In 2010, the Guardian launched an experiment: a small network of science blogs written by experts in their respective fields, with a remit to entertain, enrage, and inform. Nearly five years later, and the science blog network has expanded from its original five blogs to fifteen, covering a huge range of topics - from epidemiology, mathematics and physics, to the history of science, zoology, palaeontology, and more.
Over those five years, the thirst for great science content on the web has grown tremendously and the popularity of the science blog network, and the insight that our expert writers offer, has never been higher. Science isn’t stagnant though; by its very nature, it is a continual process of reflection, revision and improvement. With that in mind, our upcoming fifth birthday seems like an excellent opportunity to take stock and start to think about the future of the network.
So we want hear from you, our readers. We want to know how you use the network, what you like, what you don’t like, and we want to hear any ideas you’d like to see implemented across the blogs in the future. We’ve set up a short survey to gather your thoughts – the link is at the bottom of this article. We’ll keep the link up and running until 9am Monday, 17 August.
When the blog network first launched, Alok Jha marked the occasion with a quote from then-editor Alan Rusbridger:
There is a mutualised interest here. We are reaching towards the idea of a mutualised news organisation.
We are edging away from the binary sterility of the debate between mainstream media and new forms which were supposed to replace us. We feel as if we are edging towards a new world in which we bring important things to the table – editing; reporting; areas of expertise; access; a title, or brand, that people trust; ethical professional standards and an extremely large community of readers. The members of that community could not hope to aspire to anything like that audience or reach on their own; they bring us a rich diversity, specialist expertise and on the ground reporting that we couldn’t possibly hope to achieve without including them in what we do.
That idea, of mutualisation, is as important now as it was five years ago. Science is a collaborative process, and the science blog network should reflect that. Let us know what you think.
The reader’s survey is now closed.
