/human rights field that contribute greatly to the discussion of human rights, and democracy.
Here are some examples from my world of the Middle East.
http://www.arabawy.org/blog/
http://baheyya.blogspot.com/
http://www.juancole.com/
http://www.sandmonkey.org/
However, blogging can also be a way to promote or pass on "mis-information" and taken at face value can cause some issues. I was confronted once during a workshop in Egypt with a participant insisting that he read on a blog that the US Constitution determines that the US President has to be a Protestant. It took about 15 minutes to bring up an electronic copy of the US Constitution, translate the relevant sections and convince the participant that indeed the document is silent on the issue of the religion of the US President.
I use this to illustrate that blogging while it can be an amazing informative tool. It can be a tool to even help organize people to act and advocate for a cause, yet if not used in a responsible manner (posting mis-information), it can cause some havoc.
Thanks.
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