Monthly Archives: April 2012

The biggest snapshot of science engagement in Australia

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Who, what, where, when, why and how do we communicate science in Australia? And what do we think our success rate is? The ASC is part of a team to find out the answers.

The Inspiring Australia program has funded a project to create a national audit of science engagement activities. We will get a picture of the diverse range of activities which were delivered, or are planned to be, from January 2011 to June 2013.

The information will be gathered mainly by a nationwide survey and the collated and reported data will be a valuable tool. It will inform individuals and groups who deliver and coordinate the programs, potential partners and sponsors, and be a starting point for related projects to develop means of assessing the success of activities.

ASC branches will be running special events about the audit. Members can be part of focus groups to provide another stream of information and insight, and to suggest which groups we should promote the survey to.

The team working on the national audit comprises Jenni Metcalfe (Econnect Communication), Kristin Alford (Bridge8), and Jesse Shore and Kali Madden (Australian Science Communicators). Nancy Longnecker (UWA), Rod Lamberts (ANU) and Joan Leach (UQ) are advisors for the project.

Read more about the project in the attached announcement. The link to the on-line survey will be announced soon.

Jesse Shore
National president

Announcement of National audit of science engagement activities – 27 Apr

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-29

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What are the upcoming issues and themes in science communication?

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The recent ASC conference had many people asking how can we increase our effectiveness? And what can we do to have more positive outcomes? Sometimes we need to drive our professional development in a new direction to break out of the tried but no longer true way of doing things.

What new issues, themes, skills, techniques, etc, do you think have the potential to improve the outcomes of our work?

Jesse Shore
National President

Chief Scientist’s speech to ASC conference – the transcript of Ian Chubb’s presentation

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Professor Ian Chubb, Australia’s Chief Scientist, was a worthy voice to present the Robyn William’s address, to open the ASC conference. Ian’s presentation started minds thinking and the points he raised kept delegates challenged throughout the 3 days of the event.

Kali Madden is continuing the spade work needed to post podcasts of various plenary sessions on the ASC website. Look for them to start rolling out in another month or two. In the meantime I’m posting the pdf of the transcript of Ian Chubb’s speech.

Jesse Shore
National President

Ian Chubb’s ASC2012 speech, 27 February 2012

 

 

Seeking videos for rejuvenated ASC YouTube channel

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The ASC’s YouTube channel has been a quiet place the last 3 years. It contains a playlist of videos of portions of the Hot Air Symposiums held in 2009, but nothing since then. From late May we will start uploading the video interviews made during the ASC20102 conference, with the full set of interviews in place by end of the year.

The ASC Communications Team (consisting of James Hutson, Sally Miles, Kali Madden and me) will act as gatekeepers. We will select videos shot or commissioned by the ASC (like the conference) for uploading to our account.

We are also looking for links to other video content of interest to ASCers as long as this material is accompanied by permission to allow reloading to our site. So please send Sally Miles, Scope Editor, editor @ asc.asn.au, links to videos (with permissions for reuse if needed) that you think we should add to our YouTube channel.

Jesse Shore
National President

SocMed Stars

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Thanks to Kristin Alford from Bridge 8 for contributing this article:

The ability to synthesise complex information and articulate it in a clear and concise way is a skill. When that is done well within a strict word limit under tight deadlines, it’s something to celebrate.
Kylie Sturgess (@kyliesturgess <http://twitter.com/kyliesturgess> ), Dr Krystal Evans (@dr_krystal <http://twitter.com/dr_krystal> ) and Dr Sarah Keenihan (@sciencesarah <http://twitter.com/sciencesarah> ) are worth celebrating.

Over the course of the Australian Science Communicators Conference in 2012 <http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/>  they made sense of the content in short sharp bursts using a range of social media platforms. Kylie live-blogged many of the sessions and has several podcasts, Krystal live-tweeted almost everything and Sarah both live-tweeted and provided Storify summaries.

If you were at the conference and drew on the back channel to see what others were thinking or to catch up on parallel sessions you couldn’t get to, you would have appreciated their contributions. If you weren’t at the conference, their commentaries and summaries made it possible to follow along. This was certainly the case for Ed Brown (@reallyedbrown <http://twitter.com/reallyedbrown> ) who interviewed all three in his ‘Science on Top’ podcast <http://scienceontop.com/2012/03/sot-special-asc2012/>  (this link includes all Kylie’s blogs, other links and Ed’s own Storify summaries of Day 2 and 3).

As producer of the social media session <http://2012conf.asc.asn.au/2011/12/24/plenary-6-sophisticated-social-media-use-science/> , I was certainly interested to see what the back channel had discussed during the session, so seeing Kylie’s blog <http://freethoughtblogs.com/tokenskeptic/2012/02/28/live-blogging-the-sophisticated-social-media-use-and-science-asc2012/>  and Sarah’s Storify <http://storify.com/sciencesarah/asc2012-plenarysophisticated-social-media-use-and>  was immensely useful, and both made it easier to share the content with others later. Mentioning this later on Twitter also brought endorsement that the contribution was worth recognising.

Congratulations and thank you Kylie, Krystal and Sarah. A specially-designed certificate from James Hutson is on its way.

