There are still a lot of skeptics and naysayers in the scientific community on the use of social media such as blogs and Twitter, according to Kea Giles, Managing Editor for Communications at Geological Society of America. She's posted an extensive commentary on "Social media for science: The geologic perspective" on Scientific American online. She traces social media back to the origin of the internet, describes current geoscience activities (including a brief mention of this blog) and concludes that "Engagement in social media provides your scientific society with the opportunity to be a thought leader." [photo from Kea's blog, Dragonfly Wars]