Sessions/talks offered
Corie Lok
Wednesday, 14 May 2008 19:19 UTC
Based on feedback we’ve gotten from you and others, we’ve decided that the conference format will be a hybrid one. Most of the session topics, speakers and schedule will be established by July. But we will reserve a few of the rooms and time slots for sessions that will be self-organized the morning of August 30. We’ll make sure there’s time on the 30th to do that.
So let’s begin with a call for session topics. Post ideas here for sessions (talks, panel discussions, workshops, etc) that you want to be a speaker for. Please specify what sort of format you want for your session: for example, a one-person talk, a panel, a hands-on workshop, something else?
In particular, we are looking for:- 1 or 2 keynote speakers
- one panel discussion to wrap up the day
- concurrent sessions/talks (preset)
Have a read through the other ideas here before posting your own. If you find one that’s similar to yours, please approach that person about doing a session jointly.
If you want to be a speaker and are looking for topics to talk about, or you want to suggest an idea but don’t want to be a speaker, have a look at the other thread, Sessions/talks wanted.
Deadline: please post your ideas by Friday June 6. Depending on how many ideas we get, we may do an informal poll online after June 6 to see which ideas are most popular. Based on that, we’ll invite the speakers and set the programme by July.
You can also email us at network@nature.com with session ideas.
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I predictably propose a session on Second Life.
Not sure about the format, maybe a workshop style. I think the best question for a session of skeptics would be something like “Does Second Life have any value at all?”. So perhaps a quick intro to what SL is, then everybody goes into SL for a guided tour of some of the scientific highlights. Then in the session or afterwards, could have laptops and helpers available for newbies to set up avatars and try it out themselves.
Anyone interested in collaborating on this? Equally, more than happy to completely hand over to anyone else who wants to do it!
Just an idea – haven’t really thought about it properly yet. Might not be quite relevant enough to blogging, but I think it would be interesting. Would also require quite a lot of bandwith at the RI. Not sure if that would be a problem.
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I would like to propose a talk about the Good Paper Journal Club. It is an experiment of what Web 2.0 can do for science, in this case on how an online forum can extend both books and papers about science writing and traditional teaching. The topic has political (quality of scientific writing considered in peer review?) and technical aspects (e.g. integration with Connotea).
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I’d like to propose to animate a short session about “Open Lab Notebooks”.
We had a pretty lively discussion about the topic on here already. I have some minimal hands-on experience and feel some current limitations and advantages for the molecular biology lab.
I’d be happy to moderate a panel if that is more appropriate. It might be interesting to add to it, users from different disciplines (eg. bioinformatics, chemistry, paleontology, physics, you name it). As in, how do you archive lunch napkins with keywords?
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I’d be interested in chairing a discussion on how blogging changes the way we think. Does it enhance creativity? Does it encourage people to apply knowledge to a new field – not necessarily in science? Does it allow us to connect with people we’d never think of speaking to otherwise? What are the advantages and disadvantages? That sort of thing. I’ve got a few experiences of this but would be very interested to hear other peoples’
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Re: lunch napkins. I meant “dinner serviettes”. Of course. When in London, do as Londoners do, and all that. Actually, ich bin ein Berliner.
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i’d like to propose a talk or session about blogging about science .. does it change public perceptions or increase public knowledge of science, scientific publishing, findings, data and the scientific process, and about scientists themselves? if so, in what ways? i think it would also be interesting to understand how the public perceives discussions (conflict) in science and how blog writers affect public perceptions of it .. i am especially thinking about evolutionary theory when i propose this idea, since i am an “evilutionist” and am most familiar with that aspect of science.
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given that the Faculty has agreed to fund part of my trip if the Department matches it, and that I sold it on the basis of Web 2, I think a Web 2.0 session would be useful.. !
I’m happy to speak either on Web2 or on blogging itself. I will have some outcomes that need to be addressed, and will be wearing my “Sydney University is the Win” hat, but hey.
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Richard – wouldn’t it be less painful to just sell a kidney?
I’d be happy to run a session on blogging one’s research: what are the plusses, and the pitfalls (e.g. getting scooped). I could present a couple of case studies from my own work, but it would be more interesting to hear other people’s opinions.
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Maxine’s post prompted me to action!
I’d like to propose a couple of talk ideas:
“How to make friendfeeds and influence people”
An introduction to the scientific community growing around “life streaming” services such as Twitter and FriendFeed. This talk would introduce the benefits (and shortcomings) of microblogging and content aggregation in a scientific context, including some recent case studies and a look to the future.“An open notebook for scientific software”
This talk would seek to lead a discussion on what an open notebook might look like for scientific software. Open notebook science encourages the sharing of lab protocols and preliminary or interim data. This talk would outline the prerequisites and benefits of doing the same for scientific software projects. -
Grrl scientist, Clare, Bob, Richard, Matt—I think these are all great suggestions. I second them all.
Matt, on your second suggestion, which is also discussed in the other forum thread (sessions/talks wanted), I agree it is a brilliant subject but I am also conscious that we only have a day. We need to decide what the conference isn’t about as well as what it is. Jean-Claude had helpful suggestions on that front in the other thread here.
I would love to hear/talk about open notebook et al. but this isn’t stictly “blogging”, do you think we should have a parallel session on it? Or will it still “squeeze in” to an in-series day?
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