Over Two-Hundred Education & Science Blogs * † - Department of ...

Appendix B. The ADLsphere And Blogosphere May Be Harbingers of
a Collective Short-Term Working Memory
In “The Future of Science: Building a Better Collective Memory,” Michael Nielsen (2008) wrote
(my italics):
The adoption and growth of the scientific journal system has created a body of shared knowledge for
our civilization, a collective long-term memory which is the basis for much of human progress. This
system has changed surprisingly little in the last 300 years. The internet offers us the first major
opportunity to improve this collective long-term memory. . . .[see e.g., the physics preprint arXiv
]. . . . . , and to create a collective short-term working memory, a conversational
commons for the rapid collaborative development of ideas. The process of scientific discovery - how
we do science - will change more over the next 20 years than in the past 300 years.
As indicated in Appendix A, above, the ADLsphere and Blogosphere have both strengths and
weaknesses. In my opinion, the strengths outweigh the weaknesses, and these two spheres may
be harbingers of Nielsen’s vision of “a collective short-term working memory, a conversational
commons for the rapid collaborative development of ideas.” Thus I’ve deemed it worthwhile to
use the feedback from my earlier posts “Thirty-two Education Blogs” [Hake (2008a)], and “Over
Sixty Education Blogs” [Hake (2008b)] plus internet searches to compile this expanded and
corrected list of “Over Two-Hundred Education & Science Blogs.”
Regarding the Blogosphere: Anita Pincas (2008), responding to "Thirty-two Education Blogs"
[Hake 2008a)], asked if someone might have time to prepare a rundown of the main focus of
each of the blogs and pointed out that:
(a) few people have time to examine 32 blogs. . . . [let alone the over: 400 Education Blogs
(EdBlogs) listed by Stephen Downes (2008a), over 600 EdBlogs listed by Donaghy (2009) in her
International Directory of Edubloggers (IDE), 8000 EdBlogs listed by Blogged (2009), or 30,000
EdBlogs estimated to exist by Michael Petrilli (2009). . . . . . . .
(b) keywords searches are not adequate for “finding out just what we need,” and
(c) semantic web developments may help – see ISKO UK in the present list of blogs, and Miller
(2008) in the REFERENCES below.
What seems to be needed at this stage of the Blogosphere are:
(1) more powerful search engines,
(2) easily searchable Blog directories that are much more extensive than those presently
available.
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