We’re excitedly counting down to this year’s SpotOn London conference (formerly Science Online London), which is taking place on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th November at the Wellcome Collection Conference Centre.
The theme of this year’s event will be “Connections” and, on the conference’s fifth anniversary, we’ll be celebrating the friendships and collaborations we’ve made so far, as well as looking forward to what we can all achieve together in the future.
This year, there are a few changes to the set up of SpotOn London, including structuring the activities around three topic strands:
i) science communication and outreach
ii) online tools and digital publishing
iii) science policy
Each strand will have 6 discussion sessions and 3 workshops, giving you the opportunity to follow sessions that are all specifically aligned to one of the three main topic areas. However, attendees aren’t restricted to one strand, so if you’d like to hop between different tracks, that’s also possible!
We share here a taster of the sessions and workshops in the science communication and outreach strand. These will include communicating science to a broader audience, whether through blogs, mainstream media or specific engagement projects. Discussions will include examples of international initiatives, writing tips and how to maximize and measure the impact of your efforts.
The provisional programme for the tools strand can be found here. More information on the policy strands, plus the keynotes and fringe events to follow!
Tickets have now sold out, but you can be added to the waiting list by signing up here. We are expecting that there will be a handful of spare tickets. If you have any questions feel free to email us: spoton@nature.com
Plenary (1 hour)
How to do smart journalism on complex science
Coordinator: Ananyo Bhattacharya and Helen Pearson
Panel Members: James Randerson, Stephen Curry, Ed Yong, Victoria Gill
Hashtag: #solo12journo
Science is growing bigger, more complex and more interdisciplinary. How can science journalists and communicators create accurate, engaging narratives, while still capturing the complexity and uncertainty of science and avoiding oversimplification? Our panellists will talk about situations across media in which they have taken on a messy, complicated scientific subject and tried to turn it into a clear, compelling story online — as well as any lessons they learned on the way.
Discussion sessions (1 hour)
Challenges in science communication in Europe
Coordinator: Beatrice Lugger
Panel Members: Lars Fischer, Zuberoa Marcos, Lucas Brouwers
Hashtag: #solo12Europe
Science plays a varying role in society and scientific topics are debated in European countries in different ways. What are these differences? What about the balance between local based and international science communications? In times of economic bottlenecks scientific research is seeking new means of funding, but what about science communication? Should blogging journalists and academics use online media to secure public debates about science and progress without getting paid?
We’ll talk about new initiatives, differences and progresses and look for a lively debate. Special topics will be:
- The European and international enhanced blog portal Scilogs.com
- International science blogging in English e.g. for SciAm and being a science editor in Dutch media. Benefits for both sides.
- In Spain science programs on radio and sections in newspapers have disappeared. Reactions of science communicators.
- New initiatives such as the National Institute of Science Communications, Germany
Women in science – Improving visibility of female scientists online and offline
Coordinators: Nathalie Pettorelli and Seirian Sumner
Panel Members: Martin Robbins, Athene Donald, Judith Willetts
Hashtag: #solo12WIS
An online presence is a powerful way of raising the profile of both science and the people who do science. Data shows that many more male scientists than females engage with online science-related activities – e.g. blogging and tweeting. Why is this and how is this affecting the profile for women in science?
This session will hear from a successful female science blogger, an annual campaign to get female scientists reaching out to the general public, a champion of women’s rights and an organisation that supports women in STEM. As part of the discussions, we hope to put together a toolkit of useful resources for any female scientists looking to improve/promote her profile online and offline, and make online communication work for her.
Can we work together to better evaluate online engagement?
Coordinators: Shane McCracken and Karen Bultitude
Hashtag: #solo12Engage
One of the big advantages of online engagement is the accurate measurement of what we do. But there seems to be little discussion about what are the important measures. A number of arts organisations worked together to create some shared good practice culminating in a Culture24 report. Should we be looking at something for science engagement?
Citizen Science – Public engagement with research
Coordinators: Ann Grand
Panel Members: Cindy Regalado, Shannon Dosemagen
Hashtag: #solo12citizen
Since the middle of the twentieth century, the relationship between science and the public has evolved from the perception of a need for the remedial education of a scientifically-deficient public, to a situation in which is assumed that everyone has a responsibility to engage with the science that shapes our societies.
