The INFO Project Blog

Back in Baltimore from North Carolina’s buzzing Research Triangle Park, I am inspired to rattle off a Top 10 List (totally copying Seth’s Best of INFO post). No, make that two lists.

The 2008 NC Science Blogging Conference, a free forum organized by BlogTogether, was a great way to share best practices for Web logs as we know them today—and emerging second generation tools embedding interactivity into formerly-dry science journals. While INFO focuses on more practice-oriented reporting than gene splicing, we are working, as many science communicators, to translate technical innovation from jargon-laden journals into actionable material for policymakers and practitioners, and to the public.

Without further ado, the lists: Read the rest of this entry »

The next session I attend at the ScienceBlogging conference is Overcoming Obstacles to Open Science in the Developing World. Conversation on connectivity and access pings back and forth. Discussion leader: Vedran Vucic. Join the discussion online.

Participant (working in DRC on bonobo research): My main function is to get information out to rest of the world. Our researchers don’t have access to computers. Terrible war. Extreme poverty coupled with extreme wealth. Congolese people [we work with] doing extraordinary amount to keep orphans alive. The solar panel breaks, wireless is supposed to hook up to satellites. Rain comes six months a year and you’ve got nothing. How can we get information in–reliable information. Sitting in café you don’t want to be reading something with false information. Read the rest of this entry »

At the 2008 Science Blogging conference in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Dr. Hemai Parthasarathy is leading a discussion of the flawed but enormously exciting concept-in-practice that is Open Science.

Four laptops in a row are open in my row–facts being checked, backgrounds googled–and Hemai’s presentation is becoming a conversation. Participants add lessons learned (in italics).

Hemai: This is my first “un-conference”. I’m a scientist. Used to talking to scientists. Studied neuroscience at MIT.

Read the rest of this entry »