Monthly Archives: August 2015

Position vacant: Scope Editor

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Have your finger on the pulse, gain new skills, make a difference to ASC

Location: anywhere in Australia with broadband internet access
Honorarium: $150 (+GST) per issue, with the expectation of 10 to 11 issues produced per year.

Scope is the monthly online newsletter of the Australian Science Communicators (ASC), a network of 450 + professional science and technology communicators across Australia and overseas.

The current Editor, Victoria Leitch, is resigning due to competing commitments, so ASC is looking for a new Editor (or two co-editors) effective from the August 2015 issue. Victoria will be available to handover to the new Editor to ensure a smooth transition into the role.

The role includes the following activities:

  • Sourcing content from ASC branches, members and web editors (usually in the first two weeks of the month)
  • Occasionally interviewing people (members and non-members) for profile pieces
  • Listing recent news items or summarising topical stories to keep members up to date on current science communication issues
  • Editing content for consistency of style and formatting including permalinks, extracts and tagging
  • Working with the executive officer to ensure the member distribution list and log-in activation codes are current
  • Formatting the month’s material into short ‘teaser’ formats with click-throughs
  • Managing images and checking we have rights to use images in newsletter
  • Circulating (via Mail Chimp) to the membership on the first Wednesday of the month
  • Responding to feedback from members, the National Executive
  • Attending the monthly ASC Communication team meeting and providing input (or driving) Scope planning
  • Liaising with a team of volunteer contributors to gather and create newsletter stories/content
  • Liaising with the webmaster, executive officer, web editors and the national president as needed.

The key selection criteria for this role are:

  • Established interest in science communication
  • Computer and internet literacy, in particular familiarity (or can quickly get familiarity) with WordPress, MailChimp, Dropbox, Word/Pages, PowerPoint
  • Excellent time management skills
  • Capacity to commit ~15 hours per month to ASC activities.

Applications are invited by email no later than 5 pm on Friday 28 August 2015 for the attention of Kali Madden (ASC Executive Officer) at: jobs@asc.asn.au

President’s Update

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Thanks to Joan Leach for the President’s Update.

ASC sending members to the Freelance Focus Conference—follow them on twitter!

ASC members attended the Walkley Freelance Focus conference http://www.walkleys.com/freelance-focus/ on the 5th and 6th of August. The program was stellar. We asked Daniel Oldfield, Ian McDonald, and Tara Roberson to tweet from the event and write up their ‘top freelance tips’ from the conference — you can find them below in this issue of Scope. In the meantime, check out #FreelanceFocus and you may want to follow ASCers below to hear more:

@_tiamaree
@TheMicroscopist
@ianmcd85

We’re also keen to hear about other events nationally where we can send ASC members to build their skills and bring back tips for the rest of us. We were able to give tickets to ASCers in the ACT, in Melbourne, and in Brisbane for this Walkley conference. Let us know if there is something going on relevant to ASC in your part of the country!

Our colleagues at AMWA (Australasian Medical Writers Association) are busy getting ready for their 32nd annual conference in Brisbane—I note more than one ASC member on the program. Check it out here:  http://www.medicalwriters.org/2015-annual-conference/.

ASC responds to STEM discussion paper

At the end of June, the Commonwealth Government put out a consultation paper “Vision for a Science Nation” that responded to the Chief Scientist, Ian Chubb. ASC has welcomed these developments as the consultation paper goes some way to valuing the work that science communication and engagement does toward a “science nation.” Our response highlights the following issues:

  • ASC supports a national strategy that integrates science communication and engagement skills into STEM education
  • ASC is a willing future partner in Inspiring Australia for a national strategy of STEM engagement
  • ASC members are active contributors and potential partners in Australia’s cultural diplomacy efforts. Our view of science communication in Australia is a global view.
  • ASC promotes science communication as a bedrock skill for commercialisation

I’ll keep ASC up to date with this process as it unfolds.

On the cover of Facebook.

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Thanks to Dustin Welbourne for the Facebook update!

The ASC Facebook group appears to be growing at a relatively steady rate with now > 1300 members. There is a core group of 20–50 people that regularly post material and engage in conversations. A special thank you needs to go out to James Hutson who did up an appropriate banner for the page.

The posts are a good mix of science communication related news, science or science communication science events, and job postings or opportunities for science communicators.

We are also using the Files function on the page to create content lists. These lists so far include Science Games, Podcasts, and Blogs and Vlogs.

