Blogging to disseminate research: sharing results with communities and partners

Abstract

While blogging has become a popular social tool, less work has focused on how blogging can be used as a tool for researchers to disseminate research findings to the public. In this experience report, we share how we created a research blog to disseminate information about a multi-year research project to develop a social robot that will be used in educational settings. The report begins with our goals in creating a research blog, including the desire to keep community partners and the broader audience for our research project engaged and informed. We describe our approach to developing and maintaining a research blog and related social media accounts and discuss its impact. We reflect on the process of using a blog to share research findings with the public. We conclude by providing a list of best practices for other teams considering using a blog to share emerging results.