Getting Connected

In what feels like another life but was only a few years ago, I was a freshwater biologist. As a result I belong to a few online fora such as the British Ecological Society and Estuarine Science, which still have the odd announcement to interest me from time to time. A couple of days ago I received this:

'Dear all,

I'm a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, where I recently finished my Ph.D on the philosophy of perception. With a team of people from Stanford and Cambridge, I've just launched a website, www.academia.edu, which does two things: - It shows researchers around the world in a 'tree' format, organized according to the institutions and departments that they are associated with.

It enables researchers to see updates on the latest news in their area - the latest people, papers and talks. We are hoping that Academia.edu will eventually list every researcher in the world -- Faculty members, Post-Docs, and Graduate Students. Researchers can add their departments, and themselves, to the tree by clicking on the arrows. Researchers are adding themselves to the tree quite rapidly. More than 9,000 researchers have added themselves in the last two months...'

And so on. It reminds me of those pop music and comedy 'family tree' programmes which get broadcast on TV from time to time. I then started to mull over how a blogging family tree might look. I'd start with me in the centre, with all the blogs I link to and comment on arranged around me, then all their blogrolls fitted around them, and so on. I've just completed my first attempt. Of course I've had to use a very small scale to fit you all on there:


Can you just check I haven't left anyone out please ;)

Update: I didn't realise I would personally be getting connected when I wrote this yesterday - back into the world of Blotanical after fixing my feed last night. So, to those of you reading this post from there, welcome back!

Comments

  1. Anonymous26 October 2008 at 10:28

    HA, as you were explaining the research tree, I was thinking about the correlation to garden bloggers and how on earth would a tree be managed for them? The page would have to be , well, bigger than sensible possible. I like your explanation better. Brilliant. ;->

    Frances
    http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  2. VP26 October 2008 at 10:32

    Crumbs Frances, you must be an early riser, or up late!

    Yes, I was having a chuckle to myself when I put our 'blogger's tree' together :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sue Swift26 October 2008 at 10:47

    That's me in the top left-hand corner, right?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous26 October 2008 at 12:23

    You need to frame the blogger tree now so everyone who visits your home can see your family

    ReplyDelete
  5. VP26 October 2008 at 12:30

    Sue - you're a bit further in than that as I read you regularly. An inch out to the top right - see?

    SOL - hmmm, I wonder what NAH would think of that ;)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous26 October 2008 at 13:45

    This is testing the reset form with Name/URL option

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous26 October 2008 at 14:40

    Managing to comment now, thanks.
    Doing that tree must have taken you ages :-)

    ReplyDelete
  8. VP26 October 2008 at 14:44

    EG - hurrah, the fix worked! And yes, you wouldn't know how long it took to get it absolutely right ;)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous26 October 2008 at 19:10

    Oh - I quite liked the new style comments form - I think it worked for me (didn't it?) perhaps it didnt - perhaps that's why you left me off!
    (lol)
    K

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous26 October 2008 at 22:17

    I think I saw myself just waving as I slip out of the top right hand corner? Your tree looks just like our weeping silver leaved pear did this morning before we transformed it from a savage tangle to a thing of beauty. I would have written about it on my blog but jelly brain never thought about taking pics! Sorry I'm being a bit incoherent this evening - one of our best and oldest friends died this evening, perhaps why I never thought about photos. Aaaaaaaaagh!!!
    sorry about that - thank you for being a friend x

    ReplyDelete
  11. CanadianGardenJoy27 October 2008 at 11:30

    VP .. do these leaves change like Canadian Maple trees .. the wow factor thing .. in OCTOBER .. is it not changing yet because it was just born ? .. do I have to wait until next OCTOBER girl ? .. I'd like to have my own branch please .. OK .. TWIG then .. and can you colour me orange please ?
    Was that all too demanding ? .. it has been one of those days and it is only 7:30 AM here .. BIG sigh !

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mr. McGregor's Daughter27 October 2008 at 14:56

    This kind of reminds me of that "7 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game. We're all interconnected by at most 7 degrees of distance. Okay, this is getting way too deep for me on a Monday morning. Where's that coffee?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Gail27 October 2008 at 15:12

    Wonderful post! I needed the laugh!

    As a therapist we used to put together family trees...your blogger tree family is what I thought some blended families looked like, and felt like!

    Gail

    ReplyDelete
  14. VP27 October 2008 at 19:12

    Karen - if you made a comment earlier to this post, then I didn't get it, though I have had your ones to earlier posts after the new comment form was implemented.

    Google think the new form's popular too and I suppose it does make it similar to e.g. Wordpress. But if there's problems for people who want to comment here, then I have no choice to go back to the format that works.

    Maggi - yes that's you. A late entry, but most important :)

    Joy - your wish is my command - it's that tiny little corner on the left ;)

    MMD - downstairs in the kitchen ;)

    Gail - glad I've bought some laughter into your day :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Helen/patientgardener27 October 2008 at 20:32

    Ok I'm obviously not firing on all cylinders this evening - how do I access the tree? Do I click on the photo or is it through the link above - explanation needed for work weary brains!

    ReplyDelete
  16. VP27 October 2008 at 20:39

    Hi Helen - the link in the article will take you to the academic family tree. Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking are on there for example.

    Usually my photos are clickable so you should get an enlarged version of my joke 'blogger family tree'. However, for some reason Blogger isn't making my photo enlargeable today. I've reloaded it again and it hasn't cured the problem - sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Helen/patientgardener27 October 2008 at 20:57

    Thats a relief I thought it was simply a case of me being thick!

    ReplyDelete
  18. VP27 October 2008 at 21:26

    No, Helen - just Blogger playing up :(

    ReplyDelete

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