As you may have heard elsewhere, the third annual major (and free) US science blogging conference, ScienceOnline'09, began accepting registrations last Monday. The meeting will be held 16-18 January 2009 in Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.

As of 10 am EDT today, there are already 78 registrants on the way to a cap of 225-ish. However, I have noted that only one registrant is listed on the wiki under a pseudonym.

This is a special message to my kindred spirits who write under a pseudonym and are wondering how in the heck they can go to such a great communications extravaganza and bloggy bonding bellwether without blowing their cover.

Go ahead and register. Two options:

1. Register under your 'nym and list your blog URL. The organizers and all attendees in the past have been ferociously protective and respectful of pseudonymous bloggers. The spirit of the conference remains the same and I have no doubt that all attendees this year will receive the same respect of confidence as in past years.

2. Register under you real name and list your academic or business URL. Attend the meeting as you but whisper to select people, "Hey, I am Abel Pharmboy." [obviously substitute your 'nym for mine]. Encourage them not to yell, "OMFG!, you are Abel???"

Then, simply tell Bora Zivkovic that you do not wish for any photographs with your image at the meeting to be linked to your real name, your blog name, or both. These are good people and this is a good crowd. I can attest to the fact that everyone respected my need to remain pseudonymous in past years, especially since many of the attendees know both Teh Pharmboy and real me as the same person.

Then, once you are registered, check out Bora's post here to see if you can provide monetary or swag sponsorship or offer to help with the program, planning, publicity, or help with any number of fun tasks before or during the conference.

I should note that I am trying to round up some NIH- or NSF-funded researcher-bloggers to have a session on "Science Blogging While Federally Funded" - of course, virtually all of us write under pseudonyms so we would either have to wear masks or simply Skype in via audio. If you are a science blogger interested in such as session, as a discussion leader or participant, please leave a comment or fire me a gmail to abelpharmboy.

Power to the Pseudonymous!!!