soloconf_09 | O'Really?

June 2, 2009

Who Are You? Digital Identity in Science

Filed under: conferences,data mining,lyrical — Duncan Hull @ 7:50 am
Tags: author-id, Bruno Harbulot, contributor-id, crossref, digital identity, FOAF, google scholar, Henry Story, LinkedIn, openid, pubmed, researcherid, sciblog, scopus, Simon Willison, soloconf, soloconf_09, SSL, SWOT, The Who, TLS

The organisers of the Science Online London 2009 conference are asking people to propose their own session ideas (see some examples here), so here is a proposal:

Title: Who Are You? Digital Identity in Science

Many important decisions in Science are based on identifying scientists and their contributions. From selecting reviewers for grants and publications, to attributing published data and deciding who is funded, hired or promoted, digital identity is at the heart of Science on the Web.

Despite the importance of digital identity, identifying scientists online is an unsolved problem [1]. Consequently, a significant amount of scientific and scholarly work is not easily cited or credited, especially digital contributions: from blogs and wikis, to source code, databases and traditional peer-reviewed publications on the Web. This (proposed) session will look at current mechanisms for identifying scientists digitally including contributor-id (CrossRef), researcher-id (Thomson), Scopus Author ID (Elsevier), OpenID, Google Scholar [2], Single Sign On, PubMed, Google Scholar [2], FOAF+SSL, LinkedIn, Shared Identifiers (URIs) and the rest. We will introduce and discuss each via a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats). Is digital identity even possible and ethical? Beside the obvious benefits of persistent, reliable and unique identifiers, what are the privacy and security issues with personal digital identity?

If this is a successful proposal, I’ll need some help. Any offers? If you are interested in joining in the fun, more details are at scienceonlinelondon.org

References

Bourne, P., & Fink, J. (2008). I Am Not a Scientist, I Am a Number PLoS Computational Biology, 4 (12) DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000247
Various Publications about unique author identifiers bookmarked in citeulike
Yours Truly (2009) Google thinks I’m Maurice Wilkins
The Who (1978) Who Are You? Who, who, who, who? (Thanks to Jan Aerts for the reference!)

Comments (1)

Blogging For Profit: Costs and Benefits

Filed under: conferences,funding — Duncan Hull @ 7:40 am
Tags: AdSense, blogger, London, Mendeley, Nature Network, Nature Publishing Group, openwetware, sciblog, soloconf, soloconf_09, wordpress

The organisers of the Science Online London 2009 conference are asking people to propose their own session ideas (see some examples here), so here is proposal:

Title: Blogging For Profit: Costs and Benefits

What are the costs and benefits of blogging and how can you make sure the latter justifies the former?

This (proposed) session will look at two kinds of profit, and the costs associated with each.

Research profit (in science and academia), building digital reputations on the Web. Can blogging help your next grant proposal for research funding and if so, how? How can blogging be used to increase the visibility and impact of published research via the likes of ResearchBlogging.org, blogs.nature.com and other aggregators?

Financial profit (in business), making blogging pay the bills. What business models (and infrastructure) exist to support blogging? Including, but not limited to: Nature Network, ScienceBlogs, Google AdSense, “20% time“, “free” tools (WordPress, Blogger, OpenWetWare etc). Going solo vs. joining a club – which business models and tools are right for you?

This could be followed by a general discussion on these benefits. When do they justify their costs (and risks) and make for profitable blogging?

If this is a successful proposal, I’ll need some help. Any offers? If you are interested in joining in the fun, details are at scienceonlinelondon.org

[CC-licensed Business Graph picture by nDevilTV]

Comments (1)

September 4, 2008

Famous for fifteen people

Filed under: web of science — Duncan Hull @ 2:47 pm
Tags: Andrew Walkingshaw, Andy Warhol, axiope, badscience, barcamb, Ben Goldacre, BrainDuck, Brian Cox, cameron neylon, Clan Duncan, connotea, Coracle, DIUS, Egon Willighagen, Euan Adie, Gia Millinovich, Jean-Claude Bradley, London, Marilyn Monroe, Mekentosj, MOMA, momus, myexperiment, Nature Network, New York, nobel, NTK, penis, people, Peter Murray-Rust, sciblog, scifoo, soloconf, soloconf_09, Timo Hannay, Zoe Corbyn

The artist Andy Warhol once said:

“In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes”.

This well worn saying has been quoted and misquoted in hundreds of different ways in the forty years since Warhol first coined it [1].

Bad Scientist Ben Goldacre, in his keynote speech* at Science Blogging (sciblog) 2008, highlighted one of these deliberate misquotes, which he attributed to NTK.net (Need To Know: Britain’s most sarcastic high-tech weekly newsletter). It goes a little something like this:

“On the internet everybody can be world famous for fifteen people“.

This wonderful expression captures the nature and scale of science blogging on the internet today in a nutshell. Personally, I think it also sums up much of the spirit of the Science Blogging 2008 conference as well. In total, around eight groups of fifteen people, attended the conference. It was physically impossible to talk to all of them in one day, especially since I had to slink off early at 7pm, but I did manage to meet the following people: (more…)

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August 27, 2008

Science blogging at the Royal Institution, London

Filed under: web of science — Duncan Hull @ 8:02 am
Tags: Christmas lectures, London, NPG, Royal Institution, sciblog, soloconf, soloconf_09

Nature Publishing Group are organising a workshop on science blogging, this Saturday 30th August 2008 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. Why would you care? Because there are:

Lots of interesting people…
…talking about a range of interesting subjects …
.. in a distinguished venue that has recently been refurbished. It is also home to the fantastic Christmas lectures and much more besides.

To cap it all, I think it will be great fun too. So if you’re going, see you there. If you’re not, it is never too late to publish your fantasy science funding entry. Much of the conference will be televised and blogged, making it available online too.

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