I TWEET, THEREFORE I AM: SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE GEOSCIENCES

Fifteen years, Web sites were a novelty. Today, if you do not have a Web site, you effectively do not exist in the scientific world.

Now, the development of Web 2.0 capabilities has the potential to be just as revolutionary. Interactive Web services such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and others have already evolved from personal entertainment to important institutional tools and are emerging as critical components of a comprehensive communications strategy. Tools are used when they are readily available. These trends are reshaping the way we do science and it will accelerate.

Geoblogosphere News syndicates 220 geo-blogs in 10 languages that focus more on the geosciences as a profession and on scientific issues than on personal narratives. The Accretionary Wedge blog carnival is on its 17^th topic, generating community discussion on a range of topics.

Typing in “geology” turns up 28,700 videos on YouTube.com; another 1590 clips come up for “geoscience.” Some are humorous, but many are tutorials, experiments, field trips, or lectures. Organizations set up their own ‘channels’ on YouTube. How long before talks at GSA are routinely recorded taped for later broadcast online?

Twitter has been used effectively to mobilize crowds. It offers similar potential to keep geoscientists informed of rapidly changing situations during and following natural disasters such as earthquakes, eruptions, and floods, or to offer updates on lab or field projects. Its potential is just being tapped.

These tools are democratizing: brilliant but unorthodox ideas, innovation, and quality, but also banality and shortcomings, are exposed for all to see, without the filters of supervisors, editors, or the Establishment. But many government and corporate IT policies put social networking sites off-limits, for security or to discourage workplace distractions. One can only imagine what would have happened if IT watchdogs existed at the birth of the telephone.

It’s important that we embrace these new tools for their potential to change our world rather than fear them out of the potential for their misuse. Professional societies in particular should be taking full advantage on online social networking tools. A significant function of these societies is to promote networking among their members.