Tag Archives: Science World blog

Canadian science media at June 28, 2015 SpaceX Dragon CRS-7 cargo mission to the International Space Station

The short story is that Elizabeth Hand, Digital Engagement Specialist, at Vancouver’s (Canada) Science World was selected to be a correspondent at the Cape Canaveral (Florida) Space X launch on June 28, 2015. There’s more in her June 24, 2015 posting on the Vancouver Sun newspaper blog network (Note: Links and some formatting niceties have been removed),

I [am] on my way to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to join a team of social media correspondents from all over the world as a representative of Science World British Columbia to view the June 28, 2015 SpaceX Dragon CRS-7 cargo mission to the International Space Station.

I  received the news that I had been offered an invite at my thirty-something birthday celebration dinner. It was the gift to end all birthday gifts—a once-in-a-lifetime space nerd adventure. Any rocket launch would have made me happy, but a launch from Cape Canaveral is a particularly special one. For me, in particular, because I grew up in Florida and I can remember standing outside in the school yard hoping to catch a glimpse of the space shuttles that moved the Americans to the stars in the 80’s and 90’s. I dreamed of going up with them.

I am excited to bring the curiosity and excitement of the kids in BC with me to the events. Kids of all ages are invited to send their questions about space and rockets to @scienceworldca and/or @bettyHand on both Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #whyspacematters. You can participate from home or from Science World, where, from June 24-28, kids can dress up in space suits and, with the help of our science facilitators, can snap photos and share their ideas and questions with me and the experts at NASA and SpaceX.

It’s not clear to me if she will be blogging live as well as using the vehicles (Twitter, etc.) mentioned in her posting*. It might be worth checking both the Vancouver Sun (Community Blogs Network) and Science World (blog) to see if she will be offering more substantive descriptions than are possible on the social media vehicles she mentioned.

* ‘posing’ corrected to ‘posting’ at 1115 hours on June 26, 2015.

ETA June 29, 2015: The rocket exploded nine minutes after launch (Daniel Terdiman’s June 28, 2015 posting for Fast Company).

2013: Science Borealis an emergent science media network in Canada

It’s a wish fulfilled to see Canada now has a science blog aggregator and an incubator (in my opinion) for an emergent science media network giving prominence to science as delivered by blogs, Twitter, and other social media: Science Borealis. While the mainstream media has been struggling for some years with diminishing resources, the social media has been burgeoning and the landscape for science journalism and science communication has changed irrevocably. I find it fascinating that while conferences in Canada include science media panels they do not tend to include science bloggers or, if they do, the science bloggers are given a separate panel. It seems as if bloggers are not part of the media as far as the Canadian science and social science communities are concerned. This is particularly odd in a country such as Canada where we have so little mainstream media offering science content other than regurgitated press releases. (For those not familiar with the practice, many of the science articles you see in newspapers are press releases that have been rewritten by a journalist with no new content or commentary added; it’s a practice known as ‘churnalism‘.)

I think it’s time that Canadian university press officers/communications specialists/etc. and the marketing communications people in various agencies and businesses woke up to the fact that science bloggers, etc. are part of an emergent science media community.  For that matter, I hope some of the members of the Science Borealis community (full disclosure: I was on the founding team) wake up to that fact too. Yes, even I sometime fall prey to the old habits of thought about communication and outreach but what I find surprising is that many people in their 30s and younger have those same habits.  So, my wish for 2014 is that science blogging be recognized as integral to the science media landscape by everyone and we outgrow our ingrained habits of thought..

At the last count Dec. 31, 2013,  Science Borealis has some 50 blogs in its feed six weeks after its launch at the 5th Canadian Science Policy Conference (Nov. 20 – 22, 2013). Prior to the launch, we knew of the existence of approximately150 Canadian science blogs, so, I have a second wish: I hope more Canadian science bloggers join in 2014.

