I am sitting at ORD in a hotel room, waiting for my rather delayed aircraft spending the night since my plane got cancelled. After a hectic day and a half at ScienceOnline’09, I could do with a quick trip home, but well, this gives me the opportunity to write some stuff down.
This years conference was bigger than the previous one I attended, and more engaging. Great sessions, often overlapping, a good set of people and some interesting discussion. As someone pointed out, we don’t often achieve anything at events like this, but it’s a great place to set an agenda, meet people and see how a field has progressed. Open Notebook Science is a key one, with Jean-Claude and co showing steady progress. The discussion on Impact Factors might not have come to any solid conclusions, but some of the inherent problems were clear, and we had some great discussions on social networks and blog networks in science. Perhaps most importantly, and the name of the conference reflects that, this event highlighted how the web world has evolved over the last few years. It’s not just about blogs anymore, but a plethora of online resources and platforms. In a sense, this is tracking the general trend on the web, where blogs are a part of broader online presence. This is a good thing, cause this can only mean that some of the obsession around blogs and blogging gets a little tempered.
Of course, in the end it’s about the people. It was great to meet Bill, Jean-Claude, Michael, Bora, Anna, Corie, Andrew Su and others again, and it was wonderful to meet Cameron, Eva and Martin in person, and get a taste of that quirky personality that is Henry Gee. That’s only a snapshot of the people whom I interacted with at the event, so the list is a lot longer.
ScienceOnline’09: The return journey
I am sitting
at ORDin a hotel room,waiting for my rather delayed aircraftspending the night since my plane got cancelled. After a hectic day and a half at ScienceOnline’09, I could do with a quick trip home, but well, this gives me the opportunity to write some stuff down.This years conference was bigger than the previous one I attended, and more engaging. Great sessions, often overlapping, a good set of people and some interesting discussion. As someone pointed out, we don’t often achieve anything at events like this, but it’s a great place to set an agenda, meet people and see how a field has progressed. Open Notebook Science is a key one, with Jean-Claude and co showing steady progress. The discussion on Impact Factors might not have come to any solid conclusions, but some of the inherent problems were clear, and we had some great discussions on social networks and blog networks in science. Perhaps most importantly, and the name of the conference reflects that, this event highlighted how the web world has evolved over the last few years. It’s not just about blogs anymore, but a plethora of online resources and platforms. In a sense, this is tracking the general trend on the web, where blogs are a part of broader online presence. This is a good thing, cause this can only mean that some of the obsession around blogs and blogging gets a little tempered.
Of course, in the end it’s about the people. It was great to meet Bill, Jean-Claude, Michael, Bora, Anna, Corie, Andrew Su and others again, and it was wonderful to meet Cameron, Eva and Martin in person, and get a taste of that quirky personality that is Henry Gee. That’s only a snapshot of the people whom I interacted with at the event, so the list is a lot longer.