Hello Ecologists! If you're attending ESA, you may be interested in the Sunday workshop on Social Media for Scientists that Sandra Chung (of NEON) and I are organizing. Our lunchtime workshop last year was a big hit, so we're expanding this year to a half-day workshop, so we can do more hands-on activities to help you get started. Social media is rapidly growing in importance as a professional development, outreach, collaboration, and broader impacts tool, and our workshop will explicitly address how to use this tool for success in both academic and non-academic careers.
Here's the description: Social media and online social networks are rapidly gaining popularity among scientists as a powerful set of tools that can streamline scientific collaboration and discovery in ways that both improve the quality of scientific research and broaden its impact. Research professionals and science communicators are also using social media to engage the public in the process and discussion of science, both to encourage greater public science literacy and to address broader impacts and outreach requirements that accompany public research funding. This two-part workshop will arm participants with the basic knowledge and resources they need to engage in the online science community. Examples demonstrate how smart use of Twitter, blogs and science social networks can enhance scientific workflows, communication, and education. In-workshop practice and introductions to online resources and to a supportive, knowledgeable community of new and old social media users are designed to deepen the skills of current social media users and to give new users everything they need to hit the ground running. Given the situation with wifi at ESA 2013 (as in, there isn't any except in the lobby), we're actively restructuring in order to have a successful workshop so that it can be as hands-on as possible. Given this, keep a couple of things in mind: 1) Bringing your data-enabled devices if you have any, as our wifi is likely to be spotty or slow. We're hoping that in addition to the lobby wifi, we can set up some personal hotspots. 2) We'll be posting resources at bit.ly/esasm. Thanks! Jacquelyn Gill & Sandra Chung
