Once upon a time, let’s call it 2006, I launched my very first ocean science blog post over at Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets.  Back then, I was among a small cohort of ocean scientists who were venturing into the online social media wilderness.  These were the early days of Deep Sea News, Blogfish, The Other 95%, Cephalopodcast, and yours truly.  We were approaching ocean science communication from a fresh angle.  We were irreverent.  We were argumentative.  We were all eager to use humor to make our points.  And, we were all dudes.

That’s right.  Ocean science delivered to the blogosphere by a bunch of Y chromos.  This was ground-breaking?!

Well, all that changed when Miriam Goldstein logged-on in 2007.

I’m in Fiji with limited bandwidth as I write this so let me cut right to the chase and dispense with any pretext of objectivity: I love Miriam Goldstein and I love her writing.   I think the latter half came first, but who the hell knows at this point.  From her initial contributions in comments on our blogs, to her emergence as an independent ocean science voice via The Oyster’s Garter, to her formidable contributions during her Deep Sea News tenure (whilst concurrently pursuing her PhD), Miriam not only raised the bar for science communication as a whole but demonstrated that scientific rigor + deft story-telling + snark = online ocean science gold.

I met Miriam for the first time in 2008 at SciOnline in Research Triangle, after a year of trading comments and jabs at each other via our blogs.  That first meeting is as vivid to me today as it was five years ago.  There she was, in the bar of the Radisson Research Triangle Park, seated with a group of other ocean science peeps, all singing boisterous and bawdy sea shanties as the “serious science bloggers” scowled at their din.

I believe I may have described Miriam thusly: “Imagine somehow containing the zeal and energy of about 40 schoolgirls packed into a wonderfully sarcastic east-coast transplant, and you get a sense of Miriam’s contagious enthusiasm for science communication.”

I can provide a list of my favorite online contributions by Miriam (and indeed, that list would be long).  But I’ll instead focus on an aspect of Miriam’s writing that has particularly resonated for me: her sincere passion for equity and diversity in science.

In The Oyster’s Garter, Miriam began weaving feminist dialectic and interpretation in many of her pieces.  She was unafraid to call bullshit on sexist claptrap and fake science when she saw it.  She opined on the lack of decent female characters in movies and books.  She questioned and deconstructed the “hotness and female scientists” hubbub of 2009.  And she shot a high brow “Fuck you!” to the assholes at AskMen.com with her pithy piece on how to tell your Elephant seal that she’s not fat enough.  Touché.

Miriam even took me to task once over my commentary on whether conservation practitioners should be speaking out about human population growth.  Miriam reminded me that it’s difficult to have a fair discussion on the issue because it is inextricably entwined with racism and coercion.  As she admonished, “Speak out on overpopulation, but know the history first“.

But equally evident as her commitment to a feminist narrative in her science writing are her contributions to ensuring other marginalized populations are visible.  As a queer ocean scientist and member of one of those marginalized groups, Miriam’s writing has expanded my own thinking on how to achieve greater representation of LGBT students in the ocean sciences.  From her initial ponderings on the lack of diverse sexualities in the ocean sciences to her most recent post at DSN on privilege and lack of diversity in ocean science, Miriam continues to pave the way for a more inclusive and level playing field in our discipline.

When Miriam informed me that she was awarded a Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship, I knew instantly that this was the next logical step in her commitment to ocean science equity and diversity.  As much as I will miss her online voice in the near term, I believe that Miriam’s actual voice is needed even more in the halls of Congress.

Love you, Bubbeleh, and so very proud of you!

The post She Makes Me Want To Be A Better Writer first appeared on Deep Sea News.

A shoal of Deeplings will be attending this week’s Science Online conference in North Carolina. If you’ll be there, come say hi to Craig, Al, Kim, Holly, and me. (Sadly, Rick and Kevin can’t make it.) We’ll be joined by many equally lusty ocean compadres. Come say hi! You can find us at our sessions (see below) or by following the sounds of clinking glasses and/or shanty singing.

If you won’t be at the conference, you can still participate! You can join a watch party if there’s one in your locale, follow the conference on Twitter at #scio13, and follow our shenanigans at #DSNsuite.

Sessions that the Deeplings are moderating:

Session 1B & 2A : Why should scientists ‘do’ outreach? – Miriam Goldstein, Matt Shipman & Karen James

Session 1D: Impressions matter: Embracing art & design in research and science communication – Holly Bik and Liz Neeley

Session 8B: What happens when people start taking your online ramblings seriously – Miriam Goldstein and Holly Bik

The post The Deeplings at Science Online first appeared on Deep Sea News.