There are some things we would like to see more of. Having members post photos and give a 200 word snippet of events would be great. Not all people that use social media use all platforms of social media. Thus, having these stories would raise awareness and interest in those events.

 

Sydney’s first citywide Science Festival

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Thanks to Jackie Randles for the event overview.

Sydney’s science community is collaborating for National Science Week this year and for the first time, presenting a united front under the banner of the Sydney Science Festival. Coordinated by Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, the Festival’s official NSW National Science Week launch event last Thursday evening at the Powerhouse Museum attracted around 2000 people to MAASive Lates: Science. This free, over 18s science-themed party offered a cold fusion of performances, opportunities to speed meet a scientist and hands-on activities.

With a fantastic line up of around 80 events across 40 venues, the Festival program features some of the world’s leading names in science like astrophysics’ pop hero Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, space tweeting and singing astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield, and Stanford University’s own genetic guru Professor Kelly Ormond. Dozens of local experts are on the bill with a number of high profile partners joining the celebrations to cohost events including The Sydney Morning Herald, Intel and Google.

The NSW Executive Committee for Inspiring Australia and National Science Week has been working to encourage this level of collaboration for several years so it goes without saying that its members are thrilled with the initial results. It’s been a remarkable effort on both the part of the hard working Festival team at the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences and all of the presenting partners to turn on this high quality program so quickly. Initial interest from audiences and media alike shows that our combined efforts are amplifying the community engagement results for National Science Week across Sydney, and I’ll be really interested to see how we track against last year’s results. Our hope is that in time, we can achieve the same level of recognition and participation for science as other prominent Festivals do for film, books and the arts – all popular, highly visible celebrations that add to Sydney’s appeal and cultural capital.

At the Festival’s conclusion there will be a high level meeting at which a wide group of senior leaders will be invited to share their views about the Festival’s future directions. At a time when outreach spending by universities typically has a strong connection to research funding and student recruitment, and when cultural institutions are increasingly dependent on strong revenue streams, negotiating outcomes that are beneficial to all is complex. But the benefits of collaborating as a group of science leaders far outweighs the costs and the time is ripe for us to work together to promote the importance of science investment for Australia’s economic and social wellbeing – not just now but into the future. Have a fantastic National Science Week everyone and I hope that you can get along to lots of events.

Follow Sydney Science Festival on:

Facebook:      www.facebook.com/sydneysciencefestival

Twitter:          @SydScienceFest

#sydsciencefest

 

Event:             Sydney Science Festival

Dates:              13 – 23 August, 2015

Website:         www.sydneyscience.com.au

 

 

 

I went to freelance focus and what happened next will shock you!

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You know those annoying Facebook posts – yeah I went there but hey if you are reading this, it worked…and who knows maybe you will be shocked by what I learnt.

The ASC kindly sponsored me to attend Freelance Focus in Brisbane, hosted by the Walkley’s Foundation. I, like many science communication professionals have been considering dabbling in some freelance writing (maybe even getting paid to do it) but had no idea how to start or where to begin, this is why I was keen to attend Freelance Focus.

After listening to many inspirational freelance writers speak, all of whom have made a career out of freelancing, I started to realise it is going to take motivation, organisation and a lot of hard work to make it a reality (even if I only want to dabble).

“Storytelling isn’t easy and takes investment from you,” as Trent Dalton from The Australian told us.

In fact, Andrew McMillen, a successful Brisbane based freelance writer, even suggested a ‘science’ to freelancing, from pitch through to end product – he has a colour coded excel spread sheet dating back to 2006 with all his articles, and comments on what worked, what didn’t work and the impact of the article – it sounded impressive…

During the Forum we heard from keynote speaker, Noah Rosenberg who is an American freelance writer and the founding Director of Narratively (URL – narrative.ly), which publishes the work of over 300,000 freelance writers around the globe. He spoke about four key lessons in storytelling and stated that there is a lot of opportunities available for freelance writers but with that also comes a lot of clutter and you need to figure out what is best for you. I thought I’d share these lessons with you.

His first lesson was to not be afraid to ask for help but make sure it easy for people to help. By this he didn’t just mean making sure you ask someone to proofread an article or get advice on a pitch. He was also talking about ‘help’ in the sense of promotion as well – asking other news outlets, journalists and social media sites to share and/or re-blog your work. He explained that in some cases after a 60 day period (I think it was) you can even re pitch your article to another outlet if still relevant and get paid again….if you’re lucky I suppose. However, his second point was pertinent in saying ‘make it easy for people to help.’ Don’t just send an email saying please re-share my article on Facebook but go as far as creating the Facebook post for consideration, writing tweets for people to send out and making sure your work is easy to find (online and Google-able).

