Conference Programme
Matt Brown
Tuesday, 01 July 2008 09:33 UTC
Saturday 30 August at the Royal Institution
Please find below the official programme. We will update this first post if any changes are introduced, so this information will always be up to date.
8:30 – 9:45 Coffee/Breakfast; Proposal of unconference sessions
9:45 – 10:00 Opening remarks Naomi Temple, Royal Institution; Matt Brown/Corie Lok, Nature Network
10:00 – 10:30 Keynote: Ben Goldacre
(title to be confirmed)
10:30 – 11:30 Panel: The scientific life, exposed.
Jenny Rohn, Grrl Scientist, Anna Kushnir. Moderated by Mo Costandi.
Mistrust of scientists is common, and misinterpretation of scientific results rampant. Science blogs can serve as a bridge between scientists and the general public. Blogs build a community of scientists in which they can discuss the peculiarities of their jobs, their work, and their results. More than that, science blogs have the power to demystify the scientific process for the public and to reverse deeply held stereotypes of scientists. In this session, we will discuss how science blogs can change the public’s perception of scientists and provide a support framework for scientists themselves.
11:30 – 11:45 Short break; Voting on unconference sessions
11:45 – 12:30 Morning breakout sessions. Three parallel sessions of 45 minutes, with option to go 15 minutes longer.
Breakout 1: There’s a giraffe on my unicycle: Can blogging unlock your creativity?
Claire Dudman, Brian Clegg and Henry Gee
Poincaré talked about ideas like gas molecules colliding in the room of his mind; Einstein talked about dreams; and Archimedes was in his bath when it hit him…that lightbulb going on, that great insight, that EUREKA MOMENT when two apparently unrelated ideas come together. Can blogging be a useful catalyst for creativity? Using a few examples from our own experiences as a springboard, we intend this to lead to a workshop/discussion on how blogging can help us create. Please bring your giraffe and your unicycle along with you.
Breakout 2: How to make friendfeeds and influence people
Matt Wood
An introduction to microblogging and aggregation services (such as Friendfeed, Twitter, Tumblr etc), before opening things up to a discussion on their use in science, open notebooks, etc.
Breakout 3: How to enhance your blog
Maxine Clarke and Euan Adie
Once you have decided to blog, what kind of blog do you choose? Blogging within a network, blogging on a stand-alone platform, group blogging, or microblogging all have advantages and disadvantages, as we will outline.
However you blog, it is all about communication and conversation, and we’ll be revealing some of the things you can do to increase your internet presence, whether you are just a bit of a magpie (Maxine) or a bedroom coder (Euan), or at some point in between. We hope to have a lively discussion with participants about these topics.
12:30 – 1:45 Lunch and networking; Announce afternoon unconference sessions
1:45 – 2:30 Afternoon breakout sessions. Three parallel sessions of 45 minutes, with option to go 15 minutes longer.
Breakout 4: Science in Second Life: a virtual tour
Jo Scott
Jo will take you on a tour of the key sites of relevance to scientists in the virtual world Second Life. A group discussion will then look at how useful such environments are (or could become) for disseminating scientific ideas and holding virtual conferences.
Breakout 5: Science blogs and online forums as teaching tools
Martin Fenner, Oliver Obst, Jeff Marlow
We will discuss the role that science blogs and online forums are having in teaching science today. In a panel discussion we will look at practical examples and examine their potential as well as their shortcomings. To foster the use of these online tools in teaching, we hope to come up with a list of suggestions for both educators and software developers at the end of the session. (Other panellists to be decided.)
Breakout 6: Communicating Primary Research Publicly
Heather Etchevers, Jean-Claude Bradley and Bob O’Hara
New web technologies afford unprecedented opportunities to share scientific data and results before official publication in a traditional journal. What are the benefits and drawbacks for a scientist to use these tools? Could the role of traditional publishers change as more scientists adopt increasingly diverse mechanisms to disclose research? How might this change the way science is done in the future?
2:30 – 3:15 Coffee and networking
3:15 – 4:15 Unconference sessions: 3 parallel sessions to be decided on the day by vote. If you’d like to speak, or lead a discussion, pitch your ideas in the morning before the first talk. You can begin discussing potential sessions in the conference forum.
4:15 – 5:30 Embracing change: taking online science into the future
Richard Grant, Cameron Neylon and Peter Murray-Rust. Moderated by Timo Hannay.
The panelists summarise the key themes of the day and provide a look into the future of online communication and collaboration in science. The goal is for attendees to come away with things they can do to enhance communication of science online.
