Last October the SDBN did a grand experiment and hosted a ScienceOnline satellite meeting. In the end, it was a great success, we pulled together a fantastic panel, got an attendance of 75, and had a stimulating discussion. However, to be completely honest it was a lot of work organize it and times I thought the event was going to be a flop! Here are some tips for those of you who want to start a ScienceOnline satellite, as well as how to participate in San Diego.

1. Think outside the (micro)blog. I follow the ScienceOnline community through Twitter and assumed that a local satellite would need to start with scientists who were already using the application. I tried mapping Twitterers in the area and got dismal results, but I did connect with Justin Kiggins aka @neuromusic and he’s an important part of ScienceOnline San Diego (#ScioSD) now. Justin also commented that “San Diego scientists tend to do science online, but they don’t necessarily talk about it online.” Justin told us about several initiatives he knew about in the area: the Neuroscience Information Network/Neurolex, the Whole Brain Catalog, WholeSlide, Figure Zero, and Neurolinx. We were lucky to get Stephen Larson from OpenWorm on our panel at the October event. I started thinking about local resources I had used as a researcher such as the Protein Kinase Resource and the associated San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). Of course, we contacted Phil Bourne of SDSC, the RCSB/Protein Data Bank, and SciVee as well and hope he can participate in future meetings. Someone else reminded me about Andrew Su and his work with BioGPS and GeneWiki. In addition, during a trip to TSRI I was reminded that Art Olson has been a pioneer in science communication for many years through his lab’s visualizations and models. So, in preparing for the event, I sent many personal invitations, made phone calls, etc. I even put up fliers and was reprimanded by a security guard at one local institution! In summary, cast a wide net for your first event, and leverage existing groups and institutions.
2. Consider your region’s ‘flavor’ and needs. I realized some differences between San Diego and the existing ScienceOnline community. The east coast, where the ScienceOnline conversations are centered, is home to more science journalists and bloggers due to the influence of the media hub of New York City, and Washington DC brings more government interests (e.g., NASA) and an emphasis on education. These elements are less pronounced in San Diego, where startups, funding, and intellectual property are very important. This is not to say that we don’t hope to grow in areas such as education, we have had a few people step forward with interest in this and other areas. Personally, I think there isn’t enough media attention to San Diego biotech locally, and that this could be tied to funding issues (something we’d like to address in ’13). We hope to continually gauge interest in different topics, and understand we may need to tread some new ground. We were very happy to have the support of Kevin Lustig and Assay Depot at our event, and they are involved in a ‘DIY Bio’ lab is set to launch in Carlsbad soon.
3. Consider your audience VERY carefully. For the SDBN events, we charge a fee to cover dinner and space rental, and choose to hold more regular events with this model rather than waiting until we can guarantee sponsorship and a reduced rate. It works well for us, but we found that…how should I say it…the #ScioSD audience was less prone to pay for an event. In addition, Heather Buschman, another important part of the #ScioSD team from the Sanford Burnham Medical Research Institute (SBMRI), indicated she thought our venue in Sorrento Valley, while very convenient for biotech, was too far away from the academic center, which is closer to La Jolla. While we had a great turnout in October, let me tell you that it was a lot of hard work, and likely would have been easier if we’d served our audience better. The next event, a watch party for the ScienceOnline conference in North Carolina, has a lower registration fee and and will be held at SBMRI. (Thanks to Heather for securing the venue and to Gareth Morgan and the TSRI Society of Fellows for sponsoring).
4. Lean on the masters. As I mentioned in an earlier post, serendipity played a role and ScienceOnline Director Karyn Traphagen was able to fly out and be a panelist at our event last October. She told us all about the resources available to ScienceOnline satellites and has helped us greatly to get going. Learn more on their website.
5. Let go. Once we cast a ‘wide net’ to announce our first #ScioSD event, we found many people who are enthusiastic and willing to run with the organizational tasks. This is how a ScienceOnline satellite should function, in my opinion–no one person or organization taking on the full load. I’m “happy” to say I’ll be participating only tangentially in the watch party, in that I’ll be following their Tweets while I’m at the conference in North Carolina and perhaps relaying questions from them during sessions. I have met SO MANY incredible people in the process–if you want to meet scientific thought leaders, this is the place!
6. Create resources to help. Because the San Diego science community is not currently engaged on Twitter, where do we go from here? We’ve created a few resources:
   1. Twitter list of San Diego scientists, managed by @ScioSD, also follow #ScioSD on Twitter for updates.
   2. Facebook San Diego Biotech interest group and ScioSD Facebook Page<
   3. ScioSD Google Community (and the organizers are using a Google Group, contact SDBN if you’d like to be included).
   4. San Diego Science Blogs RSS Feed (contact SDBN to be added)
   5. LinkedIn Group
   6. (Website coming soon!)

If you’re in San Diego, how do you participate? The next upcoming events are an informal gathering at Rock Bottom in La Jolla Thursday January 24th at 6 p.m. (follow @ScioSD) and the ScienceOnline Watch Party February 2nd. What is a watch party, you ask? Each session at a ScienceOnline conference is a flurry of activity, from the events going on in the room, to online discussions which start and multiply. At the watch party, you’ll watch three live sessions in which you’ll be able to participate in the online discussions, as well as talking about the session to local participants. Two prerecorded sessions will also be watched, and you’ll get to vote on these. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll meet locals who are interested in ScienceOnline and you’ll also help us to form the local chapter. Here’s the registration page, hope to “see” you there!

