Thanks, but no thanks, Eric! I'm happy to throw together a facebook page but don't have time to take on the website. (I don't know drupal, for one thing.)
Maintenance of the FB page is minimal. It's a quick setup, a quick copy and paste of some basic info from the website, and then anyone listed as an admin can post events. Presumably, that would be me, Eric (if you want), Alicia, and who else? Anybody? ----- Original Message ----- From: Eric Scoles To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 10:40 AM Subject: Re: facebook link Pat, to answer your question, right now I'm the technology officer. But if you're interested in being an officer, I'd be happy to endorse you as my replacement ;-). If someone's got the energy to maintain a Facebook page for R-SPEC, I say more power to them. My general concern about Facebook is that it only really networks with Facebook. It's a walled garden. You get the illusion of great connectedness, but you're actually making a conscious choice to limit yourself to Facebookers. Same thing is true of SL, but with SL the choice is more obvious and ever-present, whereas Facebook is designed to obfuscate it. (Actually, in some ways SL is arguably more open than Facebook. But that's another discussion for another time.) The Rochester Poets example is good, I suppose. Re. the idea of multiple people posting to Facebook -- Jonathan raised it on another thread -- I don't think you can do that, at least not that way. You can "friend" R-SPEC and tag it and have R-SPEC show up on your feeds, or have R-SPEC show some stuff from different people's feeds in its own feed, but I don't know what the limitations are on that -- Pat probably does. The platform our website is based on is capable of all manner of integration with outside resources -- integrating inbound newsfeeds, specialized outbound newsfeeds/calendar feeds, sophisticated calendaring (even some integration w/ Google Calendar). The problem is that as my workload at work has increased, I've had little time to build those capabilities into the site. On 2009-02-04, Pat Rapp <[email protected]> wrote: Oops - that was the wrong link. Sorry. *blush* Here's the right one: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=3c30aaab1e07aca4b8f53c8237d651b7&gid=35268132830 ----- Original Message ----- From: Pat Rapp To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 9:36 PM Subject: Re: DNA in action! Who's the technology officer? I was just offering to do it because it's a good idea, it's easy exposure, and it's free. If someone else wants to do it, I say go for it. An example: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=646157164&ref=profile#/group.php?gid=35268132830 ----- Original Message ----- From: Alicia Henn To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 9:22 PM Subject: Re: DNA in action! One of the things we've talked about doing is expanding our online presence beyond our website. There has been resistance to a Second Life R-SPEC presence. We should hear from our technology officer before launching a Facebook page. How do facebook pages for organizations work? I've never seen one. Alicia On Feb 4, 2009, at 10:15 AM, Jonathan Sherwood wrote: I'll pitch in my yes vote. Can we set it up to allow certain people to post? Obviously, we don't want anyone in the world posting updates, but I don't think we'd want just one person with access, either. -- Jonathan Sherwood Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer University of Rochester 585-273-4726 On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 10:09 AM, Pat <[email protected]> wrote: I can put up an R-Spec page on Facebook, if there's no objection. It only takes a few minutes and we can easily post announcements, events, videos, pictures, link to our website, etc. On Feb 4, 10:01 am, Jonathan Sherwood <[email protected]> wrote: > I had been wondering about R-SPEC on Facebook. I don't know enough about it, > other than that it's a good way for people to keep abreast of what we're up > to. > But I think Pat's right - we need to promote individual meetings to some > degree. The D&C would run it in their calendar, and we can make sure other > places such as Writers and Books have it posted. > > -- > Jonathan Sherwood > Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer > University of Rochester > 585-273-4726 > > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 9:10 AM, Pat Rapp <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Or, perhaps more fitting to this group in particular -- as the atheist > > otters on South Park say, "For science's sake." > > : ) > > > All kidding aside, I agree that it's unfortunate that there was such a low > > turnout when we had a guest speaker of such high caliber. > > > Having said that, there are times when one just cannot get to a meeting. > > Work and school are priorities. What we should do next time is try a little > > harder to promote the event -- submitting to the newspaper, blogging it, > > facebooking it, etc. That way, even if the regular R-Spec crowd is unable > > to > > attend, maybe the wider general public would show up. