First Panel Session - Blogging the scientific life - Science Online

Mo's just eaten all the panel time in his intro... - Richard P Grant

Grrrrl Scientists - it's odd to talk about blogging - that's what I do on my own about my research - Cameron Neylon

Grrlscientist is making the point that we're real people. - Richard P Grant

The public thinks we're odd - we have some other way of communication - maybe brainwaves or something - the idea of the blog was to write about what its like to be a scientist - to give people are view of what the life is like - Cameron Neylon

Grrl Scientist: "People might think we talk with brain waves"... no, just FriendFeed :) - Egon Willighagen

difficult to meet people and have a conversation about what you do - to tell people what science is about - Cameron Neylon

Jenny Rohn - has the public actually met a scienitst on average? They see people on TV but the response you get is often dependent on how you describe what you do - Cameron Neylon

could there be an equivalent of the 'police procedural' for science? - Cameron Neylon

science is a messy human endeavour - maybe that can lead to more trust - Cameron Neylon

Mo asked a very odd Question - Richard P Grant

Anna Kushinir - the problem with the way scientists communication with each other is that it is closed off from everyone else - Cameron Neylon

Language of science is off-putting to the public?? - Richard P Grant

Grrrl Scientist - the power of getting the original authors of a paper to talk with the public reading the blog - Cameron Neylon

Grrlscientist is saying that it's fantastic for the scientists to communicate and that the public actually loves them - Richard P Grant

Anna: sciblogging as a support group - Richard P Grant

Anna Kushinir - blogging as a support group - needing support through the challenges of scientific life - Cameron Neylon

A: dealing with the stress of grad school, finding people who had the same experiences - Richard P Grant

damn - may be about to lose power.... - Cameron Neylon

Still good to go here - Richard P Grant

Jenny Rohn - potential problems with this with respect to anonymity or lack thereof - Cameron Neylon

Jenny taking about nonymous blogging: how being known and saying things might be detrimental - Richard P Grant

Acceptance of scientists talking about their life, it's not always great - Richard P Grant

the problem of having a timestamp on your comments - and people can see what you are doing - Cameron Neylon

Grrlscientist's READERs paid for her to come!! - Richard P Grant

Grrrls scientists thanking her readers for porviding the funds for her to come - Cameron Neylon

how cool is that? - Richard P Grant

Mmm... it seemed to me that Grrrls would not have come otherwise... though the idea is cool... I wished my readers payed for my expenses :) - Egon Willighagen

Heather is asking about the differences, what you get out out of posting on a blog rather than a forum - Richard P Grant

GS has a 'journal club' thing going - Richard P Grant

Great - twitter is over capacity - looks like this here thread is the place to hit refresh!! - mike seyfang

JR doesn't seen much of a difference - Richard P Grant

Sometimes people play Mornington crescent - Richard P Grant

but that comes to a natural and sad end... - Cameron Neylon

Corie has just asked if blogging as a communication-with-the-public tool actually works - Richard P Grant

I don't know if GS actually answered that - Richard P Grant

Jenny wants to open up NN to non-scientists... - Richard P Grant

JR just asked the Scienceblog crowd to link to NN. Damned right. - Richard P Grant

How do people think about their audience? Jenny and Anna are hopefully accessible to 'the public' but not necessarily written that way - Cameron Neylon

Question about anonymity and its plusses and minuses - Cameron Neylon

Question about anonymity, with respect to comments and actually writing weblog entries - Richard P Grant

Jenny doesn't feel she could be anonymous because she feels accountable for what she says - tries to avoid mentioning colleagues by name - Cameron Neylon

Jenny couldn't be anonymous, she says. Problem with not dumping colleagues in it, which is my major reason for being pseudonymous at the Labrats - Richard P Grant

'preternaturally friendly'! - Richard P Grant

Grrrl scientists started off as anonymous because she was told that it would damage (in fact destroy) her career - Cameron Neylon

going down with lack of battery very soon - Cameron Neylon

JR: not being anonymous -> more friendly. GS was warned that blogging showed she wasn't serious about science and could lose her career (!). But I don't think that fear has really materialized - Richard P Grant

GS is still *for* anonymity - Richard P Grant

Anna thinks the internet already means people are nasty therefore anonymity in comments probably doesn't make things worse. - Richard P Grant

JR: imparting to the public that scientists _disagree_ with each other - Richard P Grant

this is what I always say — science isn't about facts. We argue amongst ourselves - Richard P Grant

GS: blogging intrinsically valuable because records evolution of scientific thought - Richard P Grant

GS ignores hostile commenters. Then goes into attack mode. Heh - Richard P Grant

JR is for ignoring them—animal behaviour - Richard P Grant

Jennifer Rohn really wants to run her own lab - Richard P Grant

Remind me to compare and contrast with *arts*/humanities blogs - Richard P Grant

Damn that battery - audio and video stopped. This text is good but not AS good as listening. - mike seyfang

GS making the point that encouraging people to go into science is not the same thing as educating people, trying to increase scientific literacy. There are too many scientists already, she says! - Richard P Grant

GS again, about toeing the party line in order to keep her job. She has to be anonymous, but I'm still wondering whether this is so, given my experience with USyd. - Richard P Grant

AK: Science is not scary, it's OK to be a scientist. Good summary. - Richard P Grant