First Anniversary of Prodigy Blog

A year ago, today, on September 19th 2006, I made my first posting on The Boy Who Knew Too Much: A Child Prodigy.

I had chosen a simple self-explanatory title for the blog - and the same for the domain http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com.html/

I began knowing nothing of the medium but came, in time, to appreciate its flexibility and the facility it gives anyone, with something to say, the means to communicate it to others. The Blog is changing the way people relate to others all over the world. It has dissolved the barrier that separated the common man, from playing any role in the media. Blogs are a new media that are truly accessible to all who are likely to be able to use them ie. those who can write, think or comment on the work of others, if they are not able to create their own.


It is difficult to believe that it is a year since I began - but that is what the date on the first posting says, so a year it is.

Since then I have posted 523 times, my blog has been visited by 33,095 visitors, reading 105,687 pages (which can include a whole week's postings per page), as of 8.45 pm on the first anniversary of first posting.

My peak readers hit over 3,000 in one frenzied day - when the story of Ainan hit the world's newspapers - and after the first few months in which I began to build both an audience and posts, visitorship has rarely dropped beneath a hundred readers in a day.

I have regular readers from various parts of the world, particularly in countries where English is a first language, like the USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Singapore and the UK. I also have what I call "deep readers". These are people who chance upon my blog and then spend several hours reading it. Typically these readers spend two or three hours doing so - but some are much longer - up to over five or six hours at one reading, if memory serves me right. This is, to me, an indication that I am writing in a way which a certain kind of reader, at least, finds rewarding - otherwise why would they spend a large chunk of their day reading?

I have noticed that there are cycles in readership with some periods attracting more than others. It is clear, too, that I have had readers from everywhere on Earth - even, believe it or not, in parts of Africa, where one would expect few internet connections.

Even the people of small islands in the middle of nowhere have popped in to look around.

I haven't counted the number of comments on the postings exactly but it must be well into four figures, when all are added up. Most comments have been kindly, supportive, interesting, or informative. A few comments didn't make it to posting since they appeared to have been written by people with "issues" over giftedness (mainly spiteful, sometimes mad). All in all, though, if a typical reader is represented by the typical comment, then the typical reader is well-informed, thoughtful and not infrequently insightful. It has been a pleasure to relate to you all, through this medium, this past year.

I have surprised myself by how much and how often I have written. I did not know what I would say before I began...just that it would be good to say some of the things I think about. I hope it has been of some use and interest to you all.

I am pleased at the readership that I have garnered, to date, for there are over 70 million blogs in this world and it is difficult to see how they can all get readers when the number of people connected to the internet is, as I read some while back, only about 10 times that number. That indicates a ratio of ten possible readers for every blog, if they are spread out evenly. So, set against that kind of statistic, I have quite a healthy readership. Yet, it would be good if, in the year ahead, the readership could expand. Thus, I have a suggestion. If you like any of the articles here, or appreciate the blog in general, then why not link your site (if you have one) to mine, or the posting in question. Then others could get a chance to enjoy it too.

Looking ahead to the second year of my blog, I have, at the beginning of that time, the intention of continuing to blog regularly. I will continue to cover giftedness in all its manifestations and child prodigy in particular. I may choose to expand into other areas - but at the core will be the issue of human excellence and giftedness of all shapes and sizes. It is a subject I know well, and is one I feel important enough to give some time to, regularly. The gifted are a minority - and like all minorities they need people willing to speak up and speak out, lest people forget that they have needs, too. Perhaps, to some degree, my blog helps to that end.

So, if you have enjoyed any of my postings, why not spread the word - and see if, at the end of my second year of blogging, my total readership can exceed the 100,000 mark. I just have to do twice as well in my second year as in my first. That is my goal. I would appreciate your help in achieving it. Thanks all. Happy reading.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and nine months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and two months, and Tiarnan, nineteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)