July 5, 2012

One Year on the Scientific American Blog Network

I started writing AiP in 2009. I was writing for you, Readers, of course. But I was also writing for me. Why? Kate Clancy said it best, Blogging is a selfish endeavor, a desire to be heard.

By Krystal D'Costa

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

I started writing AiP in 2009. I was writing for you, Readers, of course. But I was also writing for me. Why? Kate Clancy said it best,

Blogging is a selfish endeavor, a desire to be heard. Blogging is insisting you have something to say. Blogging is saying come here, come here and respond and tell me that at least some of what I am saying means something to you.

Over the years, in the tradition of It's Not Exactly Rocket Science's Ed Yong, I've called for Readers to delurk a few times, and I've gotten to know some of you quite well. I've shared moments of frustration and embarrassment and joy excitement with you. We have traversed a range of experiences together.

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When Scientific American invited AiP to join the network, it was an opportunity to explore these experiences with a larger audience. So on this first anniversary of the Scientific American blog network, along with my fellow SciAm bloggers, I'm inviting you to tell us your stories. Borrowing from Ed Yong and DrugMonkey, we've compiled the questions below:

Tell me about you. Who are you? Do you have a background in anthropology? If so, what draws you here? And if not, what brought you here and why have you stayed?

Tell someone else about this blog and in particular, try and choose someone who's not a scientist or anthropologist but who you think might be interested in the type of stuff found in this blog.Ever had family members or groups of friends who've been giving you strange, pitying looks when you try to wax scientific on them? Send 'em here and let's see what they say.

Do you have a favorite AiP post? Or what topics have most interested you?

How did you find me? Do you regularly follow AiP, through Twitter, Facebook and/or other beyond-RSS mechanisms that you may use to corral your information stream?

So come on, Readers. Say hello and tell me about yourselves. And long time Readers, I want to hear what you've been up to recently. You can reach me in the comments below, on Twitter (@krystaldcosta), on Facebook, or even (gasp) Google+ (though G+ is admittedly the worst way to reach me).

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