The Challenges of Science on the Web

Get it? Spider .. web? Yeah ...

Source: Quickmeme

The Science Online conference was held this weekend in Maryland.   I wasn't able to attend, but NPR held a fascinating Science Friday show on the state of science in this world of blogging, social media, and traditional websites. 

I created my blog to deal with two problems that I've seen with science reporting online: 1) it's too jargon heavy and doesn't focus on the common user and 2) it's grossly inaccurate. The following exchange between host Ira Flatow and Bora Zivkovic, blog editor at Scientific American deals with this:

ZIVKOVIC:  When you're straight-out science reporting, there's really no need to include or allow inclusion of opinions that are completely unscientific.

FLATOW, Host: But we live in an age, at least in the United States, where some people, now, in the last few years, possibly politically oriented, say that, you know, science is just another matter of opinion, you know.

ZIVKOVIC: Yeah, that's their opinion. That doesn't mean that opinion is correct, either. Because unlike other opinions, scientific opinion has to be backed up by empirical information, by empirical data, and it's a self-correcting - at least long-term - self-correcting endeavor. So an individual scientist may have biases or opinions, but science as a whole is a way of knowledge that actually is trying to represent nature as it really is.

You can stream the show on NPR or download it here.

For more about Science Online, check out their Flickr album, #scio13 Twitter hashtag, and overall website.

CES 2013 Wrap Up Video & Tweets

Last week, I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Below is a video of some footage that I took on the floor. Unfortunately, my microphone adapter broke so I was not able to hold any interviews - gotta get that fixed for next year!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Also, I've embedded a list of Tweets that I shared if you weren't following the action last week. Check it out! If you can't see the tweets below, click here.

Tech & Politics: Melissa Harris-Perry

Many TV shows are using Facebook and Twitter to further engage their audience. One great example is the Melissa Harris-Perry show, which airs 10am - 12pm on MSNBC on Saturdays and Sundays. The political show is very active on Twitter with its own hashtag #nerdland. Also, video of the show is available on the website soon after it airs - and it's iPad friendly!

She recently had a fantastic section on technology and how it's affected the political process. The panel talks about a recent Federal Elections Committee decision to allow donating to political campaigns via text message, the fact that women only account for 24% of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) jobs, and the wonderful organization Black Girls Code by Kimberly Bryant. Please support their Summer of Code fundraiser, which has a goal of teaching computer programming to more than 300 boys and girls from underrepresented communities, in 90 days, in more than 7 cities across the United States.

Check out the video of the and fantastic discussions below!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Twitter Impact: From Academia to the Everyday Citizen

Twitter has made a huge impact among the academic field as well as the everyday citizen. A recent study from UCLA and Hewlett-Packard mentioned that the most well received tweets come from the Twitter accounts of established websites (i.e. New York Times, CNN, etc) discussing popular companies or institutions. The term "social networking" tends to imply that getting news from a friend, regardless of the inclusion of a source, would resonate the same as hearing it from an established site. According to this study, that's not the case.

When I come across a friend mentioning a story, I'll reply or retweet him or her to give proper credit. In addition, I always make sure to retweet the story from a recognized source  It's not because I don't trust the person who originally mentioned the story. It's more that I don't expect my followers to know (or trust) that person. Retweeting the story as reported from a respected source helps to keep my credibility with my followers that or may not know anything about my other followers.

Beyond academia, Twitter has also affected govermnents and its citizens. Sweden has been handing its official @Sweden Twitter account to a different citizen every week. Naturally, some gaffes have occurred. But check out how they've handled it:

From the NY Times on Sunday:

“I wanted to show that I’m often kind of immature and often kind of stupid and so is this country, and I bet you are, too, and so are a lot of people around the world,” Mr. Werner, 23, said in a telephone interview. “It’s much more interesting than saying things like, ‘Look at these fabulous pictures of nature.’ ”

An update to the NY Times story on Tuesday shows that Sweden is not deleting any tweet that may be offensive. Instead, Sweden is using the opportunity as a teachable moment.  After one of the Swedish twitter users, Ms. Abrahamsson, faced backlash for posting a tweet that offended people of Jewish decent, the following exchange occured:

The immediate backlash against her comments prompted Ms. Abrahamsson less than an hour later to write that, being from rural Sweden, she did not know many Jews and she apologized “if some of you find the question offensive.”

“Thats was not my purpose,” she added, appearing to explain herself. “I just don’t get why some people hates jews so much.”

Boom! Now that's how you handle controversy - embrace it head on and try to learn from it.  This is the only way to bring technology forward because controversy is inevitable. Congratulations to Sweden for taking this project on!

Tech Networking: Science Bloggers, Tweeters, and Writers

I'm happy to say that I've been included in Scientific American's list of African American Science Bloggers, Tweeters, and Writers. I'm honored to be included on a list of amazing folk like Dr. Ainissa Ramirez and the Spelman Robotics team. I encourage everyone to use this list as a way to network with different people in the social space that are fighting the good fight to spread news about science throughout the internet. Thank you DNLee and the Urban Scientist blog, and be sure to check out the rest of the folks on the list!