Nature Networkers will be familiar with Science Online London: a one-day conference held at the Royal Institution on London covering all aspects of online science. The conference is co-hosted by Nature Network, Mendeley and the RI, and features sessions including “What is a scientific paper?” “Legal and Ethical Aspects of Science Blogging” and “Real-time statistics in science”.
I went last year and it was a really interesting day with some great speakers. Obviously other people thought so too, because this year it is already completely sold out.
BUT if you haven’t signed up or can’t travel, fear not – for the first time, it will also be live video streamed in Second Life!
Attendance will cost the princely sum of 10 GBP/15 USD to cover costs and will give virtual attendees access to the island for the whole day as well as an opportunity to ask the speakers questions – we will have a member of staff in the audience to get your questions to the speaker just like the RL attendees.
Do have a look at the website and the page with the Second Life information on it. More details taken straight from the announcement below the fold of this post.
Science Online London
August 22nd 2009.
http://www.scienceonlinelondon.org/index.php
The Web is rapidly changing the communication, practice and culture of science. Science online London 2009 will explore the latest trends in science online. How is the Web affecting the work of researchers, science communicators, journalists, librarians, educators, students? What can you do to make the best use of the growing number of online tools?
This is the follow-up conference to last year’s Science Blogging 2008: London conference. The name of the event was changed to reflect the variety of science-related activities happening online today.
Topics include blogging and microblogging, online communities, open access and open data, new teaching and research tools, author identifiers and measuring the impact of research.
This conference is co-hosted by Nature Network, Mendeley and they Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Sessions will run from 9:30am – 5:30pm GMT and all the details are on the website.:
http://www.scienceonlinelondon.org/programme.php
SECOND LIFE
For the first time, the conference will be live video streamed into Second Life. Attendees may attend as many or as few sessions as they like and must register in advance to get access to the island for the whole day. Attendees will be able to watch the sessions and participate in questioning speakers at the end: there will be a member of Nature staff in the audience to bring SL questions to the speaker. We will also publish the list of Second Life attendees in advance and there will be networking and “drinks” between sessions. There will be a nominal fee to cover running costs: 10 GBP or 15 USD.
The RL conference is sold out, but the SL conference is just opening registration now and all are welcome to attend. To register, go to the website:
http://www.scienceonlinelondon.org/second-life.php
We take payment by PayPal (no PayPal account required, you can just use your card) or by personal cheque. If you have any questions at all or would prefer to pay by cheque, please do IM me (Joanna Wombat) or email me at j.scott@nature.com
See you there!
Last updated:
Thursday, 30 Jul
2009 - 19:23 UTC
Hi Joanna
This might just tempt me into SL for the first time… but is there anyway to see any kind of replay of the day’s events, for those of us in different time zones? As much as I’d like to “attend”, I’d rather not get up at 1.30am to do so!
Yes, it isn’t the most convenient time for the West Coast! All the videos will be available on the web afterwards, so you will certainly be able to see them.
On seeing them in SL, we have thought about doing that, re-running everything at a time delay, but we have always decided against it for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it isn’t actually as easy to stream pre-recorded video; we will be recording the video, but the files would have to be converted for showing later, I understand, and I’m not sure there would be time for someone to do that while trying to record and run the conference live.
Secondly, if you were watching time-delayed, you wouldn’t get any of the participatory benefits like asking questions. You certainly would get the benefit of talking to other attendees, but there wouldn’t be nearly as many of those as there will be on the day, and I’m not sure that would out-weigh the inconvenience of having a whole day taken up, particularly if you are only interested in a few sessions. I personally would be more inclined to show the sessions one or two at a time, over a period of days/weeks, than have to sit through 8 solid hours of film.
But, if lots of people disagree with me, let me know and perhaps we can arrange something.
If anyone would be interested in learning how to use Second Life before the event, I can provide free online training and practice workshops (maximum group of 3 people). Just let me know by sending me a message in the request form available at vLondon.SL
Available for any time zones. Please specify in your message your time zone.
This is a great option that I think is not getting enough publicity. Like Cath, I’m tempted, but concerned about the time zones and the true availability of Internet access where I will be on that date. I’ll think about it between now and Thursday (when you write a deadline will loom).
Thanks, Heather, it’s good to know people think it’s a a good idea, even if they can’t make it themselves.
I’m really keen for everyone to have a chance to attend – any suggestions for how to publicise it more would be much appreciated. It is on the website, all attendees this year and last have been emailed about it and we’ve advertised in Second Life, on FF, Twitter, NN and Facebook as well as directly contacting various science communication societies, but I do worry that we’re just telling the same people all the time and there must be more ways.
I’ll (re?)mention this option on Friendfeed in the Science 2.0 room, to start.