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Dave Henn" <[email protected]> > > To: <[email protected]> > > Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 9:00 AM > > Subject: Re: DNA in action! > > > I'm sorry I couldn't be there, too. That's a lot of "I'm sorry I > > couldn't be there" posts. Of course, in my case, living 350 miles away > > during the week makes attendance a tad more difficult even if one > > doesn't have, er, scheduling conflicts. Had I been in town, and > > assuming I had functioning transportation, I probably could have found > > a way to juggle my time to squeeze in an hour or two at the talk. This > > probably not too subtle hint is not directed at any one person but is > > prompted by the cumulative weight of apologies for not being there. > > It's once a month, for God's sake (or, for the agnostics and atheists, > > goodness' sake, or, for the evil, for badness' sake, or, for the > > neutral, for whatever's sake, etc.). Same bat time, same bat channel > > next month. > > > Dave > > > P.S. We don't own a dog house, but I should probably build a nice one > > so when I come back to Rochester I can be comfortable. :-P > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 8:44 AM, Jonathan Sherwood > > <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Yet another "sorry I couldn't be there" note (at least I have only two > > > more > > > months of Tuesday night classes!) > > > That video was stunning. I've forwarded it to half a dozen biologists. > > > > -- > > > Jonathan Sherwood > > > Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer > > > University of Rochester > > > 585-273-4726 > > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Eric Scoles <[email protected]> > > wrote: > > > >> Yes, thanks from me, too -- I really wanted to be there, I'm sorry I had > > >> to leave. Maybe we can get a panel together sometime, and promote it > > more > > >> heavily. Nancy and Mark for a start. Any other gene-iacal suggesticons? > > >> Get > > >> some real speculative juju moving. Other than Alicia (would it be > > awkward > > >> being on a panel with your manager?), do we have any biologists? > > > >> On 2009-02-04, Pat Rapp <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >>> Thank you for the summary, Nancy. I am so disappointed that I had to > > >>> miss > > >>> it! > > > >>> ----- Original Message ----- > > >>> From: [email protected] > > >>> To: [email protected] > > >>> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2009 6:58 AM > > >>> Subject: Re: DNA in action! > > > >>> Last night's R-Spec meeting was fascinating -- it was too bad that only > > >>> seven people could make it. Mark Zahn, Alicia's boss, spoke about > > >>> Biodefense. He slanted his talk toward practical knowledge for SF > > >>> writers > > >>> who want to include weaponized genemods in their stories, and he did a > > >>> wonderful job. > > > >>> He talked about which pathogens best lend themselves to modification > > >>> (Ebola, for instance, has a very small genome and produces only eight > > >>> proteins, which means there's just not room enough in the cell to fit a > > >>> lot > > >>> of extra, genetically engineered stuff.) Mark covered the assembly of > > >>> viruses using sequencing data and "off-the-shelf" sections of DNA. He > > >>> talked about the origins and spread of epidemics. I hadn't known that > > >>> the > > >>> natural host for influenza was an Asian species of duck, and that the > > >>> way > > >>> vaccine makers guess at which strains of flu will hit in a given winter > > >>> is > > >>> by examining ducks in late summer. > > > >>> The talk also covered what you need for a rogue genemod lab to > > weaponize > > >>> pathogens: off-the-rack equipment, experienced talent, and no more than > > >>> a > > >>> few million dollars. What the Russians may or may not have been doing > > >>> in > > >>> this regard was discussed, including a recommendation for Ken Alibek's > > >>> scary > > >>> book BIOHAZARD (which I have read -- it's horrifying). Mark finished > > >>> with > > >>> an overview of surveillance techniques used to spot and track epidemics > > >>> so > > >>> that appropriate measures can be taken, including quarantine if > > >>> necessary. > > > >>> Thank you, Alicia. It was terrific. > > > >>> _________________________- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- eric scoles ([email protected]) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
