http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/labrats/

Open BloggingRichard P. Grant

University of Sydney

http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/labrats/

• ‘The blog service is open to all staff, and we hope it will be used for academic collaboration, engagement with industry and the community, marketing, and general sharing of knowledge and debate.’

June 2006

blogs.usyd.edu.au

• ‘By providing a free, in-house service, we aim to make it as easy as possible for staff to establish and maintain a blog. Staff will also benefit from a clear association with the University’

June 2006

blogs.usyd.edu.au

blogs.usyd.edu.au

August 2006

network.nature.com• ‘prestigious, highly trafficked and search-

engine-optimised. Accordingly, we are keen to host your blog on the Nature Network platform. This is free, plus gives your blog valuable exposure across the global scientific community’

May 2007

Why blog?

Why blog?

• Teaching

• Outreach

• Help & advice

• Sharing data/reagents/protocols

Why blog?

• Teaching

• Outreach

• Help & advice

• Sharing data/reagents/protocols

• I like writing…

Outcomes

• Teaching

-seminar tips-feedback from students-methods

Outcomes

• Teaching

• Outreach

-arts/humanities-‘the scientist who can write’-pictures of Westerns

Outcomes

• Teaching

• Outreach

• Help & advice

Outcomes

-perl

• Teaching

• Outreach

• Help & advice

• Sharing

Outcomes

-protocols-saving money!-further help-USENET all over again

Problems

• Offence

• How much is allowed?

• Time away from the bench

I have no answers

• how far to take sharing data?

• allude to a result?

• Show a PCR?

• Name my protein?

Spot the difference• exon database at GRC (can’t do with

commercial software...)

• Is any information I give actually valuable without context/reagents?

• Is methods more valuable than data?

• “Gandalf makes cells explode”

Issues

• blogging data that is presented at meetings—is this the same thing? ‘Stealing’ and redistribution?

• publication / patent rights?

Would like to see…• Collaborative

• More than one ‘hard science’ blog!

• Central/Faculty commitment

• support

• marketing

• training

Sciblog ’08

• Challenging assumptions

• Most people have never heard of us

• Even if they have they don’t see the point (whether blogging or OS)

• But there is great potential

Sciblog ’08

ChallengeIs it worth it?If so, how do we make it mainstream/acceptable?

Sciblog ’08

Geeks in an echo chamber