Tag Archives: science and music

ScienceOnline 2012

As I recall it was originally a science bloggers conference in North Carolina and yesterday (Nov. 1, 2011) it (ScienceOnline 2012) opened registration at 12 noon EDT to fill 100 seats in a little over 2 mins. Luckily there will be three more opportunities to register for this conference, which gives you time to practice your keyboarding skills.

Before giving more details about registration, here’s a little information about ScienceOnline from the About page,

ScienceOnline2012 is the sixth annual international meeting on science and the Web.

Every January since 2007, the Research Triangle area of North Carolina has hosted scientists, students, educators, physicians, journalists, librarians, bloggers, programmers and others interested in the way the World Wide Web is changing the way science is communicated, taught and done.

ScienceOnline2012 – #scio12 across social media – will take place January 19-21, 2012 on the campus of N.C. State University, with some 450 participants. [emphasis mine]

Here are a few snippets from the programme,

Math Future network of communities: A year in review (discussion) – Maria Droujkova
The Math Future Interest Group is an international network of researchers, educators, families, community leaders and technology enablers. We are collaborating on a variety of research and development projects and conversation threads about social media as it relates to mathematics and mathematics education. In 2011, we opened a peer-to-peer School of the Mathematical Future in collaboration with P2PU; started to develop a community publishing process and a press called Delta Stream Media; launched Math Game Design group; held a successful crowd-funding campaign for “Moebius Noodles,” a young math project; and organized our 100th open, free and interactive webinar in the ongoing series. http://mathfuture.wikispaces.com/

The basic science behind the medical research: where to find it, how and when to use it. (discussion) – Emily Willingham and Deborah Blum
Sometimes, a medical story makes no sense without the context of the basic science–the molecules, cells, and processes that led to the medical results. At other times, inclusion of the basic science can simply enhance the story. How can science writers, especially without specific training in science, find, understand, and explain that context? As important, when should they use it? The answers to the second question can depend on publishing context, intent, and word count. This session will involve moderators with experience incorporating basic science information into medically based pieces with their insights into the whens and whys of using it. The session will also include specific examples of what the moderators and audience have found works and doesn’t work from their own writing.

So You Want To Make A Science Documentary (discussion) – Tom Levenson
This workshop is aimed at those who want to take the next step into storytelling with moving images or sound in work that moves past straight news, commentary or illustration into documentary. It will be half practical, focusing on production much more than technical crafts, which is to say it will talk about how to organize a documentary project down to a quite nitty-gritty level more than how to use a camera or which microphone to buy. (Though some of that kind of stuff will, no doubt, slip in.) The other half of the workshop will look at/listen to a couple of short, well made science documentaries, including recent student work, to start the discussion on what the particular challenges and opportunities for telling stories the media of audio or video create.

Story as Shape or Song: Geometry and Music as Longform Nonfiction Structural Models (discussion) – Deborah Blum and David Dobbs
Nonfiction narratives longer than about 3000 words often demand different, more various structures than shorter pieces do. In this workshop, authors and longform writers Deborah Blum and David Dobbs will describe open a discussion of literally storytelling by describing how geometric shapes (Blum) and musical forms (Dobbs can offer models for conceptualizing, organizing, and composing narratives from about 3000 words up. Is you story a parabola? A circle? A pyramid? Or is it a pop song, a fugue, or a sonata? With a variety of forms to consider as models, you can create what Blum calls “a structured seduction of the reader.” Which, when it works, makes everybody feel good. Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Blum, author of The Poisoner’s Handbook and Love at Goon Park, writes for leading magazines and literary journals including Scientific American, Slate, Lapham’s Quarterly and Tin House and keeps her blog, Speakeasy Science, at PLOSblogs. She teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. David Dobbs, author of Reef Madness and the Atavist hit My Mother’s Lover, writes features for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Slate, and other magazines, and is working on his fourth book, The Orchid and the Dandelion. His blog Neuron Culture is at Wired.

As noted on the About page, you can keep track of the discussion, level of buzz, and the latest conference doings on #scio12 across all social media (I check out their Twitter feed).

Here’s some of the information on how to register (from the Registration page),

In order to allow the most access to conference registration, this year we will open registration at four separate times, closing each time after 100 individuals have completed the registration form and payment has been received. After we fill our total allotted spaces (about 450), we will provide a waitlist registration form.

Please register at one of these times:

  • Tues, Nov 1st at 12 noon EDT
  • Thurs, Nov 3rd at 6 a.m. EDT
  • Tues, Nov 8th at 00:01 a.m. EST
  • Wed, Nov 9th at 6 p.m. EST

Fees

We strive to make the conference affordable and a great value.

Registration fees, to be paid via PayPal (you may use a credit card) at the completion of the registration form, are as follows:

  • Regular rate – $200 – includes Friday banquet
  • Day pass – $150 – does not include Friday banquet
  • Student rate – $100 – includes Friday banquet. High school, college and graduate students may choose this rate.
  • Student day pass – $75 – does not incude the Friday banquet

Good luck with the next registration periods!