SO'09

Again, let me introduce a bunch of people who have registered to attend and participate in ScienceOnline09 in January. Today - folks associated with Duke University. Anton Zuiker, one of the organizers of this conference, is a long-time blogger, the founder of BlogTogether.org, and manager of Internal Communications at Duke Medicine, which involved designing and running the Web-based Inside Duke Medicine as well as re-designing their print newsletter. Andrea Novicki is the Academic Technology Consultant at the Center for Instructional Technology, Duke University Libraries. Marsha Penner is…

Today, instead of introducing people, I will introduce a session, or two or three. Feedback from participants of the last two conferences indicated a lot of interest in sessions relevant to science educators at all levels. At both the 1st and the 2nd conference, we had one session on using blogs in the classroom. But this time, we want to heed the calls and provide, if possible, three such sessions, each targeting a somewhat different audience. So, if you go to the conference wiki and check the Program page, you will see the following three sessions listed there: Online science for the…

I said I was going to introduce the participants at ScienceOnline09 in non-daily but larger batches. So, today, I introduce a large contingent of people coming from the National Institute of Environemental Health Sciences (NIEHS): NIEHS News Director Robin Mackar Web Manager Cheryl Thompson Biomedical Librarian Stephanie Holmgren Signal Transduction researcher Ren Rongqin Signal Transduction researcher Danielle Duma Signal Transduction researcher Daniel Brown Signal Transduction researcher Erica Lannan Blood-Brain Barrier researcher Brian Hawkins And Pediatric Epidemiology researcher Yang…

There are now 142 people registered and the Program is becoming more and more impressive by the hour! If you have a cool website, software or application that you would like to showcase, add your name to the Demo page - all the demos will be screencast and posted on the site, with links to you - easy PR for you. But first, you need to register.

We now have 120 people registered for the conference - check them out. Then register. And, we placed the first, tentative rough draft of the schedule on the Program page - go take a look. Only 4-5 of the sessions are completely set in stone right now. For the others, names of session leaders may still change, some sessions may be replaced by others, etc. We are still working on it, talking with lots of potential session leaders. The titles and descriptions are also provisional - as the session leaders think about it and start preparing, they will make the necessary changes. Once more of…

Nature Network will be much better represented this year than last year, I am happy to report. This early in the game, we already have four registrants, coming from four different countries and making our meeting very international! Anna Kushnir came last year. This year, it is Dr.Anna Kushnir who is coming back. Martin Fenner is coming from Germany. Bob O'Hara will travel from Finland. And Richard Grant is coming all the way from Australia. See who else is registered so far. Then register yourself.

You may remember how last two years I introduced all registrants for the blogging conferences, 2-3 people per day. I decided this year to do it less often, but to introduce more people in each post. Let me start with an easy group to gather - my Sciblings: Brian will be there. Grrrrl will be there. Both SciCurious and Evil Monkey as well. And Greg Laden. And Janet, of course. And Zuska and Tara. James for sure. And yes, Abel and Sheril and Dr.Pal. Both Sciencewoman and Alice said they're coming. Mo will do his best to come across the pond. And there are probably going to be more - they…

This morning, the 100th person registered for ScienceOnline'09. That is about half the capacity of Sigma Xi. We got there fast! Don't waver and wait too long - this may fill up sooner than expected!

With almost a hundred people already signed up for ScienceOnline'09, we are busily working on the Program. But we do not want to force a program on you - we want you to help design the program that you will enjoy and find useful. We need you to look at the Program page and tell us what you think and what you offer to do. You can e-mail me or you can edit the Program page and add your name next to one of the suggested topics or add a new topic on the bottom. Keep in mind that this is the Third conference. While it needs to cover some of the basics (e.g., "Why blog?" or "What is Open…

As the conference has grown from one to almost three days, and already more then 90 people have registered, we need your help - so offer to volunteer. What can you do? * Spread the word: use online and offline tools to tell your friends about the conference * Ask your company/organization to become a sponsor * Donate a small amount of money * Help us develop the Program and offer to lead a session * Volunteer to collect and pack swag * Volunteer to drive the out-of-town guests during the conference * Volunteer to spend some time at the desk at the entrance,…

During the months of preparation, as well as during the event itself, your starting point, for sure, is the ScienceOnline'09 wiki - you can always check the "Recent Changes" button, or watch as the Blog and Media Coverage page grows. You can also check the news on the ScienceOnline09 blog. You can come here and check the posts in my SO'09 category. You can join the Facebook Event and watch the wall there (and invite your friends there as well). Or you can join the FriendFeed room and discuss the event there.

