The Buzz of Bora – The community shows its benevolence

Click the button below to donate to The “I Owe Bora” Benevolence Fund.

Details are at the end of this post. If you have any questions, Gmail me to abelpharmboy.

With all of the ScienceBlogs bashing that has come out the the Pepsigate/SbFAIL episode and subsequent blogger diaspora (renamed “The DiasBora” by Ed Yong at Discover’s Not Exactly Rocket Science), I have to say that it has been an honorable gesture for the network to feature the departure of Bora Zivkovic on the frontpage “buzz” for two consecutive days.

Bora’s manifesto on the history and future of science blogging, networks, and the legacy media is truly a classic piece. View it here at his relocated blog and be sure to bookmark him while you are there. Although it may already be considered “published,” I would strongly recommend that he consider sending it to a scholarly journal. Of course, he may think that it already has a wider audience now than it could in a staid, old format – hey Bora, how ’bout one of them newfangled open access journals?

Nevertheless, all of the associated posts on that frontpage and elsewhere acknowledge the far-reaching influence of Bora in cultivating community, online and in real-life, pay tribute to someone that we all hold dear, literally, world-wide.

I wrote in a tweet a couple of days ago that Bora’s example holds a great lesson for my friends who make a living in personal branding and marketing. Bora is a connector who cares more about other people than, I think, himself. Bora also doesn’t care who gets credit for innovations in communication, only that the innovations happen and benefit us all. For that, he is widely loved and respected, even when people disagree with his arguments. As his wife Catharine noted elsewhere, we just need to find a way to get him a working wage for the  his invaluable skills.

If you aren’t on Twitter or hadn’t realized it, Ed Yong suggested that all of us having tributes to Bora post our tweets with the #IOweBora hashtag. You can read the growing thread here.

Although Bora is culturally Jewish but a practicing atheist, I can’t help but remembering a church response from my days learning calculus from Sister Agnes Mary in the Jersey Meadowlands:

It is right to give him thanks and praise.

But let’s take “I Owe Bora” to a new and literal level. Lots of you know that he has been in a bit of financial difficulty and I know that he’s too proud to ask for help. In standing for his principles, he’s giving up over $100/month from ScienceBlogs and the network is still two months behind on their payments. Several people have asked me how they might help out The Blogfather.

So, I’d like to put up a PayPal donation button for all of us to show our appreciation to Bora and put our money where our mouths are (and tweets and posts are). This is an authentic request and you can hold me trustworthy – I live 10 mi/16 km from Bora and this is the same PayPal account I used to accept banquet payments for the ScienceOnline2010 meeting. When you donate, you will get a confirmatory e-mail from my personal, real-name account. Bora knows where I live so he will hunt me down if I do not hand over every penny to him, minus whatever PayPal charges are incurred based on how you pay.

Click the button below to donate to The “I Owe Bora” Benevolence Fund.

You can use credit, debit, or your own PayPal account.

As an incentive I will keep a donor acknowledgment roll on a separate page and will link to your blog, Twitter account, professional site, business site – whatever – just send me the URL in an e-mail or if the comment box is big enough. However, I won’t list the amounts because the point is to thank Bora within the confines of your own financial means. If you don’t wish for your name or blog to appear, let me know in the comment box on the donation page. Of course, these contributions are not tax-deductible but you will have the satisfaction of knowing you have helped out the man who has helped all of us.