Social Media for Scientists Part 4: On The Road

A couple weeks ago, I braved the freezing north to speak at the University of Washington for a workshop focusing on Social Media for Scientists. The event was co-sponsored by AFSUW, Washington Sea Grant, and COSEE OLC as a part of the Beyond the Ivory Tower series, a set of free public lectures that hopes to provide researchers with tools and techniques to reach audiences and broaden the impacts of their work. I was teamed up with the effortlessly incredible Liz Neeley, COMPASS? super ninja of science communication, to try and convince a room full of hardy Seattle scientists that, indeed, every lab should tweet.

I truly do believe that Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are essential for every scientist to use. Not only are they the communication platforms of the future, they hold the potential to revolutionize how we do science in the first place. It seems foolish at best that in scientific circles we deride the use of these networks that, literally, two thirds of the world?s population are connecting through. I?ve laid out the arguments before (see the post list below), and will surely continue to talk about this topic until I go hoarse. Simply put, it?s not a question that scientists need to increasingly engage with new media platforms to stay relevant in this digital age. The question is how.

For that, I?m going to point you toward the freshly launched Social Media for Science Google+ Page and the workshop wiki, which is an evolving collection of information and resources, as well as the Storify of the afternoon by Jessica Rohde. You can also download my slides from slideshare, or watch the video of my talk:

Science and Social Media--Christie Wilcox from AFSUW on Vimeo.

More Social Media for Scientists:

Other interesting posts on the topic:

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e11b0a6c882b5fe9735fa65832a4ae26

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