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Earthzine 2011 Year-End Report Summary This report covers the calendar year of 2011, and summarizes Earthzine activities, including management, content, traffic and funding. It also offers thoughts on improvement and enhancement plans for 2012, based on discussions between Earthzine staffers and volunteers. Highlights include an 81 percent increase in traffic from 2010 to 2011, based on Google Analytics; new collaboration efforts including three NASA DEVELOP Virtual Poster Sessions; a tally of themed and original articles; and upgrades to site content. Table of Contents 1. Management 1.1 Article Scheduler 1.2 Newsletters 1.3 Cultivating Volunteers 1.4 Promotions 1.5 Meetings/Communication 2. Content 2.1 Themes 2.2 Original Articles 2.3 NASA DEVELOP 2.4 Facebook Comment System 2.5 Quick Looks 2.6 Syndication 2.7 Updates to Pages 3. Traffic 3.1 Comparison 3.2 Visitors Overview 3.3 Highest Traffic 4. Funding 5. Looking Ahead 5.1 Design 5.2 Tagging 5.3 SEO 5.4 Reviewer Guidelines 5.5 Strategic Planning.

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1. Management

The year began with the hiring of a new managing editor and science editor. The management

structure was reconfigured in June with the departure of the science editor. The managing

editor continued by implementing and improving editorial processes, cultivating new

volunteers, and subcontracting editing work.

1.1 Article Scheduler During 2011, the managing editor created and maintained a new Article Scheduler to track submissions, published articles and contacts. The scheduler is a spreadsheet maintained by the managing editor and is accessible online via Google Docs. The Article Scheduler is an important tool for tracking submissions from the query process through to the review, editing and final publication stages. 1.2 Newsletters Throughout the year, Earthzine continued to distribute its Full Moon Newsletter, which highlights recent content and new initiatives. Beginning in June, we added a New Moon Contributor Update with the objective to inform core stakeholders, volunteers and staff about Earthzine’s behind-the-scene activities. Lists on Campaign Monitor (Earthzine’s Newsletter management system) were consolidated to allow for improved management of Earthzine subscribers. During the latter part of the year, names and e-mail addresses of those who contacted Earthzine about submissions were added to the subscriber database. The following is a summary list of New Moon (NM) and Full Moon (FM) newsletters sent using the Campaign Monitor system during 2011. Note that early New Moon newsletters were sent outside the system during 2011 and were not tracked. Also note that our open rate was 22.75 percent and our click-through rate was 32 percent for tracked newsletters.

Campaign Name Sent Total

Recipients

Opens

Clicks

FM 19-Jan-11 1265 344 114

FM 18-Feb-11 1276 312 123

FM 19-Mar-11 1279 328 143

FM 17-Apr-11 1291 318 122

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FM 17-May-11 1300 321 120

FM 15-Jun-11 1300 302 111

FM 14-Jul-11 1309 323 125

FM 13-Aug-11 1326 317 107

FM 12-Sep-11 1572 314 114

Special Equinox Newsletter 23-Sep-11 1564 305 62

FM 11-Oct-11 1568 314 94

FM 10-Nov-11 1576 311 91

NM 24-Nov-11 33 6 0

FM 10-Dec-11 1608 329 115

NM 24-Dec-11 32 7 2

Average Open/Click rates 22.75% 32%

1.3 Cultivating Volunteers and Environmental Journalism We worked with a number of existing and new volunteers. These volunteers, working with the managing editor and others, helped populate the site with regular Quick Looks and Announcement features, essays, reports and other articles on various topics. (See further discussion of Quick Looks in Section 2.5). Earthzine also hosted an intern through a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center student program for a project that offered technical writing and environmental journalism experience. 1.4 Promotions In March, Earthzine transitioned to using Facebook for managing its comments. Facebook and Twitter were used as major promotion vehicles for the site, in addition to our regular newsletters for the Full Moon and New Moon. As of the end of December 2011, we had more than 700 Facebook followers, including more than a dozen discussions on Facebook that used “IEEE Earthzine” as a tag, indicating more sharing of our content. As of the end of December 2011, we had an additional 368 Twitter followers. A Google + page also was created as a placeholder, but not used extensively.

