This weeks issue of NatureJobs news just arrived in my inbox with an article on 'A 'facebook' for scientists', so maybe that's worth a look...i haven't read it yet.
Jo Isaac, PhD Research ~ Writing ~ Photography Editor/Designer: NCCARF; Terrestrial Adaptation Research Network Newsletter http://www.nccarf.edu.au/terrestrialbiodiversity/news 'When you have seen one ant, one bird, one tree, you have not seen them all.' E.O.Wilson ---- Original message ---- >Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:45:59 -0000 >From: "Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news" ><[email protected]> (on behalf of William Silvert ><[email protected]>) >Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Scientific Networking >To: [email protected] > >I've joined a few of the various social networks and find them of little >professional value, although I have met up with some old friends and >schoolmates. However it strikes me that this kind of networking could be of >considerable value to scientists, and I am posting to enquire whether any >suitable networks exist. It may of course be that I simply don't know how to >use the networks I belong to. > >It would be handy to be able to classify one's friends/colleagues by interest >and to be able to post messages to various specific interest groups. This >seems similar to the idea of lists on Facebook, but I have not yet found any >way to send messages specifically to one or more of these lists. > >Some of these interest groups already exist as formal groups of course, I am >sure that there must be several organised groups dealing with climate change. >On the other hand I doubt that there are groups specifically interested in >vibrio or in ctenophores, so it would have to be an ad hoc group. I envisage a >system where individual scientists would define their own interest areas and >be able to communicate easily with colleagues with overlapping interests. For >example, if I am working on the possibility that pollution is depressing >oxygen levels in some region and this is encouraging the dominance of >jellyfish, I could send it to people I know whom I have classified as >interested in pollution, in hypoxia and in gelatinous zooplankton, and perhaps >to others working in the same region. > >Of course some of the existing networks are ideal for a few scientists. I find >Twitter absolutely useless, but for astronomers searching for comets it must >be a fantastic tool. > >Anyway, I would welcome any comments and advice on ways in which these modern >networking tools can be used for science. Email lists have certainly been >useful, but I find that in some areas they are too narrowly defined and >structured to work well. > >Bill Silvert
