blogging for impact
DESCRIPTION
WLE’s blog, the Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog, has grown into a platform for discussion and networking among development professionals, academics and researchers on how we can feed a growing population without wrecking the planet. We encourage participation from our partners and organizations. Share your opinions, use the blog to spark debates and discussions, get your ideas and stories out to a wider audience! Learn more about how blogs can be used to maximize impact and how to write a great blog post.TRANSCRIPT
Blogging for Impact:Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog
Why Blog?“A new paradigm of research communications has grown up – one that de-emphasizes the traditional journals route, and re-prioritizes faster, real-time academic communication in which blogs play a critical intermediate role.
They link to research reports and articles on the one hand, and they are linked to from Twitter, Facebook and Google+ news-streams and communities.
So in research terms blogging is quite simply, one of the most important things that an academic should be doing right now”
-London School of Economics Blog
Water Land and Ecosystem Vision:A world in which agriculture thrives within vibrant ecosystems, where communities have higher incomes, improved food security and the ability to continuously improve their lives
• Screen shot of WLE Blog
Blogs create a dialogue
AgEco Blog
• Discussion
• Knowledge sharing
• Partnership
engagement
Blog post on publication: “Scalar Disconnect” Paper Downloads
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Before Blog
680
After Blog
Why blog?
TestimonialsFrom Bloggers
3,479 people from 67 countries have visited my blog. The AgEco blog has brought in a lot of new voices that you would not have had in IWMI if you were just talking to yourself. The blog by Stephen Carr has had more than 800 views in just one week!
– Aditi Mukherji, ICIMOD
“If I put my research on the Agriculture and Ecosystems blog, I am contacted more often by people interested in my research”- IWMI India
From a commenter:
If I were not a professor here at ISU I would come and work for you - I just read the Ag and Ecosystems Blog you posted and went on to send it to students in my class on Resources of Developing Countries.
Creating a Community
WLE Partners
Local NGOs & research orgs
Universities
Ministries
Journalist/Media
Who: Writing workshops
Field visits
Blog Themed Months
Thru:
Theme Months• Past:
– Ecosystem Services– Landscapes
• This year:– Resilience (May)– Family Farming (June)– Rural/Urban Myths (Sept)– RRR (Oct)
• Suggest a theme!
Types of Blog Posts
• Opinion pieces
• Critical reflections/analysis from events/fieldwork
• Reviews of recently published journal articles or books
How to write a good blog post
• 3 Main Points
• Introductory Paragraph
• Short sentences/paragraphs
• Evidence
• Limit scientific jargon
See our guidelines and tips online
Exercise: Intro Paragraph
• Saturday March 22nd is World Water Day on Water and Energy
• Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam– 30% built– Huge potential environmental/social impact– Generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity– Majority of Ethiopians have no access to
electricity
Discussion
• When you visit a blog, what information are you looking for?
• How do you cope in areas with poor internet connectivity?
• What do you think about creating a section of our blog on Africa?
Contact Us
• Abby Waldorf, Agriculture and Ecosystems Blog Coordinator: [email protected]