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The Facebook and Twitter social media accounts were managed by our managing editor. They were used to promote additions and updates to the site, and connect and interact with professionals, agencies, and groups in the Earth observation community. Common methods of tagging and referencing outside sites and organizations and sharing also were conducted via Facebook and Twitter. We have placed a special emphasis on promoting our content and luring in readers and contributors from outside the U.S. To that end, we ran a Facebook ad for our third annual essay and blogging contest on sustainability, targeting countries outside the U.S. A separate Promotions Tracker also was maintained by the managing editor during 2011 to build a database of contacts for our third annual essay and blogging contest, on sustainability. This resulted in posts and sharing of the contest details by organizations including the United Nations Develop Programme, Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association, NASA Earth Science E/PO Weekly News, and Earth & Space Science Education News. Earthzine continued to maintain and develop contact with groups and organizations in the Earth observation community to circulate information about the essay contest, the DEVELOP sessions and other Earthzine projects. 1.5 Meetings/Communication Staffers from Earthzine held meetings throughout the year, usually on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, via Skype. This allowed for planning, reviewing of site updates, discussion of projects and updates to the site, and brainstorming. Much communication was conducted via email. Minutes of official meetings were maintained by the managing editor, with action and agenda items for each meeting. The meeting minutes were posted at a password-protected part of the website, to allow staffers and others with access to keep track of ongoing and completed projects and initiatives. 2. Content 2.1 Themes As is our practice, we published four quarterly themes during 2011, working with Guest Editors identified for specific topic areas. Below is information on each theme, including the number of articles that were published. Disaster Management (Dec. 21, 2010-March 20, 2011): 19 articles Guest Editor Associate Editor for Disasters: Biswajeet Pradhan

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1. Mechanical Model for Nigerian Intraplate Earth Tremors 2. Geological Hazards and Monitoring at the Azores (Portugal) 3. NASA Imagery Aids Japanese Response to Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Events 4. Limit Equilibrium Analysis and Real-Time Monitoring as Support for Landslide Risk

Mitigation: The San Rocco Case Study at San Benedetto Ullano (Calabria) 5. Analyzing the Resilience of Mediterranean Forest Systems to Wildfire Using Satellite

Imagery 6. Remote Sensing Based Post-Disaster Damage Mapping – Ready for a Collaborative

Approach? 7. GEO Monitors, Analyzes, and Distributes Data on the Japan Disaster 8. Post Disaster Management, Poverty and Food 9. Volcanic Crisis Management and Mitigation Strategies: A Multi-Risk Framework Case

Study 10. Is ‘Flood Risk Management’ Identical to ‘Flood Disaster Management’? 11. Haiti Earthquake: Harmonizing post-event distributed data processing 12. Optimizing Tsunami Evacuation Plans Through the Use of Damage Scenarios

UN-SPIDER: Supporting Disaster Management from Space 13. Drought Assessment in Tel Watershed: An Integrated Approach Using Run Analysis and

SPI 14. Earth Observation Based Assessment of Area Changes Related to Hurricane Events – The

Dauphin Island DEVELOP Case Study 15. Satellite-Based Crisis Information and Risk Assessment: Contributions Following the

Earthquake in W. Sumatra and the Mentawai Tsunami 16. Disaster Preparedness in the Water Sector of Developing Countries 17. North Carolina Coastal Management: Satellite Monitoring of Coastal Wetland and

Shoreline Changes in Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds, North Carolina 18. Gulf of Mexico Air Quality: CALIPSO Decision Support for Gulf of Mexico Air 19. Quality Relating to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

Extreme Weather - (March 21-June 21, 2011): 12

Guest Editor: Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd

1. Code Grey: Protecting Hospitals from Severe Weather 2. Seasonal Predictability of Tornadic Activity Using Antecedent Soil Moisture Conditions 3. Death From a Clear Blue Sky: Extreme Non-Convective High Winds 4. Did the Russian heat wave trigger the Pakistan heavy rain in 2010? 5. NASA’s Hurricane Webpage: A Resource for Worldwide Tropical Cyclones 6. Storm Chasing, Chaos and Climate 7. Floods and Droughts in a Changing Climate – Now and the Future 8. Effects of Extreme Weather Events in Pakistan and Their Impacts on Sustainable

Development

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9. Average Recurrence Interval of Extreme Rainfall in Real-time 10. Advancing Extreme Weather Monitoring from Space: From TRMM to GPM 11. Changing the Media Discussion on Climate and Extreme Weather 12. Will a Warmer World Be Stormier?

