PLoS at ScienceOnline2010

ScienceOnline2010, the fourth annual conference on science and the Web, will be held on January 15-17th, 2010 in the Research Triangle Park area (the exact location to be announced) of North Carolina, USA.

The conference was initially conceived as an opportunity for local North Carolina scientists, bloggers and teachers to meet and discuss how the online world can be used for furthering the aims of science communication and education. But the world did not allow us to keep it small and local – participants arrived from all over the USA and abroad and the sessions covered many other aspects of the use of Web in science. Over the past three years, the conference grew in size and strength, with session leaders and participants coming from all corners of the USA, from Canada, the UK, Sweden, Finland, Serbia, Italy, Germany, South Africa and Brazil. The early behind-the-scenes communications indicate that next year we may have people coming from New Zealand, Antarctica and even outer space!

Our goal is to bring together scientists, physicians, patients, teachers, students, publishers, editors, bloggers, journalists, writers, web developers, programmers, elected officials, university administrators, enterpreneurs and others to discuss, demonstrate and debate online strategies and tools for doing science, publishing science, teaching science, and promoting the public understanding of science.

Understandably, some of the issues dear to PLoS such as Open Access publishing, scientific metrics, and Web 2.0 approaches to networking and information-sharing, have been front and center at our conferences. Thus, unsurprisingly, PLoS has been involved in helping or sponsoring the event every year. Apart from myself, as well as several members of the PLoS ONE editorial board, participants in the conference in the past included Liz Allen (Director of Marketing and Communications – see an interview about her experience), former managing editor of PLoS Biology Hemai Parthasarathy and PLoS ONE managing editor Peter Binfield. We expect a continued involvement and we hope that other members of PLoS community – editorial board members, authors and readers – will also consider attending this exciting and edifying meeting.

So, please join us for this three-day event to explore science on the Web. To get a better understanding of the conference, please check out the blog and media coverage of the 2007 conference. See what we did at the 2008 conference and check the blog and media coverage. Look around the ScienceOnline’09 wiki and the blog and media coverage of the 2009 meeting. Interviews with a number of participants at the 2008 conference are here and with participants of the 2009 conference here.

• Please take a minute to register (if you were registered last year, use that password) for the wiki.
• Log in and add ideas for the program at this page.
• The registration for the conference itself will open in late Fall 2009. Sign up here to receive advance notice about registration and other conference updates. (Note: Conference registration is not the same as member registration for editing this wiki, or vice versa – they are two different platforms. To contribute your ideas to this planning wiki, please go to the blue strip on the top of the wiki page and register.)
• If you or your organization are interested in becoming a Sponsor, or helping in other ways, please contact us at info@scienceonline2010.com
• Keep informed about the organization of the conference at the News and Updates page.
• Keep up with the blog and media coverage here.
• This is a collaborative and community conference — we need you to participate now to help us make this a successful, fun and educational event. Please volunteer to help.
• This is a conference to explore new ways in communicating scientific exploration. Our conference addresses a variety of issues and perspectives on science communication, including science literacy, the popularization of science, science in classrooms and in homes, debunking pseudoscience, using blogs as tools for presenting scientific research, writing about science, health and medicine and even using the Web to conduct research. In addition to being an internationally known hub of scientific and biomedical research and education, North Carolina has numerous science blogs written by a wide variety of people – see this listing of Science bloggers located in North Carolina.
• If twittering, use the hashtag: #scio10 (use the same tag on other services, e.g., Flickr, YouTube, etc.). Many sessions will also be livestreamed and/or recorded for virtual participation.
• Join the conversation in the FriendFeed room.
• Join the Facebook event (this helps us with estimating the number and composition of potential participants)
• Help us spread the word: in person, by phone or e-mail, on social networks and on blogs and websites. If online, please use our Promo materials.