Martin saw this comment of mine and sprung into action: Name the new 'Carnival of Scientific Life'!
The two big questions are what to call it, and how often to host it, so I'd like your input in the comments below please. I'll be making the final decision on August 1st.What would be a good name for the carnival? (Ideally something without "carnival" in the title.)
Should it be held monthly, or at some other frequency?
The carnival is intended to cover all aspects of life as a scientist, whether it's the lifestyle, career progress, doing a Ph.D., getting funding, climbing the slippery pole, academic life as a minority, working with colleagues and students, dealing with the peer-review process, publishing, grants, science 2.0, amusing anecdotes, conference experiences, philosophical musings, public engagement, or even historical articles about what life was like in the good (or bad) old days.
In other words, anything related to the experience of living the scientific life. Not blogging about research, but blogging about everything that goes with being a researcher. A sort of "meta-science" carnival if you like.
I'll be putting together a hosting schedule here in the coming days. If you're interested, let me know at editor@layscience.net.
This is how he describes it: About the Carnival of Academic Life
The carnival is intended to cover all aspects of life as an academic, whether it's the lifestyle, career progress, doing a Ph.D., getting funding, climbing the slippery pole, academic life as a minority, working with colleagues and students, dealing with the peer-review process, publishing, grants, science 2.0, amusing anecdotes, conference experiences, philosophical musings, public engagement, or even historical articles about what life was like in the good (or bad) old days.
On the same day, there was a thread on 'Plausible Accuracy': Open Science blog carnival - The interest seems to be there, so what about the details?, where I left the following comments:
I've seen carnivals come and go, and at this point I do not think there is enough people out there to sustain a carnival on such a narrow topic as OA alone. I would rather have a carnival on all things meta-science, with an OA section in it.----------
This also means that people who write/read about other aspects of life in science will get to read the OA stuff (people always check out who else is on the carnival they are in, and also link to the carnival), many for the first time, and get introduced to the idea which they can spread to others. Makes the topic less insular when it rubs shoulders with others who write about science but never gave a thought to the business of publishing before. A way to bring in more people to the cause.
I would think that something like this would be OK. Not "I am bummed because my mini-prep did not work today" kinds of posts, but analytic posts about the way science works, the way academia is organized, the internal and external politics of science, discrimination, funding, promotion, careers, the business of publishing, the Science 2.0 and science blogging issues, etc., but with a special emphasis on the way the Web is changing science practice in all of its aspects.
What do you think?
Education & Careers
Comments
I think this is a great idea. Many times, academic science atleast for grad students and post docs is like staring into a closed circuit camera, you dwell in controlled spaces and are too restricted in thoughts to break open. Seeing the open source community break the glass ceiling, it is high time mainstream science opened up too.
Posted by: Aarthy Vallur | July 30, 2008 12:14 PM
I've been talking to an industry-trained academic PI lately, and it seems that the difference between the two cultures is not only greater than I thought, but of an entirely different character. I think we in academia do suffer from an ivory-tower effect, and don't have much idea of what the world outside is like. (Well, that's true of me, and I rather suspect it generalizes.)
So I'd like it if the new carnival could help to bridge that divide.
Posted by: bill | July 30, 2008 3:08 PM