Science Borealis has a livefeed of blog postings on its homepage so you can see a variety of what’s available on any one day or if there’s some new science policy or science scandal, you can get a look at what bloggers are saying about it in more or less realtime. If you have a particular area of interest, there’s a subject listing too,

Biology and Life Sciences
Chemistry
Communication, Education and Outreach
Environmental and Earth Sciences
General Science
Health, Medicine and Veterinary Science
Mathematics and Statistics
Multimedia
Physics and Astronomy
Policy and Politics
Science in Society
Technology and Engineering

I don’t know if Science Borealis will thrive or fulfill any of my (or someone else’s ) wishes for an easy way to find other Canadian science blogs (Yay, I no longer feel obliged to do an annual roundup)  or as the beginning of a Canadian science media community but I applaud its existence and the other members of the founding team. The lead organizations were:

A special shoutout for:

Here are the rest of us:

What a fabulous way to top off 2013 with our very own science blog aggregator! Happy New Year’s Eve!

Science Borealis: a Canadian science blog aggregator/community and its logo contest

Big things are afoot for the Canadian science blogging community. A few of us are developing an aggregator/network which we hope to launch in Fall 2012 with a logo for what we are calling Science Borealis. The Canadian science blogging community has grown exponentially in the last two years (according my count, ymmv) and this aggregator/network effort is the first of its kind for this country.

Canadian Science Publishing, a non-profit, which was until a few years ago known as the NRC Research Press and was part of Canada’s National Research Council, has in the persons of Jenny Ryan and Mary Seligy been a lead in the Science Borealis effort which includes,

along with input from Jude Isabella of the Canadian Science Writers Association, Bora Zivkovic of the Scientific American Blog Network, ScienceOnline and other efforts, Karyn Traphagen of ScienceSeeker.org, and members of the Google+ Science Communications Canada community.

We’re now looking for *even more input into Science Borealis: blogging from Canadian perspectives. This time we’d like it in the form of a logo: Science Borealis Logo Contest.

There will be prizes awarded to 3 finalists chosen by the Science Borealis team:

  • Laptop bag
  • Personal subscription to any NRC Research Press journal (published by Canadian Science Publishing)
  • Any book or ebook available from the NRC Research Press online bookstore (provided by Canadian Science Publishing)

Announcements

  • Finalists:
    • will be announced via Science Borealis social media channels
    • designs will not be revealed publicly
  • Winning design and designer:
    • will be announced via Science Borealis social media channels
    • a link added to the Science Borealis website to the winner’s site, if applicable

Who May Enter?

Any Canadian or person residing in Canada is eligible to submit a logo design – you don’t have to be a graphic arts professional or a science blogger.

Contest Rules and Process

  1. Individuals may submit up to 3 logo designs
  2. Designs must be original and not based on pre-existing art or contain any elements protected by copyright
  3. Each design must be presented in both colour and greyscale.
  4. Winning artist agrees to work with Science Borealis to finalize design.
  5. Winning artist agrees to provide Science Borealis with high-resolution images of the design in the format specified by the web developer.
  6. Winning artist agrees to turn over all rights to the use of the design to Science Borealis.
  7. Science Borealis reserves the right to not select any of the designs submitted.

Deadline for submissions is 5 July, 2013.

Submissions

We are looking for submissions that reflect the dynamism, uniqueness, and excitement found in the Canadian science blogging and communications communities.

    1. Submit via email attachment to ScienceBorealis@gmail.com.
      • Include your full name, email address, and a brief bio in the body of your email.
      • For judging purposes, logos may be submitted in JPG, PNG, or EPS format.
      • Please use the following format for filenames:  Lastname_Firstname_Logo1_colour.xxx
        Lastname_Firstname_Logo1_grey.xxx
      • ….
  1. Deadline for submissions is 5 July, 2013

Logo Specifications

  1. Logo Text:  Science Borealis
  2. Tagline: Blogging from Canadian Perspectives
  3. Size & Scale:
    • Logo should scale to fit into space 280 px wide by 95 px high
  4. Colour Palette:  Unspecified
  5. Design may include Logo Text within the logo or may be a standalone image.
  6. ..
  7. Logos may be designed in any print media – Photoshop, hand drawn or painted, vector art, etc.
  8. Logo must render in grayscale with minimal loss of detail and impact.
  9. Logo must be adjustable to either a dark or a light background.

For more information and full details see scienceborealis.ca or scienceborealis.com. (ETA June 20,2013: I added the link to scienceborealis.ca and reversed the order for presenting the Science Borealis links with .ca first and .com second.)

We look forward to seeing your logo design by July 5, 2013 which you can send to ScienceBorealis@gmail.com. Thank you!

* Correction June 20, 2013: ‘event’ changed to ‘even’.