social and scientific implications of science blogging janet d. stemwedel department of philosophy...
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Social and Scientific Implications of
Science Blogging
Janet D. Stemwedel
Department of Philosophy
San José State University
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Scientific communication as essential to scientific practice
• Sharing results
• Articulating theories
• Training new scientists
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Scientific communication as essential to scientific practice
• Asking non-scientists for resources
• Sharing vital information with the public
• Shaping general scientific education
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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)
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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
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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)
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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
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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!
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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.)
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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?
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Blogging as a different kind of conversation.
• Audience of the willing– Will anyone read this?– Anyone can read this!
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Echo chamber vs. pitched battled
• Option to control disclosure of personal details– Who’s an authority?– Risk of getting dooced
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.