**Technology and the Wilderness** – Miriam Goldstein, Jason Robertshaw, Danielle Lee and Karen James
Hashtag: #techwild
Technology offers unparalleled opportunity for outdoor education – yet it is viewed as a cause of “Nature Deficit Disorder.” But little glowy screens can be amazing educational tools. Potential directions include tools (for example: a citizen science iPhone app from Mote Marine Laboratory), networking (e.g., Outdoor Afro bringing people of color outdoors together), and exploration (e.g., following up on the Blogging From the Field/Trash Gyre sessions from past years, citizen science, teenagers blogging their discoveries).

The First Line of Response – The BP Oil Spill: science, outrage, spin, and dead pelicans – Miriam Goldstein, Kevin Zelnio, Holly Bik, Craig McClain and Andrew Thaler. John Amos of SkyTruth will participate via Skype.
Hashtag: #oil
This session proposes an examination of the role of bloggers in exposing events, correcting mainstream media (MSM), offering expert analysis, and keeping important issues current after MSM interest wanes. How did BP, the government’s response, scientists, amateurs, bloggers, and MSM journalists use the web to communicate? Was the public outrage dependent only on dead charismatic megafauna photos, or can these methods be leveraged for other social/environmental issues? Outcomes from blogging the oil spill will also be discussed, such as funding opportunities for scientific research and outreach, collaborations, and media exposure.

Parenting with Science Online – Kevin Zelnio, Eric Michael Johnson and Carin Bondar

How do parents enrich the lives of their children with science using online tools and media. What are the good sites, how do we judge trustworthiness of information, how to deal with advertising targeted at our children when we are trying to educate them online? More importantly, as scientists and science communicators, parenting with science may come naturally to us so how can we as sci-parents influence non-sci parents to use online tools and media with their own children. This session will explore how we have grown to use educational tools over the internet, how our children will be born into an online world and the pros and cons of allowing use of the internet with or without parental guidance.

Blogging networks and the emerging science communications ecosystem – Arikia Millikan (Wired), Brian Mossop (PLoS), Bora Zivkovic (Scientific American and ScienceInTheTriangle), SciCurious (Scientopia), Amos Zeeberg (Discover), Lou Woodley (Nature Network), Martin Robbins (Guardian and Lay Scientist), Andrew Thaler (the Gam), Mark Hahnel (science3point0), Craig McClain (Deep Sea News), Brian Krueger (LabSpaces), Rachel Pepling (CENtral Science), Alok Jha (the Guardian), Leslie Taylor (Talking Science), Richard P. Grant (Occam’s Typewriter), Maria Jose Vinas (AGU network, via Skype), Eva Amsen (the Node, via Skype)….

A round-table with editors and community managers of blogging networks and big group-blogs in “hot seats”, audience asks questions, gives suggestions, criticisms, etc. What’s the (changing) role of an online editor on a site aggregating independent blogs? “Merely” a bloggers’ assistant for bug fixes and spam busting or a signposter to content, online marketer, creator of community or what? How closely do you monitor your community’s behaviour? Do you know visit times/bounce rates/preferred pages for all your archive and how easy is it to predict what will be “good” (high traffic?) content? Do you encourage “basics posts” and “explainers”? Do you worry if posts are not “newsy” enough?

Unfortunately I don’t think any of our sessions are among those being livestreamed, but you can follow the #scio11 tag on Twitter. Some of the sessions have unique hashtags such as the Technology and the Wilderness session (#techwild) and the BP Oil Spill session (#oil).

The post The Deeplings at Science Online 2011 first appeared on Deep Sea News.

Marine researchers Craig McClain and Kevin Zelnio, both of Duke University, run a Web site (DeepSeaNews.com) that experienced an enormous spike in readership when the Raleigh Sewer Monster became a two-day Internet wonder (its Youtube video has more than 7 million hits). They had better information than many print sources, and they now take that responsibility seriously, they said.

“The day of scientists just doing science and not interacting with the public are over,” McClain says.

KZ and I take over the pages of the Charlotte Observer…well we get a paragraph in coverage of Science Online 2010.

The post KZ and Dr M take over print media first appeared on Deep Sea News.

