Meta: blogs, wikis, and networks (oh my!)
So I’m the unofficial PSARC and VPL rep to the NASA Astrobiology Institute’s Internet Technology Working Group. (So I’m the VPL and PSARC rep to the NAI’s ITWG… alphabet soup, anyone?) Today, we had a meeting about social networking, and a few ideas were discussed. Many of them were similar to the things we discussed at the AbGradCon workshop, in particular social networking sites, blogs, and wikis. The hardest part of the discussion was that it had to be limited to an hour, when there really is a lot to discuss here. The positives and negatives about all these were discussed. Like any new technology, transferring to using these new tools will require effort. However, they should make data more accessible and dynamic, ultimately resulting in more efficient use of time and more accurate, widely disseminated information.
There were also some specific ideas bandied about at the meeting or that started bouncing around my head afterwards:
- updating the astrobiology primer and turning it into a living wiki on astrobiology
- setting up astrobiology groups in social and professional networking sites such as Nature Networks, Research Pages, and/or Facebook
- creating an astrobiology channel on SciVee (the “science version” of YouTube, where you can post science videos)
One other specific thing that was proposed – and will be acted on in the near future – is to have one of the upcoming FAR seminars focus on these networking ideas. I’d like to continue the discussion from today here, and start ramping up for the FAR discussion. So what networking tools do people think are worthwhile? Which ones do you use? Do you have specific ideas for new tools we can use to communicate? Do you think the ideas above are worthwhile or silly?
Personally, I’d recommend SciVee to people (www.scivee.com). Tools like these are best when they both help scientists collaborate to create new information AND assist them in disseminating that knowledge to non-scientists. SciVee has everything from demonstrations of science experiments for grade school students to a “Pubcast” section of the site, where scientists can give 10-15 minute video synopses of a recently published peer-reviewed paper.
Well, I think that there is a facebook group for the AbGradCon 2008, which will make it very easy to pass on information/ask questions about the conference, and ‘meet’ people going to the conference.
The live Wiki sites seem to be pretty popular for a lot of departments here at the University of Colorado–listing seminars and upcoming events–ones for the Astrobiology Department for specific schools could be very useful.
Is there already an astrobiology wiki page? I’m sure google would tell me this information . . .