Happy birthday to our blog: One year of “Ideas4Sustainability”

By Joern Fischer

Time flies when you’re having fun: it’s been one year since I published the first post in this blog.

A good time to reflect on how it’s been going. First, my own perspective. I’ve found it a useful way of communicating ideas to a much broader audience than I would normally reach through scientific papers. Also, some half-baked ideas, which are still interesting, could be communicated well via the blog. And finally, the blog enabled us to rapidly respond to some current events or debates in the literature — much faster and more effectively than if we had done so only through the literature itself. Over the year, I was  contacted by several people because of the blog, because they had read something in here that they found interesting. In fact, some new collaborations have started from this, and some contacts have been made that are relevant to engaging with policy, too. I conclude that blogs are an effective means of exchange within science, and beyond science. Very much not a waste of time, but an effective activity to stimulate discussion and communication.

Where are our site visits from? From February this year, wordpress has included a function that shows where the hits are from. Here’s the list of the most frequently visiting nations to this blog:

Country
United States	(I guess lots of people living there, though our contacts are not so many)
Germany	(my immediate environment)
Romania	(Tibi’s environment! And our study area)
Australia	(my old home!)
United Kingdom
Canada
Poland
India
Philippines
Netherlands
Belgium
Sweden
+ a bunch of others …

And here’s a short overview of some posts that were popular with some people:

Title
Ten suggestions for increasing performance of research groups in the field of ecology in Romania
Political decisions and sustainability (Why on Earth would you want this?)
From government to governance and onward to adaptive governance
The 2010 journal impact factors are out: should we care? Responsible reporting and responsible conduct with the media Is diversity good or bad?
EU Common Agricultural Policy: Handy CAP or handicap for Romania? Conservation policy in traditional farming landscapes
Ancient wood-pastures from Southern Transylvania
Joining forces to close the sustainability gap
Umbrella species: a waterproof concept for conservation?
Evidence based conservation: an always actual issue?
“Buzzword concepts” and their pitfalls
A cultivated planet: closing yield gaps
Why we need a new culture of Science
Why we do need more complex analyses in ecological research – a response to “Complicated analyses for trivial problems?”
Begging, Crime and Prostitution
How to be of use
Peak publications? (Part 1)
Broadening your beam of compassion – reflections on ideas by Michael Soulé
How to get your p-value right
Knowledge or wisdom?

Thanks for visiting our blog — I hope you will continue to find interesting things in here to read!