5:30 – 5:40 Closing remarks Matt Brown/Corie Lok/Royal Institution
5:45 Drinks and networking at the Ri, to be continued at a local pub (location to be announced).
For any questions or concerns regarding the programme, please email network [at] nature.com.
Updated 22 August 2008 16:30 UTC
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Replies
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Hi David,
Oops, bit of an oversight there. Yes, the conference is on Saturday August 30 at the RI.If you can’t come, please email us (network at nature.com) as soon as you can. We have a longish waiting list of people eager to take your spot!
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I’m sure I’m not the first to think this but appear to be the first to write something.
PART ONE
I never assume anything about anything, but I think it’s highly likely that the attendees all get name badges. Right?
Name/blog wise, I would say I personally am aware of ~ 50 attendees. There’s probably only about a dozen faces that I’ll recognise though since the image icons here are so minute. M@, is this on the to-do list?
As with any conference, name badges are of course essential. I normally keep mine for prestige but take ’em off at conf. close. Probably not a bad idea though for us to keep the badges on at the pub afterwards. Will anyone second my proposal?
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PART TWO
Since this an open conference, are attendees permitted to, within reason, “go digital” and self capture some audio/video? I’m bringing a camcorder mainly to capture material post conference since I enjoy editing digital multimedia.
I’m sure it’s been mentioned previously that the organisers are arranging to have some of the sessions filmed. I am reliably informed that the venue has state of the art wi-fi/digital media. As such, live-streaming is entirely feasible. Are there any plans to do so for those who can’t attend in person?
I joined the last Science Blogging Conference remotely in January and you can read about my experience here.
Cue Wayne Sutton Star of the show in recording terms.
Wayne pretty much live-streamed that conference on his own. As you can see here, his recordings (of the conference) have been viewed > 20,000 times. From memory, he acheived 14,000 views after only about 10 days.
On average, Wayne only gets about a dozen views per recording. Clearly, the interest in that conference was immense as is played out by his stats.
More recently, Cameron Neylon pretty much did the same thing at BioBarCamp two weekends ago with content posted online shortly after the event.
Now, I can only go from first hand experience, but with a reliable wi-fi connection as was eventually sorted out at the last related conference, the level of virtual attendance/participation that can be achieved these days is really amazing. Doesn’t beat “being there in person” but, if well organised on the technical front, it’s simply brilliant for remote attendees.
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Having done the conference organization schtick a little, I would offer an opinion that pre-printing stickers would suffice. I was going to say we could write our own names, but I remembered Henry Petroski’s delightful column way back in the (subscriber-restricted, sorry) American Scientist
.Here are a couple of excerpts:
“It might be argued that the ideal name tag should have nothing but the wearer’s name, in large bold letters that can be read from across a room. Such a name tag could easily be counterfeited, however, thus frustrating the meeting sponsor’s objective of preventing all but paid and tagged registrants from partaking of the event’s program and refreshments.”
And he also mentions,
“No matter how intellectually stimulating, the meeting that does not end up in the black is not considered successful by the accountants.”
So, who should we be really thanking for footing the bill here? Yes, Nature, but what branch of that estimable organization?
Last question, when and where are people meeting on Thursday evening?
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Probably not a bad idea though for us to keep the badges on at the pub afterwards. Will anyone second my proposal?
I’ll second that. It’ll help me remember who I am too, later in the evening.
Heather – email Matt for details, but apparently it starts at 6.30pm in the Jeremy Bentham.
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Thursday evening?
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Corie and David, the above programme has “Saturday 30 August” as the first line.
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Yes, there will be preprinted nametags.
Yes, you can take pictures and video. However, you should double check with the speakers of the breakout sessions to make sure they’re ok with being filmed. Most are, but a couple aren’t.
As for livestreaming, we’ve been so busy with organizing other parts of the conference, and with other NN responsibilities, that we haven’t been able to organize that, unfortunately. The videos will be posted online shortly after the event though.
And yes, to join in on Thursday evening events, please email Matt Brown (m.brown at nature dot com)
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Graham and everyone else who mentioned or is thinking of the state of the art wifi, I’m sure everyone already knows this, but be sure to use the little s when logging in to your web mail accounts etc (the little s in https:// that is). Better still use a virtual private network like Hotspot Shield. You never know who might be watching your packets.
Delegates at the recent Blackhat conf were named and shamed if they didn’t use adequate protection so even experts can get caught out.
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Looking forward to meeting with everybody, I hope there will be blogger newbies in the audience too besides the old timers because it looks like a good opportunity for them to quickly jump in the middle of how science blogging is done.
Attila
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