• Check out Southern Fried Scientist’s write up in the Observer on science advocacy
• Miriam completes the DSN trinity
• Meaningful communications = sharing what matters most
• 11 Things I learned at ScienceOnline 2010
• Check out KZ and I at the Nature Blog Network, DSN is the featured blog! We discuss why we blog and how DSN is integral to our science programs.

The post A flurry of excitement first appeared on Deep Sea News.

The post Science Online 2010, Beginnings first appeared on Deep Sea News.

• Blogs make good “writing labs” (a quote from Jennifer Ouellette from last yers conference) so long as you pay attention to story structure
• Nothing is more important than Structure. Tom defined it for me as a paragraph with a point to make that ends at the end of the paragraph. There is a beginning, middle and an end. This may sound trivial but it not always easy to do such things effectively.
• You need to spend time to craft a great query letter. This is your introduction to the editor, your only opportunity to impress. Rebecca has a wonderful pdf file of tips for writing query letters. I’ve used it before and have had results (any negative outcome was my fault after I got the initial in…). You can download it here.
• Many opportunities really are discussed in the bar or over lunch. Its not just in the movies
• STRUCTURE STRUCTURE STRUCTURE
• While a blog is good practice and provides a ready portfolio for any potential employer, it is also a distraction. Each minute spent blogging is a minute not spent on getting the next article published, and hence no pay.
• Editors WILL read your blog and google your name. If you are too controversial, ramble on or do not have a good writing style you will be ignored. For this reason, Iv’e been thinking of posting my favorite blog posts on my personal website where I have my resume. More to keep a tally of the “good” stuff, but also direct potential employers to a location where they can find out all about me and read my choices without wading through the you-tube videos and political rants.
• A good way to get into a magazine or newspaper is to write book reviews. They generally pay nothing or very little but give you clips to show off and start a relationship with an editor. Rebecca generously imparts her wisdom on writing and breaking into book reviews here.
• Editors move around alot and they like to keep a stable of good writers with them. In fact, future employers will often check who the editor has as his/her stable of writers before hiring. Therefore, its good to show some loyalty to an editor.
• DON”T FORGET TEH STRUCTURE!1!11!!!!1!

There is probably lots of things I’m forgetting, but these are my initial notes on that session.

The post Science Online ’09: From Blogging to Paying Bills first appeared on Deep Sea News.

We asked participants to write their answers to these questions on a piece of paper and hand them into us at the end of the session. We received 11 responses, out of ~30 people in the room, not too bad. GrrlScientist transcribed them and we are sharing them on each of our blogs. Our goal is that we hope this generates further discussion on each of blogs but also that our readers will cross the blog barrier and discuss with commenters on each other’s blogs. So please, let us know what you think  here then head over to GrrlScientist’s post and read her point of view and that of her commenters and contribute to the discussion over there as well. We hope to be able to use our readers responses to guide our writing for future essays on the value of nature blogging.

1. What is a nature blog? What is the difference between nature and science blog writing? What is the difference between nature blog writing and other types of blog writing?

Respondent 1: Nature blogs convey a sense of the majesty of the world around us. I almost expect to hear the sounds of the great outdoors. The sense of interconnectedness comes through more strongly than the reductionism.

Respondent 2: No idea.

Respondent 3: Blog focused on nature-related topics could overlap with science and other blogs, but emphasis on animals, outdoors, ecology and the like.

Respondent 4: Any blog celebrating the outdoors, species, or some other aspect of nature. Nature blogs are adventurous, have lots of photos. Nature blogs are less structural, less rigorous. Nature blogging is more adventurous.

Respondent 6: Nature blogs may have more observation? Science posts may have more explanation? I’d imagine Nature blogs may have more amateur (and excellent) photography.

Respondent 7: Science blogging seems like an umbrella that includes nature blogging. Nature blogging is more descriptive, but connects observations and experiences from the field with scientific knowledge.

Respondent 8: Blogs about organisms/ecosystems instead of research.

Respondent 9: Nature versus Science = Natural history, conservation ..

Respondent 10: I expect some may think a nature blog is less likely to convey the hard science and will be almost poetic (?). An appreciation for the natural environment BUT I would hope that nature blogging my attract folks who might shy away from a blog they believe is “hard science” but that once the reader is there the nature blog writer [can] convey some prnciples of ecology or some interesting fact that IS science! (versus pretty nature pics).

2. What are (should be) the goals for nature blog writing? [This is the “why bother with nature blog writing at all?” question]

Respondent 2: No idea, except that it covers all of the same reasons as the other blogs.

Respondent 3: To educate, inform and inspire readers about nature.

