I conducted a brief and extraordinarily non-scientific experiment this afternoon by sending out a quick demographic poll via Twitter. The results were, perhaps, predictable, but nevertheless interesting.
The most interesting piece of data is probably the gender gap, with nearly 3/4 of followers being male.
Secondly, I find the lack of 65+ followers to be a bit disturbing, although given that the poll was sent out via Twitter, maybe I shouldn't be surprised.
A couple more things to note: the sample size is very small, so this data may be meaningless; security is low, and does not prevent multiple votes (please don't purposely skew the data); anonymity was unclear on the original poll (I can assure you that it is 100% anonymous, the only data recorded are the two questions); there is no prequalifiers, so anybody (space geek or not) could vote.
Interestingly, nearly three times as many people clicked through to the poll than completed it.
The graphic above was captured after the poll had been open only two hours. It is still live, and you can feel free to fill it out below. I'll update later with the new data.
Yesterday, Mike admirably made a pledge to blog once per day here on the Launch Pad. I hope that you all will keep him to that pledge, and maybe even help him out a little bit. Speaking as a sometimes blogger, I'll let you know that we really appreciate it when you chime in with comments, or when you pass along links to the blog or the post via Twitter, email, Facebook, or anything else. It really helps provide some extra psychological energy to make that next post. Also, suggestions and requests about what you'd like to read are really helpful!
I won't even claim to be able to match Mike's blogging prowess, but I'm going to do my part to make sure I chip in and add to the dialog as best I can.
Today, I noticed that Eliot Spitzer--yes, that Eliot Spitzer--has some interesting comments in his new blog over at Slate. The key graf from a piece about needing key investment in the USA's future:
In education—just as much a part of our infrastructure as bridges and roads—here is a small investment that is one of my favorites: Provide funding for robotics teams at every school. If you ever want to see intellectual competition in the arena that matters today—technological wizardry—visit the robotics competitions that now exist in some schools. Make these competitions as universal as football. Make it cool to design the next cutting-edge video game or iPod.
That paragraph seems to be the one getting the most mileage in terms of follow-on commentary and linkage from other blogs of note, and I couldn't be more thrilled. After all, it's a great idea, I think.
I'm big on robotics competitions, for obvious reasons--after all, I'm running what is perhaps the biggest robotics competition of all time. I'm also a big fan of other competitions like BotBall (which we helped sponsor last year) and FIRST (for which we helped inspire this year's theme). I think they have a wonderful impact on students and, as such, are a superb investment in our future.
One naysayer disagrees:
"Technological wizardry" is well and good, but at many schools, kids would just like some new books, functioning heating and air conditioning systems, and qualified teachers. A stimulus plan should address our needs before it tackles our fantasies. Not that I'd really expect Eliot Spitzer to keep his fantasies in perspective...
I can't really take issue with the cheapshot at the end--hard to resist when discussing Spitzer--but I do take issue with the sentiment. Now, I'm all in favor of new books and functioning climate control for our students, but let's not set up straw men here. Even in these tight economic times, it is not accurate to portray those as the only two choices--fund basic short term educational needs versus fund longer term educational investments!
Click for HD version on YouTube
Jeff Hoffman - Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT, 5 time shuttle astronaut, and member of Google Lunar X PRIZE team Next Giant Leap - speaks about how Next Giant Leap is getting students involved in the nuts and bolts of space exploration.
As Will pointed out a while back, there are many schools involved directly with several Google Lunar X PRIZE teams. After our announcements in December we can add MIT to that list. And I'm just going to let my personal biases be for now :)
Hello all. As you've probably noticed, The Launch Pad has been extremely quiet recently.... we were on vacation! But the X PRIZE crew has returned, and I've made a resolution: minimum of one post per weekday to The Launch Pad all of 2009.
Recently I've been guilty of not following my own advice: the quality of content is important, but quantity can be equally important. How do I know? A little birdie told me.
Just for fun, let's take a quick look back on the inaugural year of The Launch Pad, by the numbers. Here are the most read posts based on number of pageviews from Jan 1 - Dec 31:
- NOAA Regulations (Slashdotted on July 26, 2008)
- White Knight 2 Rollout - LIVE POST [yep, I mistitled WhiteKnightTwo]
- Who Owns The Moon? (also see the various Luna Philosophie stuff on this topic)
- Fun with Paper (also see the followup)
- High above the Earth...
- 2009 Lunar Lander Challenge
- Falcon 1 Launch Video (of unsuccessful flight 3)
- WhiteKnightTwo Makes its Maiden Flight
- Top Ten Space People and Organizations to Follow on Twitter
- How Far Away is Outer Space?
This list points out a couple of very important features about our blogging habits here. First, it shows that there are some gaping holes in our reporting (why post a video of Falcon 1 flight 3, but not the successful flight 4?). Second, it shows that the audience has an insatiable desire for both news and educational content (Fun with Paper, How Far Away is Outer Space?). And finally, it shows that our audience is much savvier than one might expect, particularly when it comes to online media (note the popularity of video content, Twitter, and the rich comment discussions on many of these posts).
So with that, I have officially met my quota for today, but don't expect me to stick to the bare minimum. There is so much in store for 2009, how could I possibly limit myself to one post per day? ;)