Are you or your company/organization in a position to sponsor the conference? It is organized and run by volunteers, registration is free, but putting this together still takes some money and effort. For this, we rely on our sponsors and volunteers. There are several ways that you can sponsor the event: Provide a grant Cash grants provide us funds to pay for discussion leaders' travel and lodging, travel grants for students, tote bags and t-shirts (see below), wifi tech support, meals and refreshments, meeting supplies and more. Publicity Display ads placed in your magazine or newsletter,…

Just six days after we opened registration for ScienceOnline'09 there are already 52 registrants! And some more people are blogging about it: 49 percent: Random Biochemicalsoul: Science Blogging Conference in Research Triangle Park, NC! Catalogue of Organisms: Open Lab 2008 Deep Sea News: Science Online '09 PODelation: Science Blogs Lecturer Notes: ScienceOnline'09 Flying Trilobite: ScienceOnline'09

Just two days after we opened registration for ScienceOnline'09 there are already 32 registrants! And some people are blogging about it: A Blog Around The Clock: Get your calendars... A Blog Around The Clock: Will there be a Third Science Blogging Conference? A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline'09 A Blog Around The Clock: Submit your entries for the third Science Blogging Anthology A Blog Around The Clock: ScienceOnline'09 - Registration is Open! Confessions of a Science Librarian: ScienceOnline '09 Laelaps: I'm going, are you? The Beagle Project Blog: Registration open for ScienceOnline'…

First, there was the First NC Science Blogging Conference. Then, there was the Second NC Science Blogging Conference. And yes, we will have the Third one - renamed ScienceOnline'09 to better reflect the scope of the meeting: this time bigger and better than ever. ScienceOnline'09 will be held Jan. 16-18, 2009 at the Sigma Xi Center in Research Triangle Park, NC. Please join us for this free three-day event to explore science on the Web. Our goal is to bring together scientists, bloggers, educators, students, journalists, writers, publishers, Web developers and others to discuss,…

Two years ago, when we all got together and did this, the result was this. Last year, when even more of us got together and did this, the result was this. Now, with the new editor, we are ready to do this again! The Open Laboratory 2008 is in the works. The submissions have been trickling in all year, but it is time now to dig through your Archives for your best posts since December 20th 2007 and submit them. Submit one, or two, or several - no problem. Or ask your readers to submit for you. Then take a look at your favourite bloggers and pick some of their best posts - don't worry, we can…

Why don't *You* organize a conference? A scientist should behave as a good citizen in the scientific community. You cannot expect that other colleagues perform all the unpleasant jobs and that you can spent all your time on science. I am referring to low-reward activities like reviewing papers, reviewing grant proposals, sitting on review panels, being an editor of a scientific journal, sitting on program committees and - which is the subject of my present post - really organizing a conference. ---------------------------- My Advice Try to stay away from organizing a conference. I have…

The London Science Blogging Conference now has a Facebook page for discussions. Perhaps they will also have a FriendFeed room, like the BioBarCamp folks did - it was fascinating following the meeting from afar there these two days. In the meantime, we had a secret meeting about, well, providing some neat surprises for you for the ScienceOnline'09 meeting (a.k.a., the Third Science Blogging Conference), bigger and better than ever - the website and wiki will be up in about ten days or so, watch this space for updates....

The websites/wikis of the first two conferences appear to be down. We will move all of those archives to a new site soon, and very soon the website for the third ScienceOnline conference (formerly known as Science Blogging Conference) will be filled with more information. But for now, you can start using the brand new logo if you want to advertise the event:

You bet there will be! But it will have a different name. Anton and I met yesterday afternoon (and the whole committee will meet in a couple of weeks), looked at all the feedback we got from the last meeting and started planning for the next one. So, the third conference will be called ScienceOnline'09 (the new website will be up in a couple of weeks at scienceonline09.com, as well as a new, more reliable wiki). You will still be able to get to it from the scienceblogging.com page in the future. The new name reflects the broader perspective of the meeting. Neither the first nor the second…