How do they communicate?

March 16th, 2008

I was able to find a few online resources for people to learn about and discuss issues in animal behavior, biology and conservation, but no real comprehensive sites with news and discussion. There does not seem to be a well known site devoted to a community of people specifically interested in my blog topic.

One website for sharing news is Animal Behavior.org. They provide a page for readers to post interesting news that they have found, but do not host commenting or discussion boards.
Biology Online provides a forum for people to post questions and discuss topics on message boards. Subjects include zoology, evolution and Darwinism and ecology. The site allows visitors to submit their articles, tutorials, essays, reports or any other biology related work and says they will publish it online in the appropriate section.
Applied Ethology offers readers the opportunity to sign up for a discussion list, which is an e-mail forum discussing applied ethology topics.
Calling All Pets is a radio show hosted by Zoologist, Patricia McConnell, who offers advice about pet problems, big and small, and fascinating information about wildlife. Listeners can submit questions or call in with questions to the program. The web site allows readers to share tips.
BioEd Online offered by Baylor College of Medicine is a source for news and discussion about broad topics in biology, occasionally featuring content specific to animals. It is described by another website as:

“Catering to instructors of beginning biological science courses, the Baylor College of Medicine’s popular BioEd Online collection is an oasis in a desert of need. With media offerings that include video, audio, and slide presentations and topics covering diverse topics in modern biological science, BioEd Online has the content necessary to provide up-to-date instruction in modern biology classes.”

I plan to do similiar things with version 2.0 of behaviorandbiology.com, although I do not intend to cater only to instructors.

One reader said of my site, that he liked the ability to comment on the articles, and suggested that I create a section with the most read or discussed posts.

It is my sense that a majority of professionals communicate on more specialized topics through conferences and meetings like the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting or the one time Mind of the Chimpanzee conference that was sponsored by the Lincoln Park Zoo. I think this is indicative of their interest in sophisticated research and hearing from experts, so I will emphasise that type of content in my site, while writing in a voice that people without previous knowledge of the subject will understand.