Respondent 4: Inspire people to go outside. Enchant people with the natural world.

Respondent 5: “Nature” is so big and ranges from microscopic to grand trees and rock formations, [so] I believe there is so much to be fascinated [with]. There is something for everyone, but they may not know where to look or all the details that can be uncovered even in their own backyard. When something fascinates us, we are inspired to learn more, to discover, and with nature, an entire classroom is right outside our windows. The purpose of nature blogging is to inspire and teach.

Respondent 7: [To] convey the joy of experiencing the natural world.

Respondent 8: Whatever you want them to be.

3. How important are blog carnivals for connecting nature-loving folks (e.g., I And The Bird, Circus of the Spineless, Carnival of the Blue, Oekologie…)?

Respondent 2: Very.

Respondent 3: Important to those who utilize carnivals, but not important to all.

Respondent 4: Not qualified to answer this question.

Respondent 5: I’m not sure how important they are, but I’ve found the tree carnival to be such a great source of fascinating posts.

Respondent 6: Carnivals help new bloggers meet the community.

Respondent 7: I haven’t messed around with blog carnivals lately.

Respondent 8: No idea.

Respondent 9: I don’t know.

4. What do you think about collaborative global sites like: iNaturalist, Faunapolis, Firefly Watch, Scratchpads, The Internet Bird Collection, UKmoths, Identify a butterfly and Useum?

Respondent 2: [I couldn’t read this response, sorry!].

Respondent 3: Haven’t utilized these [al]though [I] have looked at some. I think they are useful .. but hey, there’s only so much time in a day.

Respondent 4: Not qualified to answer this question.

Respondent 7: I like them in principle, but haven’t spent much time in practice.

Respondent 8: Never used them.

5. Who is the audience? What are they looking for, what are they finding?

Respondent 2: No idea.

Respondent 3: People interested in all nature topics [and] can pretty much find anything they might be interested in.

Respondent 4: Audience tends to be other naturalists, hikers, conservationists, scientists, kids. They are looking for other nature fans, like people who are into comics seek out other comics fans.

Respondent 5: I think anyone — all ages, all demographics can be an audience member to a nature blog — I don’t think we have to target every one in every post but I think one of the most important audience members would be younger students. Somewhere, someone may be just uncovering their lifelong passion via Google.

Respondent 7: Dunno.

Respondent 8: Naked people.

Respondent 11: Your audience includes nonspecialists who are willing to tackle some technical information in order to satisfy their sense of wonder.

6. How much science is (and should or should not be) associated with nature stories and pictures?

Respondent 2: As much as people want.

Respondent 3: Totally up to the blogger — could be full of science or have almost no science (just pics and stories).

Respondent 4: This is up to the blogger and their writing style. Science is less crucial in nature blogging, it can be just a curious question, “What’s this mushroom I saw on the trail?”

Respondent 7: I think it should be used as an excuse for talking about science.

Respondent 8: As much as you want.

Respondent 11: Your audience includes people who are willing to learn the science that goes with the stories. In fact, this is your opportunity to help people understand the nature of science, which in these days of pseudoscience is an important role [that] a nature blogger can play.

7. What is the best nature essay you’ve read in the past year or so? Why did you like this essay so much?

Respondent 2: Can’t name one! how embarassing! On second thought — does an essay/article on why the Chesapeake Bay has not been cleaned up and the political (state-centric) system of focus count?

Respondent 3: Can’t think of one that stood out that much, but if there were one, it’s probably from Chet Raymo.

Respondent 4: An essay about the ecology fund in the tops of California (Really big trees). It was a new world, a unique adventure.

Respondent 6: I really enjoyed a painting (this is what comes to mind instead of an essay) by the artist, Jacqueline Dillard, entitled “Yellow.” Inspired by yellow finches in her area, she painted numerous local yellow animals together. [NOTE: If anyone finds the link to this artist or this painting, I’d appreciate the information]

Respondent 7: Dunno.

Other comments:

Respondent 1: It would have been great if we had covered:

1. best nature blogs
2. how nature blogs can be effective in making a political difference
3. how to generate more traffic to a nature blog
4. copyright/photo use permission issues
5. optimal techniques for capturing and uploading nature audio/video
6. clever use of nature blogs with GPS, geotagging, relationships with nature museums or clubs

Respondent 6: Fantastic session!

