"Flaky" PharmaCentral Launched!

Far from "flaky" is Steve Woodruff's new PharmaCentral PageFlake index to the Pharma Blogosphere. Here's what he has to say:

The concept is built on what John Mack has done by creating the pharma blogosphere site, who gets credit for pulling a bunch of links together, and promoting the whole idea of pharma blogging as something of a "collective effort."

What I've done is to try to make it easier to visualize and access the blogs, with a further attempt to categorize them by emphasis.

Check it out at: http://www.pageflakes.com/pharmacentral/

Today is the first day it is publicly accessible. I would very much like to have your feedback on a couple of things in particular:

• whether you feel your blog is properly classified in the tabbed categories (note: each blog will be assigned to only one category)
• whether you think the categories need to be altered to any extent to improve the classification
• whether you feel, over time, that other blogs should be included (note: I plan to include those that have a track record of at least 3 months of solid content, and that focus pretty specifically on pharma/biotech)

[Peter Rost - your blog does not have a publicly accessible "feed", so I did not include Question Authority. But your newsworthy posts get so much attention at the other blogs that you seem omnipresent anyway!]

I made this portal because, while it is very valuable to go to each individual site, it's time-consuming and inconvenient. Feed readers are great (I use Google's), but the interface isn't ideal. PageFlakes enables a more compelling visualization and ease of access. Readers can come to one site and jump off to articles of interest from there.

By having an umbrella site like this, I hope we can all gain additional exposure, and help a growing number of other folks to keep up on the latest commentary.

Let me know your thoughts!

I really like the "flakes." If my experience is any guide, I'd say this is a work in progress -- maybe the classification needs some work. It's really difficult to classify blogs in the Pharma Blogosphere and I'm sure Steve will get some criticism. After all, you can please some bloggers some of the time, and all bloggers some of the time, but you can you can't please all bloggers all the time!

Pharma Blogosphere Genesis

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."



But to understand it all, humans undertook to characterize the heavens. Dante, in his Divine Comedy, describes the Nine Spheres of Heaven, which you can read about here.

The important thing is that Dante believed that "All parts of heaven are accessible to the heavenly soul. That is to say all experience God but there is a hierarchy in the sense that some souls are more spiritually developed than others."

And so it is with The Pharma Blogosphere.

I'm no Dante (nor Judge Dredd as I am portrayed by Pharma Giles; see "I Am The Law..."), but I also find it necessary to divide The Pharma Blogosphere into categories. As more and more blogs enter our Sphere, it is helpful to break up the list so that readers can focus their telescopes on the nearest neighbors.

Here's my schema, which is in flux:

The Inner Sphere
Some blogs in our heaven have been here a long time, are leaders, and are very developed. I put these in the "Inner Sphere." Aside from my personal view that these blogs deserve more attention, I also notice that they are 100% focused on pharmaceutical issues, are updated very often, and have scored highest in a reader survey. Readers may wish to visit these blogs more often.

The Outer Sphere
Others blogs in our heaven are new and not yet fully developed or are like comets -- very brilliant, but they only occasionally focus on pharmaceutical issues. I put these in the "Outer Sphere," meaning they have less influence on readers seeking a pure pharmaceutical experience. Readers may wish to visit these less often than blogs in the Inner Sphere.

All blogs in The Pharma Blogosphere are on some level always in contact with pharma heaven and are available to the soul seeking greater pharma knowledge.

I am sorry if my schema has hurt people like CL Psych who lamented: "Sheesh, I wonder what I gotta do to pick up a little respect over at John Mack's Pharma Blogsophere. It ain't enough that this site apparently ranked highly on Mack's own survey -- I'm still only getting second-tier billing over at his site. Where's the love, John?"

To which I responded: "You are like a comet: a wonderful sight to behold and much anticipated, but you only visit our sphere periodically." May I also add that CL Pysch was indeed a highly regarded site by survey respondents. I just don't know if it's focus is more medically oriented than pharma oriented. But, on further review, I think CL Pysch belongs in the Inner Sphere.

If any one else has a problem, let me say this: "I am the law! Put down your weapons and prepare to be judged."