Blog Review: Bio Data Blogs

The blog reviewed here is ‘Bio Data Blogs‘ which is by the company BioData and focuses in particular on their research management software product BioKM. I thought this blog might be interesting to look at the blog contains various reference to web 2.0.

Appearance and Design

The blog features a grey-striped background with a central graded beige lined background for the articles. The title pane is not demarcated but features a number of social media subscription options. There is a rectangular graded brown pane beneath the title containing a search box.  The reader is able to navigate the blog using links on the right side of the central pane. The links are to recent posts as well as posts archived by month. There are also external blog links. The posts are dated, comment enabled with author details and tweet enabled with tweet counts. Posts are generously illustrated.

Content

The welcome post gives a background to the blog. I found a number of the insights in this post quite interesting – researchers apparently hanging onto 15 year old samples. There are a number of news round-ups which are quite useful including this one which looks at research on how the structure of mitochondria is attained or this one which looks at evolutionary research on guppies showing that they can adapt to their new environment in just 10 years. The blog also features interviews with scientists. There is also a link to the BioKM YouTube Channel which gives insights into the research software. There are also a number of posts of general scientific interest. This one for instance is a very impressive post linking to video sites that share research protocols – something that I’ve suggested after finding difficulty in understanding the methodologies of specific papers.  Following on from this is an interview with the founder of one such site here.  There’s a look at an article on how to organise a motivated research group here. A number of the posts feature links to interesting videos (including the above). This one for instance is a solution for the financing of research groups.

Conclusions

I found this to be an informative blog. While there is a focus on educating the reader about the company’s software product, there are a number of instructive articles of general scientific interest also.

Acknowledgements

Call for Authors: If you are interested in writing an article or series of articles for this blog please write to the e-mail address below. Copyright can be retained. Index: An index of the site can be found here. The page contains links to all of the articles in the blog in chronological order. Twitter: You can follow ‘The Amazing World of Psychiatry’ Twitter by clicking on this link. Podcast: You can listen to this post on Odiogo by clicking on this link (there may be a small delay between publishing of the blog article and the availability of the podcast). It is available for a limited period. TAWOP Channel: You can follow the TAWOP Channel on YouTube by clicking on this link. Responses: If you have any comments, you can leave them below or alternatively e-mail justinmarley17@yahoo.co.uk. Disclaimer: The comments made here represent the opinions of the author and do not represent the profession or any body/organisation. The comments made here are not meant as a source of medical advice and those seeking medical advice are advised to consult with their own doctor. The author is not responsible for the contents of any external sites that are linked to in this blog.