Respondent 9: Good site for schools/teachers, see Discover Life dot com [NOTE: if someone knows the correct URL, please let me know which site you are referring to and I’ll add it here]

Respondent 10: Thanks! This was great, very thought-provoking.
PS. I am trying to encourage our scientists/researchers/engineers to blog on the agency’s site — would love to hear if you have thoughts on how I can relay the significance and impact of blogging — just starting out! [NOTE: GrrlScientist has this respondent’s email address if anyone would like direct contact]

I have lots of thoughts on these questions, but would like to hear from you!

The post Science Online ’09: Nature Blogging first appeared on Deep Sea News.

After a most wonderful lunch (thanks Science Online sponsors!), it was time for the first of two sessions I was co-moderating. This session was a fun one to plan and execute on how to post from strange places. Co-organizer Karen James of the Beagle Project did most of the moderating and talked from the perspective of someone that will blog from a strange place (like the crow’s nest of the new HMS Beagle). Vanessa Woods, Meredith Barrett, Anne-Marie Hodge, Talia Page, Rick MacPherson and myself discussed our own experiences with blogging from strange places. For myself, it is while at sea. Rick discussed being in remote parts of Papua New Guinea where cell phones fall out of grass skirts. Vanessa blogs from the Congo where she studies bonobos. Talia blogged from India where a nasty case of diarrhea cause her to spend too much time on the potty, in the meantime her notes were stolen! Anne-Marie talked about the challenges of blogging from tropical stations in Central America. Meredith followed furry primates through the surreal landscape of Madagascar.

The common hindrance to blogging was time and electricity. For most of us, being out in the field means getting a lot of work done over a small period of time. For myself, this involves 12-20 hours of work a day while at sea. It costs lots of money to be out in the remote wildernesses and this is the only chance to get the data you need. Its now or never! Sitting down to write a blog post can be a lot of effort when you are crunched for time and short of energy. For most of the jungle hippies, finding electricity and a decent internet connection were no trivial task. There were several questions, suggestions for using microblogs and audio/video podcasting options that were thrown out by audience members. I think we all learned alot from the participants about effective and efficient tools that might make blogging adventure a bit easier.

We had a pretty full room which I was very excited about. As an icebreaker, we asked the audience to write a blog post about the conference while imagining they are in a submarine at the bottom of the ocean. Karen queued up some ocean and ship noise on the computer, while I walked around with an angler fish puppet and attacked people, stole their pens, “swam” in front of their monitors and otherwise distract. The other turned the lights on and off, open and closed the doors,  went around the room shaking chairs, talking loudly and then we broke into a sea shanty (of course!), where I sang the chorus of South Australia loudly and I must admit, quite stunningly. It was lots of fun and though it probably freaked out some participants, it certainly set the tone for the session. Chris Rowan from Highly Allochthonous was in attendance and actually posted his “live-blog” of experience. His post kicked off a great discussion in the comment thread about blogging from the field!

Thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to my co-panelists for sharing their fasctinating experiences!

The post Science Online ’09: Blogging Adventure first appeared on Deep Sea News.

1) Using OpenScience software and online lab notebooks/field journals. Keeping it all online enhancing sharing and prevents any one individual from falling behind because of lack of appropriate software. Even programs such as Google Docs or OpenOffice can help break the software ceiling for many struggling school systems

2) Blogs used in homeschooling, i.e. exploring school subjects through blogs. There is a wealth of information, lessons, video, mulitmedia and case studies out there for free waiting to be exploited. One group member mentioned that critical thinking can happen in the comments sections. Following the links to explore the web can facilitate students finding their interests. While kids respond more readily to online materials, web surfing  presents hazards. How to keep on track during navigation. Coincidentally, John Wilkins of the Evolving Thoughts blog has been dutifully cataloging Basic Concepts posts. If you write about a basic concept in the sciences, I strongly encourage you to send it in for review and cataloging with his collection. Such posts make an excellent starting material (potentially an entire course) for further learning, whether homeschooling or not.

3) Peer-to-peer communication among students and between students and instructors. This might not necessary be done best in a blog, but perhaps a wiki, friendfeed room or twitter.

These were but only a small fraction of the ideas that went around the room. The participants were composed of a wide variety of backgrounds from educators, scientists, journalists, high school, undergraduate and graduate students, techies and “other’. I encourage to view the rough notes on the wiki. This was a great session to attend right after the high school student perspective as it dealt with many of the same issues, but expanded upon some of them.

The post Science Online ’09: Blogs in College Teaching first appeared on Deep Sea News.