Rather than supporting engagement with scientific outputs or scientists, we now have the potential to support engagement throughout the entire process of science, to allow professional and non-professional participants to co-create and collaborate on research projects. This is a considerable shift of paradigm: scientists nudged from their traditional role as designers and decision-makers; members of the public offering previously unused talents and expertises.
What will be needed to support effective, egalitarian, bottom-up professional–public co-research? What skills will participants need to develop? How will the roles of ‘scientist’ and ‘public citizen’ develop? What ethical considerations are involved in challenging the notions of what ‘people’ can do? How do we value the validity and credibility of the contributions of citizen scientists? What are the current issues in participatory research in environmental and health research structures?
Stories behind the research
Coordinator: Eva Amsen
Panel members: Ben Lillie, Anne Osterrieder, Vibhuti Patel
Hashtag: #solo12stories
Behind every scientific paper is a story about researchers. Sometimes you can see hints of it in the methods section, and imagine graduate students spending the night in the lab, or travelling to exotic locales to collect samples. Other times it’s well hidden, and you have to talk directly to the scientists to find out more about the people behind the research. Sometimes there is no paper, and *that* is the story.
These sorts of stories show the human side of research, but what is the value, and who is the audience? Where can researchers share them if they want to? How is the web facilitating this? Do journals play a role? Do we still have time for stories in the age of Big Data and rapid publication, or are they more important than ever?
In this session a panel will attempt to answer these questions as they shed their views on stories behind the research.
Will multimedia content created by organisations replace traditional science journalism?
Coordinators: Mun-Keat Looi, Kat Arney (Chair)
Panel Members: Mark Henderson, Connie St Louis, Helen Jamison
Guest witnesses: Ed Yong, Alok Jha, Henry Scowcroft
Hashtag: #solo12newmedia
The digital revolution has transformed the environment in which we communicate, reducing the costs of distributing content and blurring the boundaries between traditional media and “source” organisations. Through websites, blogs, podcasts, online video and social media, audiences are increasingly choosing their own news sources. This is allowing research institutions and organisations – such as Cancer Research UK, the Wellcome Trust and others – to reach large audiences directly with the same authority, content and resources that were once the preserve of the “traditional media”.
What’s the value of these outlets, where do they sit with mainstream media, where’s the line between communication and marketing/PR, and will this fill the void left by traditional science journalism’s contraction?
This session will put these questions to the test. Following the Select Committee/Moral Maze format, three panelists will deliberate the issues, cross-examining evidence from four guest witnesses and a ‘public consultation’ from the audience.
Workshops (1 hour)
Workshops will held on Monday 12th November and each will be consist of hands-on demos and discussions showcasing useful tools and techniques.
Using Twitter as a Means of Effective Science Engagement
Organiser: Maria Delaney
Members: Ian Brunswick, Catherine McGuinness
Hashtag: #solo12Twitter
An interactive workshop introducing how each of the speakers successfully use Twitter for engagement. Each of the Dublin-based speakers has diverse experiences in using social media for this purpose. The workshop will include an activity which will result in the creation of strategy toolkit for online science engagement.
Using Social Media at Conferences and Other Events: Backchannel, Amplification, Remote Participation and Legacy
Organisers: Tony Hirst, Brian Kelly
Hashtag: #solo12SMC
The term ‘amplified conference’ was coined to describe use of networked technologies to amplify discussions at an event and provide opportunities for audience which is not physically present to remotely participate. Amplification also extends to annotation, in which audience members can annotate a talk with comments and linked resource sharing. In the same way that conference proceedings and attendee lists provide a legacy resource associated with an event, so too can the backchannel archive, in the form of social media interest maps, and search-based resources (for example, search over participants’ blogs or shared links, or search into video archives based on contemporaneous backchannel commentary).
Approaches such as Twitter event hashtags, video or audio streaming of talks and preserving conference resources such as slides, recordings of talks and Twitter archives for use after the event are now embedded within certain sectors of the research community, particularly events with a focus on open access and use of social media.
This participative session will provide an opportunity for participants to hear about emerging practices for amplification of events, including analysis of associated metrics. The session will also address potential barriers and concerns when event amplification may not be appropriate.
Assessing social media impact
Organisers: Alan Cann, Lou Woodley, Matt Hodgkinson
Hashtag: #solo12impact
Make sure you join in the conversation online using the #solo12 hashtag and by following the official Twitter account @SpotOnLondon.