Hello all, Eric Roach, your friendly blog recruiter here. I had the good fortune to attend the 2007 Science Blogging Conference in Chapel Hill last weekend (January 20, actually), and I thought I should take some time to point out a few of the very cool things going on in the science blogging universe.
First off, I would like to give tremendous props to the organizer Anton Zuiker. What started off as a conference primarily for the high concentration of science bloggers in the triangle area grew into a very large very helpful event attended by 170+ interested parties.
As opposed to many blogging conferences, which tend to focus in part on SEO and gaining readers, this conference really was focused on how to become better bloggers, as well as how to take advantage of these new social technologies to advance science at an even quicker pace. This was my first exposure to the unconference mentaility and I found the free discussion of ideas very stimulating. There were very fun break out sessions (I attended one on illustrating blog posts — something science bloggers do with great effect — as well as one on the emerging field of nanotechnology) and a lot of watercooler focus on the educational aspects of blogging (there were many educators present who utilize blogs to further the classroom experiences).
The attendees were a very diverse crowd, from straight up a-list science bloggers, to science publishers, to professional scientists evaluating a possible leap into bloggerdom, to junior-high science teachers, to local political bloggers. The campus was beautiful and the ideas were inspiring.
Keep an eye out for the next conference in your area, and let us know about them.
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