We released a new version of Nature Network yesterday. Among the 60 or so improvements and changes we made, one stands out as of particular importance. The ability to pick your own hub.
Later this year, we’ll be altering the layout and content of our existing local hubs (Boston and London) and launching many new ones. But where? We need data. We need to know where you all come from. So we’ve built a bit on your personal profile, where you can state the city you work in, and then choose from a selection of potential local hubs that might be meaningful to you.
Why should you do this? Well, whichever hubs are most popular are likely to be the next to launch. This will bring with it a local events calendar, local meetups, local news and jobs information. Basically, a one-stop shop for all your local science needs.
To select your hub, just do this:
• Log in, head to your profile page and click ‘edit your profile’.
• At the top, click ‘change your location’.
• Enter the city or town in which you work. This will set your location.
• Nature Network will then suggest three potential ‘hubs’—regions (not necessarily cities) that may become full-fledged hubs like Boston and London once enough people from that area sign up. Click the one that you belong to.
Simple.
I can reveal that, after 24 hours, Berlin and Toronto are in the lead. Go and put a vote in for your city now.
Good idea.
More revelations as we go, please!
Amazingly, the system allowed me enter my location as Cromer, as part of a proposed East Anglia hub. But would I end up just talking to myself? And if I did, who would notice any difference…?
I remember pretending to be you when we tested it, Henry. I knew Cromer would be one of the first inputs ;-)
The database should contain pretty much any habitation bigger than a village in the world (although sometimes you have to enter the local spelling e.g. koln rather than cologne).
From that location, we then suggest three nearby places that might be hubworthy. Sometimes this is a city (e.g. Cambridge), sometimes a region (East Anglia), sometimes a country (Mexico), sometimes a bloc (Eastern Europe), depending on the perceived amount of research in the location. We can tweak these regions if people don’t like how we’ve divided up the world.
You should see the Google Map we put together for this. I enjoyed carving up the world like a megalomaniac.
W00t! The Helsinki hub is now as populated as the Cromer hub.
Can The System associate affiliations to locations? Now I’ve admitted to The System that I’m in Helsinki, it would make sense if everyone else from the University of Helsinki is given the same location as a default.
That’s not a bad idea, Bob. It gets complicated when people have multiple affiliations. But we can look into it.
Likewise, if not more so, for France. It doesn’t make much sense for us to be cut up by cities. And a little too centrist to put just Paris. Anyone from the INSERM, CNRS, INRA, CEA and sundry Universite’s…
How do the folks from Tuebingen or Hamburg feel about being associated with Berlin?
They’re not stuck with Berlin. We have options for Hamburg and Tubingen hubs as well. And by declaring a hub you’re not stuck with it. You can still do everything at the global level – the local stuff just adds more, such as local news and events listings, which you can ignore if it’s not for you.
I think there’s some sort of prejudice here. It would accept the name of my village as my location, but not Swindon, which I wanted to use as it’s the nearest big town. So I’ve lied and said Marlborough instead.
Liverpool and Manchester in the same hub! You are playing with fire here.
Heehee, I thought that might wind people up. I might just separate them out, given that Cambridge and Oxford have their own hubs.
Liverpool and Manchester? Big girls’ blouses. But if Ipswich shares a hub with Norwich, which is likely – now, there’s trouble.
Matt>
I might be out on a limb here but when I add my location (Memphis, TN) three other states come up as an alternative and not Tennessee… or Georgia where I would assume there are more affiliations than at least two of the other states I get to choose from.
Now, I am the first to say that there might be a “south” thing here (as hub wise) but I don’t know that choosing Mississippi or Arkansas rather than TN makes sense. For me, not so much… (I’ve obviously taken my new “home” state to heart.)
I like the idea with ‘hubs’ though. Makes it easier for people not in Boston or London :)
Åsa – thanks so much. You spotted a glitch.
There is a Tennessee hub. Trouble is, we model the hubs on a central point plus radius and Memphis is closer to the central point of other states than it is from the centre of Tennessee. I’ve adjusted the radius of the Tennessee hub now, so if you try entering Memphis again, you should be able to select the Tennessee hub.
Thanks for this – we always anticipated there’d be a few teething problems at first.
Manchester and Liverpool are at least on the right side of the Pennines, and that is saying quite a bit.
Matt> ahhh… the beauty of distance vs “where I think I belong” ;)
I agree that distance wise it might make sense but then again, Nashville (and Vanderbilt Uni for example) could be considered kind of central point of TN and surely that would be closer to Memphis than others. Ah well, problem solved and we are all happy.
My guess is that it is something that will be a glitch in many places since some countries/places are more elongated than round so the radius needs to be manually fixed. As long as one can change it, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Belgium united in Brussels!
Matt, any ambition in Belgian politics?
Yup Asa, we can alter the radii very easily. We built the system to shift according to user feedback.
That sounds like a great solution to world population problems, Matt. If too many people are in too small a space, the boudaries shift out into areas where there are only a few people hogging it all.
I’m pretty sure Toronto is no longer in the top two. There are still only six people on that list. But I just started lobbying like crazy for it today, in various online outlets. I want a hub! And a pony!
Not that I watched it last night but this is very Eurovision albeit on a global scale.
I see that you’ve lumped Glasgow and Edinburgh together (lights blue touch paper and runs) and Muggins is the only member thus far.
That sounds fun, Graham. Leave ‘em together, Matt!
Hee hee. A bit of controversy is always a good thing. The point of these hubs is to cover geographic areas that comprise enough scientists to make a hub worthwhile. There’s no political reasoning behind any of them. However, I quite expect there will be quibbles in some cases, and we’re prepared to change things around if there’s a good reason.
So you think we should merge Sydney and Toronto?
Sounds less problematic than Sydney and Perth, Richard.
Hee hee. A bit of controversy is always a good thing.
Sorry, you’ve lost me there.
Yagshemash..
Ye olde Glasgow v Edinburgh issue for example is a load of pony and is totally irrelevant in networking terms.
Screw the quibbles, let’s network globally !!!
Perth and anywhere, frankly.
Perth and Perth?
How about twinning all the towns with their home towns in the UK? New York with York, Dallas with Dallas etc? :)
Hee hee!
(Currently being visited by someone from Perth.)
(That’s Perth WA not Perth with a kilt, btw.)
Hmmm—in my case I’d have to decide between Kingston Jamaica, Kingston Ontario and Kingston-upon-Hull. That’s a tough one.