Urban Monitoring - (June 21-Sept. 22, 2011): 14

Guest Editor: Paolo Gamba

1. Addressing Environmental Sustainability Locally

2. The GeoSat Project: Using Remote Sensing to Keep Pace with Urban Dynamics

3. Nigeria’s New Satellite to Monitor Disasters, Urban Development

4. Understanding the Drivers and Consequences of Global Urbanization using Emerging

Remote Sensing Technologies

5. Satellite Monitoring of Urbanization in China for Sustainable Development: The Dragon

‘Urbanization’ Project

6. Satellite Observation of Urban Metabolism

7. Sorting Out India’s Soot Situation: A Conversation with Jayaraman Srinivasan

8. Can Cities Create Their Own Snowfall? What Observations are required to find out?

9. DISCOVER-AQ Mission Improves Air Quality Monitoring 10. Population Estimates in Informal Settlements Using Object-Based Image Analysis and 3D

Modeling 11. Remote Sensing – An Effective Data Source for Urban Monitoring 12. 2011 Joint Urban Remote Sensing Event (2011 JURSE) 13. Temporal Characteristics of Thermal Satellite Sensors for Urban Heat Island Analysis 14. Very High Spatial Resolution Imagery for Urban Applications

Water Availability (Sept. 23-Dec. 21, 2011): 13*

(*includes final theme articles posted in early 2012)

Guest Editor: Annett Bartsch

1. Freshwater resources management: Starting SMART characterization of New Zealand’s aquifers

2. Water Management Strategies against Water Scarcity in the Alps: The Project Alp-Water-Scarce

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3. GLOWASIS – The Global Water Scarcity Information Service 4. Use of Remote Sensing for Groundwater Mapping in Haiti 5. Using the Landsat Archive for the Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Wetlands:

Examples from the GlobWetland-II Project 6. GrapeLook: Improving Agricultural Water Management using Satellite Earth Observation 7. The Water Question in Lake Chad Basin: Lessons from the Drought in Somalia 8. Groundwater Storage Estimates in the Central Valley Aquifer Using GRACE Data 9. Water Availability in Reference to Water Needs in Poland: The Importance of Correct

Estimation of Water Resources 10. Remote Sensing of Alkaline-Saline Lakes: Applications to Flamingo Conservation 11. Micro-level Drought Vulnerability Assessment in Peddavagu basin, a Tributary of Krishna

River, Andhra Pradesh, India 12. Application of Hydrological Models to Assess the Reliability of Water Resources 13. SHARE: Soil Moisture for Hydrometeorological Applications

2.2 Original Articles

The following is a tally of Original articles, by topic, for 2011. These include articles from the

quarterly themes. Some posts are associated with more than one topic.

Posts 183

Agriculture 2

Biodiversity 3

Climate 14

Climate Consensus 1

DEVELOP 45

Disaster Mgmt 19

Disasters 9

Earth Observation 98

Oceans 1

Earthly Update 16

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Economy 1

Ecosystems 11

Energy 2

Essay Contest 0

Extreme Weather 14

Health 4

Politics 1

Education 4

GEOSS/ICEO 11

People 0

Quick Look 15

Sustainability 8

Video Blog 6

Technology 16

Urban Monitoring 16

Water 5

Water Availability 11

Weather 9

Would You Believe? 1

Announcements 17

Featured Person 4

OpEd

3

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TOTAL 183

2.3 NASA DEVELOP

Earthzine developed a significant collaboration with the NASA DEVELOP program through which

we showcased three Virtual Poster Sessions from students during the spring (April), summer

and fall 2011 terms.

During the second and third of these sessions, the process was refined, and a competition

element added to the sessions. During these last two sessions, panels of judges were convened

by Earthzine and NASA staffers, to judge each team project based on a rubric that included the

best overall discussion via questions and comments at the end of each article. Questions and

comments were posted using the Facebook system. Certificates were printed and given to the

top three teams during each session. Earthzine awarded cash prizes to the best overall project

team in the summer and fall sessions.

