Science Online 2011 and My First World Lament

Sarah: Sometimes I find myself being pulled in many directions by the sheer volume of interesting ‘stuff’ I wish I had time to read and participate in.  You should see the ‘to read’ pile of books on my bedside table.  Hearing about various scientific and other conferences makes me all dreamy, and starts my mind along the ‘if only‘ track: ‘if only I’d studied anthropology!’, ‘if only I lived in Paris!’, ‘if only I had a full-time housekeeper and nanny!’.  Fortunately, social media eases my first world troubles to a degree.  This past weekend I’ve been eavesdropping on the website,blogs and twitter stream (#scio11) associated with the recent and 5th annual Science Online Conference, brainstormed by Bora Zivkovic and Anton Zuiker and held from January 13-15 2011 in North Carolina, USA.  Described as a conference of “bloggers, journalists, people who are pushing science onto the web” (John Hawks, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Science Online 2011 was deliberately held in an ‘unconference’ style, with the program built by participants on a wiki and sessions created to foster discussions and conversations rather than a more traditional lecture-style approach. Participants were engaged in tours of laboratories and museums in the area, signed up for workshops, participated in open-floor discussions, experienced a variety of project showcases and enjoyed meals together: see the full program here. Most content has also been represented in another format, whether as a live stream, blog, YouTube clip or twitter conversation.  Science Online 2011 presenter Kathryn Clancy (University of Illinois) describes watching the #scio10 hashtag and remembers feeling intensely jealous and thinking ‘that’s where I wanted to be’!   Now I know how she feels. [See interview with Kathryn on bloggingheads.tv - a great interview on many levels].

So, in amongst my scheming and dreaming to attend Science Online 2012, I’ve been reading lots of new blogs and other material I’ve tracked down thanks to following conversations relating to Science Online 2011. Here are some links to ‘stuff’ that you too might enjoy:

Science blogging stuff:

• Why Ed Yong is the future of science news (and you could be too)
• Science Weekly podcast: how blogs are changing science
• On science blogs this week: old & new
• International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media 2011
• Discussing wordpress for scientists
• the SciBloggers ‘pepsi-gate’ scandal: for numerous links on the topic, see here;
• Aren’t you supposed to be, like, clones? (written by high school student Naseem)

Political stuff:

• To our friends in Egypt
• Science online will change the world
• It may be a Sputnik moment, but science fairs are lagging
• Angry Sunday rant on behalf of my friends in the minority academic ghetto

Women in Science and Career stuff:

• Falling off the ladder: How not to succeed at science
• 50 and 100 years ago in Nature: discrimination against women
• Women in science: where are we now?
• Survival tips for young women in STEM
• The face in your bellybutton

General interest stuff:

• PLoS, a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource;
• Brian Malow: science comedian
• A race between digital and print magazines
• Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?
• bloggingheads.tv

[image thanks to Alexandre Dulaunoy]

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