It’s time again for the annual international science blogging conference in the Triangle. Check out the wiki.
This program started three years ago as a fairly modest approach to introducing people interested in science (including medicine!) to blogging. As a result Anton Zuiker and Bora Zivkovic have earned international reputations for themselves and established the Research Triangle area as a hotbed for innovate science communications. (It’s so popular that this year Nature stole the program and created its own, even stealing the old name: Science Blogging Conference!)
You don’t have to be a scientist to attend. You don’t even have to be a hard-core science nut. It probably helps if you’re at least a soft-core nut. Mostly, you do need to be looking for creative ways to stay out front on the Web.
People come from around the world to present, and many big-names in the science communication world will be here, including local Abel PharmBoy, Rebecca Skloot and Grrrlscientist.
I might have beaten this drum before, but here I go again: Mainstream media are leaving medical and science news behind. But that’s OK, because fewer people are watching the tube and reading the paper. They’re blogging! You, dear reader, illustrate the point.
Anton (a graduate of the Medical & Science Journalism Program in UNC’s J School) introduced me to blogging. I’ll admit, at first I was skeptical, ignorant.
The great thing about blogging, though, is that you can catch up as fast as your imagination allows.
Thanks for the props, and hope UNC has a good contingent at our conference. We’re looking for science labs willing to host visits by a small group of conference attendees – 5 or 6 bloggers would come to your lab, spend an hour or two learning what you do, then telling the world on their blogs and sites. Contact us if you’re game.