2.4 Facebook Comment System

The Facebook question and comment system brought hundreds of new readers to Earthzine

during the year, and increased regular followers on our social media platforms. Buttons for

sharing via Facebook and Twitter and “liking” an article on Facebook now appear with all article

entries on the site. The Facebook comment system ensures more legitimate and less

anonymous comments. A noteworthy drawback is that a Facebook account is required to post a

comment.

2.5 Quick Looks

We also experimented with new content in 2011, including an “Earthly Updates” feature and a

video blog, neither of which performed particularly well in terms of traffic or reader

engagement.

Quick Looks, another feature, did do well, comparatively. Quick Looks can be described as

short, news-type blog posts that highlight a timely subject, providing summary information that

is more accessible to the general public than more technical theme articles. Quick Looks also

link to further resources and information.

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2.6 Syndication

Our syndication and content manager continued to post headlines and summaries of articles

from other sites related to Earthzine’s mission. As part of the process of selecting stories for

syndication, we also identified new contributors and topics for Quick Looks, Announcements,

and Theme submissions.

Syndication allows us to update the site daily with information published from around the

world that is of interest to Earthzine’s readers.

2.7 Updates to Pages

The site underwent several upgrades in 2011 including: A new About page, a new Themes page,

a new GEO/GEOSS page, updated Writer Guidelines and biographical information on our staff,

Associate Editors, and Regional Coordinators.

3. Traffic

3.1 Comparison

We use Google Analytics to track visits to our site. An analysis of visits shows a spike during the

DEVELOP sessions. We have been able to maintain increased viewership following those

sessions as well. Our daily visits averaged between 300-600 at the end of 2011.

For the year 2011, 82,690 people visited our site. That’s compared to 45,637 unique visits

during 2010 (an 81 percent increase!).

For 2011, we saw almost 174,000 page views (compared to 95,050 for 2010), and an average

time spent on the site of 1 minute, 27 seconds (the same as in 2010), which indicates visitors

are spending time reading full articles in many cases.

About 77 percent of our 2011 visits were “new visits” as defined by Google Analytics (almost

the same as 76.3 percent for 2010). See the graphic below for more information.

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3.2 Visitors Overview

The following table shows a Visitors Overview by country for 2011. The No. 10 spot indicates

that Analytics could not identify the country of those visitors.

3.3 Highest Traffic

During 2011, the highest days for visits were: April 22, with 626 visitors; Aug. 10, with 1,128

visitors; and Nov. 10, with 1,836 visitors. These dates coincide with the

beginning/announcement of each one of our DEVELOP poster sessions.

4. Funding

Earthzine received funding during 2011 from NASA, EuroGEOSS, EGIDA, South Africa DST, and

contributing authors from Japan. (A summary of revenue and expenditures will be added to this

report upon receipt from IEEE.)

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5. Looking Ahead

5.1 Design

For 2012, it is worth exploring updates to our site and process to greater emphasize that

Earthzine is a professional publication with established standards and practices.

We have discussed and should pursue in 2012 a design upgrade to the site, based in part on

consolidating the many entry links we maintain on the landing page and the number of section

pages (68 as of year’s end) that we are required to maintain on the site.

For instance, from Oct. 1 through Dec. 16, most of our many entry links at the top of our

landing page were not accessed via the landing site:

5.2 Tagging

While compiling this report, it was noted that tagging is a problem on the site. We seem to use

too many tags and should update and condense our list and work from that list when tagging

stories. The tags should be researched as part of keywords that are bringing people to the site

via search engine traffic, and established keywords via Google.

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5.3 SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

We have placed an emphasis on Search Engine Optimization, by using keywords in stories and

tagging stories via the Wordpress interface. We also have been using the SEO fields available in

the Wordpress interface, and linking to pertinent organizations, groups and information in our

articles, including internal links to previous Earthzine stories and sections.

We need to continue to improve methods for optimization.

5.4 Reviewer Guidelines

We need to craft and establish official reviewer guidelines both for the use of editors and

reviewers and for consistency in reviewing. It should be noted that we are not an official peer-

reviewed publication, but that we do maintain a level of professionalism and scrutiny when it

comes to the papers we publish.

5.5 Strategic Planning

We need to update our strategic plan for the long and short term, with an emphasis on the

items mentioned above, and a process for expanding our successful DEVELOP sessions to other

organizations and countries. Our current long-term plan expired in 2011.