Share ScienceSeeker with our new badges

If you like ScienceSeeker, I hope you'll add one of these badges to your blog. It's a great way to let your readers know about ScienceSeeker, which, in turn, should point more readers your way. To use the badges, just copy the code beneath the badge you like best and paste it into your blog's sidebar (for most blogs, using a "text" widget will work fine).

<a href="http://scienceseeker.org/"><img src="http://scienceseeker.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/sciseekdna.gif" alt="I&#039;m on ScienceSeeker-DNA" title="sciseekdna" width="146" height="44" /></a>

<a href="http://scienceseeker.org/"><img src="http://scienceseeker.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/sciseekmicro.gif" alt="I&#039;m on ScienceSeeker-Microscope" title="sciseekmicro" width="146" height="44" /></a>

<a href="http://scienceseeker.org"><img src="http://scienceseeker.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/sciseekscope.gif" alt="I&#039;m on ScienceSeeker-Telescope" title="sciseekscope" width="146" height="44" /></a>

If you have any other ideas for badges, or other ways you'd like to share ScienceSeeker with your readers, let us know in the comments.

Questions about ScienceSeeker? (Open forum)

Following the ScienceSeeker launch, I saw various questions about the site on Twitter. If you have questions, ask them here, and we will answer!

Some questions I can answer now: yes, there is a rudimentary API to let people access posts directly; I will post more about that later. Yes, we do want to make the code for the site re-usable by other communities, so it is not limited to science topics in theory (see the job listings — we are looking for someone to help usher the code through an open source release so that others can use it to set up similar sites about other topics).

What else do you want to know? Ask here.

Introducing ScienceSeeker

We're pleased to announce the unveiling of the product of six months of planning and work by some very dedicated volunteers. ScienceSeeker (at, naturally, Scienceseeker.org) is a beta-level site; a work in progress, but we think it's a very useful work even as it now stands. The project began as an extension of Science Blogging Aggregated, but quickly grew into an independent site.

The basic concept is simple: Find as many sources of regularly-updated science information as possible, and collect them all in one place. We believe that science blogs are currently the most robust and diverse source of science news, discussion, and commentary. They can offer a measured response to the myriads of self-promotional press releases that clutter newspapers and inboxes. Unfortunately, they are spread all about the internet, in dozens of blogging networks and hundreds, if not thousands, of independent science blogs. These blogs and networks aren't organized by topic, which makes it difficult for someone looking for latest posts on, say, chemistry.

ScienceSeeker already catalogs over 400 blogs, and is set up so that anyone can add more blogs. Our editors will review any submission to make sure it's really about science (and not spam), then approve it within 24 hours. Our aim is to be the most comprehensive and useful aggregator of science news, discussion, and commentary anywhere.

Take a look at the site and put it through its paces. We think you'll agree that it's one of the most useful and engaging science sites you've ever seen.

Click here to visit ScienceSeeker.

ScienceSeeker is an all-volunteer effort, and we intend to make it a formal, open-source project, allowing anyone to contribute enhancements. We have lots of ideas of what to do next, but we want to hear yours too. Feel free to offer suggestions in the comments.

ScienceSeeker needs YOU!

ScienceSeeker is an all-volunteer project, and it's not finished yet! We are planning big things, but we can only do them with community support. We need both technical help to create the site, and editorial support to maintain quality.

If you're interested in being an editor, please indicate your interest below or use the contact form to email us.

Our technical needs are more specific; the positions we need to fill are listed below. If you have technical questions, feel free to email jphekman@arborius.net (Jessica Hekman). She will be online during the conference and will try to answer all emails within a few hours (often within minutes).

* DB/MySQL geek

Review the SQL queries in our code base and tighten them up for speed and efficiency. Add indexes to the database to make it run faster. In general, be in charge the efficiency of the (MySQL) database.

* PHP programmer

Write PHP (mostly Wordpress plugins) to add new functionality to ScienceSeeker, and to fix bugs. We can use multiple people in this position! Some knowledge of XML is useful but not essential.

* Release engineer

Set up a source code repository (probably subversion). Design and set up a better development environment (beta and live versions of the site). Chaperone an open source release of the code base.

* XML/XSL geek

Much of the behind the scenes work in ScienceSeeker is XML documents, and many of them are transformed to HTML via XSLT. Maintain the XSLT stylesheets and write new ones as needed. Extend the XML schemas (currently informal, but may be formalized in RELAX-NG or XSD if you prefer) to support more functionality as ScienceSeeker expands. This job may or may not overlap with the PHP programming job.

Crowdsourcing request: Help us create a list of blogs for v. 2.0

Update: Thanks to everyone for your help! We've finished updating the database. Look here for news on our launch on Saturday, January 15.

In just under three weeks, we'll be unveiling the beta version of the next generation of this site.

The new site will work very differently from this one; it is a custom-created database that collects information from hundreds—and ultimately thousands of blogs. Users will easily be able to select just the topics they want, instead of seeing posts based on what network they are on. We want the beta site to be usable from day one, but to do that, we need some help.

I've created a Google Docs Spreadsheet for this purpose. Anyone can access the spreadsheet and make modifications. What we need are the name, URL, RSS address, and topic of each blog. What we have, in most cases, is just the URL. If everyone pitches in and visits 10 to 20 blogs, then we should be able to generate this information in a matter of days, if not hours.

Most of the blogs are listed on the Master Blog List (the first tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet). To start helping, just fill in the information in the space provided. If you figure out an automated way of doing this, you can reserve a block of blogs by typing your name in the designated column; then no one will duplicate your efforts.

The reason we need humans to do this is that we want the blogs to be classified by topic. We've generated a list of topics (on the last tab in the spreadsheet). When you visit a blog, figure out what topic from our list best describes the blog, and enter it in the space provided (most web browsers will display a drop-down menu to make this easy for you).

The other tabs are for blog networks that are a little more difficult to suss out; either there was no easy way for us to find a list of blogs, or there are non-science blogs mixed in with science blogs. So, we've given specific directions for what to do in each case.

FAQs

• My Blog Isn't Listed!
  Don't worry! Either we've already got all the info we need (in the case of some blog networks) or you're an independent blogger and you'll be able to register your blog when the site launches. If you don't think you're in either of those camps, let us know in the comments below


• None of the official topics apply to this blog
  Just pick the closest match. You can get more specific in the secondary topic


• I don't agree with your list of topics
  We had to start somewhere. The list will be easily modifiable in the future.


• One of the listed blogs is not scientific
  Explain your objection in the Notes section on the spreadsheet


• Someone has reserved a block of blogs for hours
  You can use File --> See revision history to see how recently an update was made. If it's been more than an hour, feel free to delete their name, substitute yours, and work on that entry


• There's no drop-down menu of topics
  Try using a different browser. I've tested it on Safari and Firefox, but I can confirm it doesn't work on Chrome for Mac.


• What's in it for me?
  Our eternal gratitude? Plus, if we see you at a conference, we'll buy you a beer

Thanks again. Let us know if you have any other questions in the comments.

Here's another link to the Google Docs Spreadsheet