(Also published at http://bridge8.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/socmed-stars-at-the-asc-conference/)

Dr Kristin Alford
Futurist & Founding Director
Bridge8 Pty Ltd
http://www.bridge8.com.au

Member Profile: Jesse Shore, ASC National President

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I’ve been fortunate to find a career which allows me to indulge my two passions in life; my fascination of science since I was 12 years old, and my attraction to acting and other involvement in live theatre from my early 30s. I became a scientist to fulfil the adolescent dream and then managed an amateur theatre company to immerse myself in my adult captivation. I had no idea that my two interests would soon merge and be fulfilled by an area of work that was yet to have a name.

People tell me that my career sounds like I took a left turn but I see it mainly as a westerly-trending journey with a step to the north. My impulse for science took me from Brooklyn, NY, to Berkeley, CA, and then far to the southwest to Canberra. The ACT was my cocoon where the science-adolescent transformed into the theatrical-hopeful. It was after the move north, to work on the Powerhouse Museum project in Sydney, when the adult science communicator truly emerged.

It occurred to me that developing museum exhibitions was much like putting on a stage production. The wide range of display media seemed like the sets, props, lights, sound, scripts, and so on of live theatre. I found I could use my science background and theatre experience to bring meaning and fun to science-related ideas.

Being exposed to the broad range of subject interests of the Powerhouse, such as science and technology, decorative arts, social history, and design, was also helpful. They gave me the idea and the means of placing science within a broad cultural context.

Although my job title was Senior curator of sciences, from the mid-1990s, around the time the ASC was formed, I started to say that I was a science communicator. The term science communication was fairly new then, and even today I get asked to explain what a science communicator is.

I’ve now clocked up 28 years of communicating science and welcome the chance to put energy into the broader area of the profession through the ASC and its activities. If I could find a way to describe what it is that we do in around 25 words or 140 characters I’d feel that I made a real breakthrough.

It is exciting to be active with the ASC at a time when its profile is rising and it’s becoming increasingly influential. At our recent national conference we stepped up to a new level of organisation and amenity. Attendance numbers increased and so did financial support. Feedback from delegates was overwhelmingly positive and we had many constructive comments about how to do things better for the next event.

I’m looking forward to the ASC taking its next steps forward as an organisation but I may be a tad overly optimistic that our profession will become a household word. Now if I can only get on stage again I’d be really happy. Did someone say, “To be, or not to be – a science communicator”?

Jesse Shore
National President

Interactive Intro to Marketing & The biggest snapshot of science engagement in Australia – 30/4

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30 April 2012
6:30 pmto8:00 pm

Ever wondered why someone else is getting more web hits than you…. or funding…. or press?

Could it have something to do with the way you are marketing your product?

Have you really sat down to think about what your product, your audience, your goal really is?

Here’s your chance to ask an expert!

After graduating with a Master of Business Administration from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), Anthony Katsikas went on to become a lecturer at their School of Marketing.
His knowledge comes backed with 20 years of hands on experience, managing several Global Marketing Organisations, with over 7 years at Vice President, General Manager and Director levels.
His roles have focused on understanding customers and their needs in strategic and tactical marketing terms, developing product & market strategies as well as branding and promotional decisions.

If you are interested in getting a peek into the first principles of Marketing and how they might apply to you, come armed with your questions for a thought provoking and interactive delve into Tony’s world.

Interested?:

Where: Glasshouse, Level 2, City of Sydney RSL, 565 George St, Sydney

When: Monday 30th April, 6.30pm onwards

What: Interactive Intro to Marketing, followed by The biggest snapshot of science engagement in Australia!

Please RSVP to: ascnsw@gmail.com / Rebecca – ASC Committee: 0410 635 083

The biggest snapshot of science engagement in Australia!

How are we engaging people with science in in Australia, and how do we do it better? A way to get answers is to create a high definition picture of science engagement activities in the country.

Jesse Shore will explain this new project to gather information about the who, what, where, when, why and how we communicate science. Then you’ll have your say as you become a focus group to answer the biggest question of the project, which is basically:

What are the critical areas where we need to improve the quantity or quality of science engagement in Australia?

It will be a fast paced session peppered with simpler questions to get the pieces of the big one. Your thoughts will contribute to the success of the rest of the project.

The main tool of the snapshot project is a survey questionnaire to be answered by people and organisations involved in science engagement activities. So bring your ideas about who we should promote the survey to.

The project is funded by the Australian government’s Inspiring Australia Strategy. The ASC is a partner in this project with Jenni Metcalfe from Econnect and Kristin Alford from Bridge8. ASC members and their colleagues can make a major contribution to greater science engagement in Australia. So come to the session and help shape the future of science communication.

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-22

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  • Features Fiona Armstrong: Climate & Health Alliance, Dr Marion Carey, VicHealth & Amanda McKenzie, Comms Director at the Climate Commission #
  • Communicating climate change & health impacts to policy makers & wider community. ASC Vic session audio now available: http://t.co/OaNNeS7w #
  • Help @mwikramanayake with her Masters. Fill in survey into working practices of sci journalists covering neuroscience http://t.co/9BedRrMF #

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2012-04-22

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  • Features Fiona Armstrong: Climate & Health Alliance, Dr Marion Carey, VicHealth & Amanda McKenzie, Comms Director at the Climate Commission #
  • Communicating climate change & health impacts to policy makers & wider community. ASC Vic session audio now available: http://t.co/OaNNeS7w #
  • Help @mwikramanayake with her Masters. Fill in survey into working practices of sci journalists covering neuroscience http://t.co/9BedRrMF #