Geoblogosphere going mainstream?
No, not really … not yet anyway.
But, when I opened my hardcopy of the June 2008 Geotimes and flipped through it, I came across a page called Geomedia: Geology Bloggers Rock … and wouldn’t you know it … I saw some names I knew, oh wait … there’s my name too! How ’bout that.
Of course, the geoblogosphere has already talked about this news here, here, here, and here (I’m a little slow this week).
In addition to the Geotimes article, there is an article in AAPG’s magazine Explorer about our growing community … interesting that these happened at the same time (?).
Well, if you found yourself here through one of those articles, sit back and enjoy. We typically link to each other and some of us, including me, have a “ticker” on the sidebar that automatically updates with the latest in the geoscience blogging community. It seems new geo blogs arrive on the scene every month (I’m sure I’m behind on my own list of links).
Why blog?
The best part of this medium is the freedom to post whatever you want. For example, I wanted to see more discussion of the latest research in sedimentary geology on blogs (yes, I’m that nerdy) … so I started my own to try and create, or at least contribute, to that discussion.
If you’re thinking about starting one … do it!
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Clastic Detritus 
It is intriguing that two different magazines should decide to highlight the geoblogosphere at exactly the same time; I wonder if there was something particular that triggered the interest?
Anyway, it’s nice to see that everyone’s efforts are being recognised. My geoblogospheric feed ticks over so rapidly nowadays I can hardly keep up (over 600 posts last month, by my estimate) – it’s a very different picture than from when I first started out…
A few months ago I was talking to an editor at Geotimes and mentioned how geoblogging had taken off and it might be an interesting topic for a story. Her response was that they had already been thinking about a story on blogging. It was a month or so later that the reporter called and I gave her a list of geoblogs to take a look at.
Then in April, at the AAPG annual meeting I was talking with Vern Stefanic, the managing editor of Explorer magazine. He was unaware of the geoblogging phenomena, but immediately said I would be called by a reporter for a story. David Brown called within a couple days, and once again, I pointed him to some blogs with long lists of links.
It helps that I’ve worked with both magazines over the years on a number of stories. But in general, editors and reporters are always looking for good stories and sometimes things just click.
Lee,
Thanks for the info. Hopefully this bit of coverage will both increase interest on the existing blogs and inspire others to start their own.
Yep, I just noticed that there’s an AAPG story as well this month…grr! But as Lee said, a good story’s a good story, so oh well.
Carolyn, thanks for running the story … I thought it was a nice way to show how communication among scientists and science enthusiasts is progressing within the context of the web.