Seed Magazine is celebrating its inaugural year of ScienceBlogs, which Element List first covered when it debuted in January 2006. In one of those old-media-capitalizing-on-new-media efforts (see also, Time's POTY 2006), Seed Magazine invited ScienceBloggers to appear in its dead tree publication in the December/January 2007 issue, which oddly enough doesn't feature any science bloggers on the cover. (Has anyone else ever noticed the lack of people pictures on Seed Magazine covers? Why hasn't it ever occured to them to put an actual scientist's face on the cover??)
Taking the web2.0-to-deadtreepulp genre a step further, Seed excerpted actual blog articles in the magazine. Yes, the same articles that you can read right now from your computer - nay, that you have probably already read - for free without killing any trees. Not only that, but the Seed website lists all of the featured blog articles for you, saving you the step of, you know, reading them in the magazine. And, no, there is no mention in the press release of any original articles by ScienceBloggers appearing in the wekilledtreesforthis issue. Finally, the one really cool feature of the ScienceBlogs 2006 celebration isn't in the oxygen-depleting issue: it's an interactive group portrait with the obligatory blogger seated in front with an Apple laptop (PZ Myers, of course). Moving your mouse over the image highlights each individual blogger, and a click of the mouse takes you to that blogger's ScienceBlog. There might be more to read about in the Seed mag, but, frankly, we're too busy clicking to find out.
Comments (1)
I agree with you in principle, except that some people still like dead-tree reading, because it's easy on the eyes and you can take it on the train. Until the Readius drops below the $100 price point, I'm afraid I'm going to have to continue murdering our cellulosic brothers...
Posted by Christopher | January 9, 2007 12:54 AM
Posted on January 9, 2007 00:54