TAKING AN ECOSYSTEM PERSPECTIVE BY EXAMINING THE NICHES OF SOCIAL PALEONTOLOGY

Scientific communities composed of geologists, paleontologists, and naturalists use online resources, including social media, to connect and converse. Developing online communities is a complex activity, and every day, new online communities are launched, but many falter or disappear entirely. Previous research has shown that paleontologists, in particular, use social media niches (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to practice social paleontology. Social paleontology is defined as the practice and discussion of understanding the natural world through collection, preparation, curation, and study of fossils. Over the past six years, the FOSSIL Project has designed, developed, and maintained multiple niches for practicing social paleontology including myFOSSIL (myfossil.org) as well as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. To date, each niche has been studied although researchers have only studied outcomes for separate niches. We seek to describe the ecosystem holistically by answering the question, “How do individuals within a paleontological community of practice vary within niches?”. Our results show that over 14,000 unique members comprise the ecosystem and there is minimal overlap between niches suggesting that members seem to congregate in singular social media niches. These findings have implications for the design and development of future scientific communities that seek to unite members from diverse backgrounds in scientific practice. As such, it is critical that future social media niche design emphasize the unique affordances of each niche to cater to the specialized membership within each.