Special thanks also to Jill Roughan, Sandeep Pingle, and Leah Cannon, and Ramy Aziz, all part of the growing #ScioSD Team!

View on Storify.

More...

Just when we started getting serious about a ScienceOnlineSoCal event, Karyn Traphagen, their Executive Director, contacted me out of the blue on the day I was going to reach out to her. The rest is, as they say, history, and Karyn flew out today to be a part of our panel Monday. I spent some time with her this afternoon and found that the serendipity that resulted in her joining us tomorrow is likely a theme in Karyn’s life, as she describes herself as a “boundary bridger.” Karyn’s journey through many scientific disciplines has prepared her for her role in shaping the non-profit ScienceOnline which seeks to empower scientists through connections, conversations, collaborations, and community (the 4 C’s).

A nice interview with Karyn can be found on the Double X Science blog and I urge you to read it to understand Karyn’s highly interdisciplinary background. Karyn described the three areas ScienceOnline is focused on:

1. Events. ScienceOnline has its main event in North Carolina in January, and is branching out to have satellite events in the Bay Area, Seattle, Denver, Washington DC, Chicago, and of course Southern California. These regional groups will help people to connect in real life and to discuss the issues specific to the region.
2. Community. Both in these geographical groups, and online globally, ScienceOnline seeks to build a community which can tackle the tough questions about science communication.
3. Tools. ScienceOnline seeks to help facilitate the ’4 C’s’ through tools such as ScienceSeeker which collects and curates science blog posts and news. Karyn said that some exciting new changes will be launched soon, stay tuned!

Karyn got very passionate when talking about the bigger picture for ScienceOnline. She sees a culture in which scientists often replicate their mentors and keep with outdated systems for communication and eschewing outreach. She sees a major disconnect between research and the public, and this has resulted in a funding crisis and distorted views of science. If we’re doing science to save lives, isn’t it important that our work is understood?

There are myriad tools for scientists available to leverage the 4 C’s, and there are many topics which can be discussed which don’t divulge intellectual property (e.g., news, publications, events). Karyn and I discussed the fact that understanding the amazing benefits of participating in the ScienceOnline community is highly experiential and we hope that we can better understand the needs of the region on Monday. Karyn’s interdisciplinary experience will surely help us to create a ScienceOnlineSoCal group which will benefit us all. Please join us!

Stephen Larson, panelist for our October 22nd ScienceOnline event, describes the OpenWorm project, a fascinating initiative that demonstrates the power of researchers working together online.

Can a large scale biological simulation project be run as an open source project?

With well funded efforts like DARPA’s synapse project and the Blue Brain project it seems like it would be difficult.  But that’s what the passionate group behind the OpenWorm project believe and have been making it a reality for the past year.  Some basic facts about the project:

• The complexity of understanding the human brain makes it crucial to start with very simple organisms and to understand those simple organisms using computer models.
• OpenWorm is building a computational platform that reverse engineers a microorganism with one thousand cells — the most well studied microorganism in biology.
• The platform is being built transparently online in open source code repositories, such as GitHub
• The group doesn’t work under the same roof — the project is the distributed volunteer effort of individuals in Russia, U.K, Ireland, and the United States.

The project has already produced a “Worm Browser” that allows anyone to see the anatomy of the organism that is being simulated.  The project has also made great progress in marshalling the facts that are known about this organism into a “connectome” that can be simulated.  Finally, the project recently published a paper that outlines its previous work and points directions to the future.

We need help!  If you are interested in helping out, whether or not you have any special expertise, please send an email to contact@openworm.org or check out the contact page on the website for more ways to connect!

We are very lucky to have Miriam Goldstein on our ScienceOnlineSoCal panel October 22nd for several reasons. One is that she is very busy right now as she’s in the final process of writing her Ph.D. thesis at UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO). Another reason we’re lucky is that although many would consider that Miriam is just beginning her scientific career, she’s gotten more press than many do their lifetime. Miriam clearly understands that science communication is important, and her experience can help researchers utilize this tool to improve their own careers. I am going to step in and write this post so that Miriam can concentrate on her thesis, but she’ll be available at our event Oct. 22nd for questions.

At SIO, Miriam studies the impact of plastic debris on marine invertebrates. In 2009, she was the Chief Scientist on the student run Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (Seaplex). One of the studies done on the ship involved collecting water samples and Miriam’s team found that the amount of ocean plastic has increased 100 fold in the past 40 years. In addition, Miriam’s group found that this debris is altering the habitat of a marine invertebrate, and this could have major implications for the ocean’s ecosystem. These findings received worldwide media attention, including the BBC, NPR, and my favorite, The Onion.

Like most ‘overnight successes,’ Miriam has been working hard as well as communicating her science for years, she has blogged since 2007, continues to blog, and has been getting great media coverage since 2009. Of course, she works on a subject which is very topical, which helps. However, the fact that she communicates online regularly with the public and other researchers has likely shaped her research topic and goals to be in line with what people care most about. This benefit helps science communicators throughout their careers to get funding and jobs, among other things.

Additionally, Miriam is in tune with the educational needs of students ranging from high school to graduate studies. Check out her impressive work teaching students in San Diego. Through her important research and science communication, Miriam’s work puts a spotlight on San Diego’s important ocean research. Can you imagine the impact if we had active ‘research spokespeople’ for all of the scientific areas we excel at locally? Please join us October 22nd to learn from Miriam’s experience about how you can improve your career and research.