Interview: Google Plus a Ghost Town? Not If You Look at Communities

On 18 November 2014, I was interviewed by Simon Owens, for PBS MediaShift. The article, ‘Google Plus a Ghost Town? Not If You Look at Communities,’ explores the thriving communities on Google Plus. I discussed one of the communities I co-moderate with a team of a dozen scientists with PhDs in various fields, Science on Google+.

Google Plus was launched in June 2011, and Communities was launched in December 2012. Google Plus has 300 million monthly active users, however, it has faced persistent media critique. In February, the New York Times said Google Plus was a ‘ghost town,’ though reports find the Google Plus mobile app is one the most popular, with brands receiving twice as much engagement than on Twitter. Below is an excerpt of the article.

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‘Many of the largest communities are growing at a rapid pace, a growth rate that has only continued to pick up in the past year. Dr. Zuleyka Zevallos, a Melbourne, Australia sociologist who is one of the moderators for the Science community, told me that Science has grown from 300,000 to 400,000 members in just a few months. And it was obvious, after spending more than an hour perusing through the community, that its moderation team of “20 qualified scientists who have PhDs, peer reviewed publications and who work in universities or as researchers” take the responsibility of managing such a large following seriously.

‘Its subcategories are divided among several scientific disciplines, ranging from earth science to physics, and each category is fastidiously policed to weed out pseudoscience and off-topic posts.

‘“We address misinformation, and we remove spam and non-science posts (like sci-fi),” Zevallos said in an instant message chat. “Our moderators also keep a close eye on threads and contribute via actively writing to our members. This means [the moderators] will guide the discussion by correcting issues, asking questions, providing links to peer-reviewed research, and generally maintaining a high general standard.”

‘The moderators often promote the best of these discussions via a regular series called “Curator’s Choice.” In August, for instance, a community member posted a photo of a bowl of water that had curiously frozen in such a way that seemed to defy gravity. A user named Casey Webster, who describes himself on his Google Plus profile as a meteorologist and programmer, posted a detailed roundup of research that explained how water vapor gradients can cause ice to spike when it freezes quickly. In another Curator’s Choice post, a fifth grader asked about the layers of the earth’s crust, a question that a user named Jonathan Chung devoted 400 words and a half dozen cited sources answering. “The types of posts we get range from introduction to key science topics such as how computers work, to more complex topics such as on various cancer research,” said Zevallos.

Read more on PBS Media Shift.