Blog News June 9, 2009
Posted by DrJeff on June 9th, 2009
Filed under 0. Site News
Copyright 2009 | About this blog
Blog on the Universe has now been up for 4 weeks. That’s enough time for me to now step back and see what needs to be tweaked based on visitor feedback and a good understanding of what it takes to generate content on a regular basis. So here is what’s new—
Audience
The Blog was originally designed for parents and teachers, but the feedback indicates a far broader appeal. I’ve therefore changed the description of the Blog to reflect that it’s for anyone but we still retain a special focus for teachers and parents. Read the new About this Blog page.
Flavors of Posts
Looking at the posts thus far, it’s clear they are heavily weighted on the side of Weekly Challenges. The main reason—each week the idea was to post the solution to the Challenge from the week before together with a new Challenge—that’s 2 posts per Challenge on the same day. It’s also pretty clear that the Weekly Challenges should not be a central focus of the Blog but just one of the multiple flavors of posts. So I’ve decided to post the Weekly Challenge every other Monday. That way a Challenge is posted, the solution is posted the following week, and the new Challenge is posted a week after that. It makes for better flow.
Spreading the Word
For this Blog to be successful, we’ve got to grow the audience. I know it’s out there. There are likely 3 million teachers of science in the U.S. alone. (I’m pretty sure the number of parents is a bit higher.) And then there’s the general public.
So please help us get word out about the Blog. If you have email distribution lists, a newsletter, or can just Tweet about the Blog, go for it! Let’s make this a successful resource together. I’ve also just created a Friends of Blog on the Universe page. It includes a description of the Blog that you can use for email dissemination, a 1-page PDF flyer, and a widget you can download to your website. This Friends page is a place where I’d love to post comments about this Blog from organizations and individuals, provide your organizational name and a short mission statement, and a link to your website. Take a look. Let me know if you’d like to make use of it by contacting me.
With best wishes for a wonderful summer,
Dr. Jeff
Comments are closed.
