This post is the latest installment in a (very) occasional series in which we talk to academic bloggers about blogging. Our guest is John Sides, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University. Sides, along with his colleagues David Park and Lee Sigelman, recently created the Monkey Cage, an eclectic blog where you can read about such varied topics as whether voting by mail increases participation and the genius of Jens Lekman. 

Why do you blog?I started blogging to promote political-science research and a political-science perspective on current events -- both of which are underrepresented in the blogosphere. David Park and I had also discussed our occasional frustration with media coverage of politics and how we wished we could draw journalists' attention to political-science findings. And I thought that blogging would help me think. My dissertation adviser once told me that "writing is thinking." I hope that blogging is a way to develop my thoughts, no matter how half-baked they are.

How much time do you spend blogging each day?My wife has been asking me this question. Our blog has just started, so it's a little early to say. Ideally, I would like to spend no more than 30-45 minutes per day, but in reality it takes longer, especially when the blog is first starting and you're still tweaking the design, publicizing the blog, and trying to find your voice. One of the best things about having a group blog such as ours is that with three of us contributing, it's easier to generate interesting content on a regular basis.

Do you have a favorite post (of your own)?It's early for me to nominate favorite posts, but one that I like is this. I note that a concept that Umberto Eco recently invented essentially recapitulates a political-science concept that is at least 20 years old. The post encapsulates a motivation for the blog: to help political-science ideas penetrate the broader discourse.

How does blogging affect research/teaching? Or does it? I hope that I'll have more ideas and better ideas, which can then translate into material for papers and lectures. And I hope that via David's and Lee's posts, readers' comments, and any other feedback, I get to learn from others' ideas. I also think I will be more attuned to different research going on in political science, if only to write a quick blurb about it for the blog.

What academic blogs do you read regularly?A great one is Crooked Timber, where one of my colleagues, Henry Farrell, blogs. The other academic blogs I read tend to come out of political science, economics, and psychology: Marginal Revolution, Brad DeLong, Political Arithmetik, Seth Roberts, Abu Aardvark, Andrew Gelman, and the Social Science Statistics Blog. I also love the Language Log.

Tell us something we probably don't know.I wish I could spend all day listening to free MP3s on music blogs like Soul Sides and fluxblog.