Life of a Lab Rat

As those of you who are still paying attention might remember (and I apologize for being a little uncommunicative in recent weeks) I am off to the UK at the end of August, there to attend and lead a session at Science Blogging 2008: London.

The Faculties* of Science and my own department have agreed to stump up what amounts to most of the airfare, thereby allowing me to actually go. Naturally of course they want their pound of flesh, and I've been talking to a couple of people about what that entails. At the end of last week I met with one of the Cage's admin officers (Policy Development, Academic Support and Marketing) and we talked about how to publicize the Cage's involvement. I'm going to write a short piece and fly it by her, hopefully to make the University News as well as the Department's website.

This afternoon I nipped over to the Faculty Office to talk with Jas Chambers waves, who is the director of the Marketing, Community & International Relations unit. We had a very pleasant conversation (that's not a euphemism; we got along famously) about what the Faculty expects, and I was agreeably surprised to learn that the Dean and the entire science communications team are very excited about the conference and my participation in it.

I came away with a list of expected 'outputs':

• a 1-2 page report for the Dean of Science regarding the conference and
  thoughts on use of new media and technology from both a ‘science
  communication’ and ‘scientists who are good communicators’ perspectives
  
• a presentation to early and mid career researchers (later in the year)
  
• a presentation to our science communicators at our October meeting
  
• an article to be written for Science Alliance and the UniNews (interview)
  

So I'm going to be a busy little bunny.

It fits in really well, actually, with the proposed panel discussion: our working title is
Embracing Change - Taking science blogging into the future
and our draft agenda looks like

1. Summary. The panellists summarize the major themes of the day
   
2. Question time. Submitted questions from delegates will be
   considered by the team. If time permits then we'll take questions
   from the floor.
   
3. Looking forward. A synthesis? Suggestions for what we can do
   individually and collectively after the conference. Closing comments.
   

What's really interesting is the homework concept — how we might take lessons learned 'home' and apply them. Obviously I'm pretty set up for that with Jas's list, but I'm also going to have to come up with concrete ideas of how blogging can actually assist science communication. Fortunately there's a number of sessions that look to be just what the doctor ordered.

I also have a whole heap of stuff from Jas about the Faculty and communication and 'outreach' activities that I need to swot up on so I can talk knowledgeably about what USyd is already doing (two-way see: I take stuff from London back to Sydney, and advertise Sydney to London as the kind of go-getting upcoming communicating place they should be taking note of). Seriously, that the Faculty is keen on this shows some sort of commitment, and today I learned quite a bit about the vision these guys have (although it's interesting to note that the Cage is one of the few departments that do not have a "Science Communication Officer": whether this is because we're doing quite well with respect to students etc. or we just can't be arsed is probably a matter for debate).

And personally, all this ties in with thoughts about my own career and what I want to do when I grow up. Interesting times.

Oh, and I'm also tying it in with a trip to Southampton for an "Open Science Workshop" organized by Cameron Neylon.

* 'Faculties', officially, although the website says 'Faculty'. Look, it's Admin: I just Do Not Want To Know.