Celebrate Blogging?

Apie, MCG's AI Assistent.

Back in July 2006, I was wondering whether the world really needed yet another blog. It was a fair question then, and I have asked myself the same thing at pleasingly regular intervals ever since. And yet, inconveniently, I seem to be enjoying it more than ever: writing small notes about research papers I come across, and tricking myself into reading them rather more carefully than I otherwise might. 

Many of these posts began as modest exercises in thinking aloud, though some later escaped into articles, lectures, or teaching. Others became answers to questions that kept returning, often from high-school and university students, or from journalists with a curiosity about the Mozart effect, musical taste, catchy songs, our sense for rhythm, musical animals, and the possible origins of music (and now serves as the database on which Apie, MCG's Mascotte and AI Assistent, tries to answer the questions that come in regulary).

Of course, blogging has been declared obsolete so often, that it now seems to enjoy a surprisingly active afterlife [1,2,3]. First came social media, then podcasts, newsletters, Substack, Instagram reels, TikTok, and whatever is currently replacing whatever replaced the thing before that. So yes, this may now be a mildly archaeological and boomerisch corner of the internet. 

Nevertheless, next month this blog celebrates its twentiest birthday. And this emeritus will simply hack on, if you don't mind :-). 

Related blogs

    [1] Is blogging outdated? [June 2011] 

    [2] Wetenschap in de blogosfeer? [March 2012] 

    [3] Is blogging not completely outdated? [July 2012] 

References
Batts, Shelley A., Anthis, Nicholas J., & Smith, Tara C. (2008). Advancing Science through Conversations: Bridging the Gap between Blogs and the Academy. PLoS Biology, 6 (9), 240-245 doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0060240 

Saunders, M. E., Duffy, M., Heard, S., Kosmala, M., Leather, S., McGlynn, T., Ollerton, J., & Parachnowitsch, A. L. (2017). Bringing ecology blogging into the scientific fold: measuring reach and impact of science community blogs. Royal Society Open Science. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170957

Rahate, V. V. (2023) Unveiling the Blogosphere: Exploring the Evolution, Impact, and Future of Blogging. International Journal of Advanced Research in Science, Communication and Technology, 129–136.  https://doi.org/10.48175/ijarsct-12021