Lesson two was about negotiation and he explained that creativity is key here. When starting out as a writer, he explained that it might be more worthwhile to negotiate more around how your article will be promoted rather than how much you will be paid. Is a Facebook post that can reach 10,000 people worth just as much as writing an article for $200? Hence the importance of ‘creativity’ in your negotiation and thinking about what is worth ‘value’ to you as the writer.

Lesson three was about evaluation of your own work and this links very much to lessons one and two in that it is important to create links (online) which can be tracked and evaluated so you can effectively measure who and what is working best for you when publicising your work – did you get more clicks from Twitter or Facebook? When an article was published on another blog/online website – how many clicks did it get and where did the readers come from. All important information to know and with Google Analytics – all information you should be able to access from the organisation who shared your work.

Finally, lesson four was making sure you have well defined goals and ways to achieve these goals – when you write an article, ask yourself why you are writing it, who do you want to read it, and how are you going to achieve this.

It was great to listen and learn from Noah and I certainly suggest watching the seminar Joan also posted to the ASC list recently – watch below.

Noah Rosenberg UQ 2015 – The Narratively Journey from UQ Journalism & Communication on Vimeo.

On a final note, one of the other reasons I attended Freelance Focus was to learn more about ‘how to pitch effectively to an editor’. I got a few tips and here are my main take home tips from the experts:

  • Be extremely familiar with the publications you are pitching too.
  • Make constant contacts in the writing world.
  • A mentor can be helpful when starting out.
  • Be persistent with your pitch and follow up (usually after about a week).
  • Plan ahead with your pitches – pitch weeks in advance and it can be useful to pitch up to 20 ideas at once, not just one or two.
    • With pitches tell your story in a couple of lines only, don’t have to write the full article.
  • If you get a deadline – stick to it. You will be red-flagged if you miss one.
  • Make sure your final article is polished and well researched.
  • Most editors like to see prior work, so if you rank well on Google and have your own website blog that is helpful. So basically have a strong web presence.

Want more insights – check out #FreelanceFocus on twitter which ended up trending in Brisbane due to its activity throughout the day.

You can also visit my Twitter account @ianmcd85 to see what I tweeted about on the day (August 5th).

Thanks for reading and with that I’ll leave you with my final tweet from the event…..

Learnt so much at #freelancefocus today – loved every minute – now to put my thoughts into words for the @auscicomm scope article

— Dr Ian McDonald (@ianmcd85) August 5, 2015

Become a storyteller (for science)

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I had the pleasure of attending the Walkley Foundation’s Freelance Focus conference this week with support from the ASC and the UQ School of Journalism and Communication. It was a busy day, full of inspiring content that ranged from Noah Rosenberg (founder and CEO of Narratively) talking on fostering audiences and narrative, to Nathan Burman (comms guy for Twitter Australia) running a masterclass focused on best practice for the social medium.

Running  through the entire conference was the  theme of storytelling. It was a theme that seems particularly relevant to ASC given spreading science stories is a large part of what we do. So, here are five take home points that might just help you the next time you’re crafting a science story. Read along for the who, what, when, where, and why.

Who is your audience?

Before you put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), imagine your audience. Who is best suited to your tale of the impact of gravity on quantum weirdness?

Your audience shouldn’t just help you to manage the complexity of your language, it should also shape the mediums you choose to convey your story through.

What medium will you use to tell your story?

It might seem easiest to write a press release and hit send, but is that the most effective way of getting your story out there? Would a podcast be more accessible to your audience, would it make your story come alive? Choose a medium that embraces the key elements of your story – whether that be a soundbite, long-form article or ten-second GIF.

When should your story end?

Your story doesn’t need to be a one hour documentary to have impact. Think carefully about the ideal length of your work and be realistic about resourcing. It’s a cliché that rings true – sometimes less is more.

Where is the person in your story?

Personal tales make dry, complex information come alive. Whose experiences can you tap into to give warmth to your piece? Use their story to bring the unique and remarkable aspects of your story to light.

Why should people read your story?

Cultivating a community around your story will help increase its impact once published. Identify the people around you who will be interested and happy to share your tale with others.

 

 

 

 

The lab rat amongst the journalists

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A month ago, I suddenly realised that I did not have an online presence as a scientist! Shortly after this revelation hit me, the microscopist was born on a variety of social platforms. Through social media I hoped to create a visual online portfolio, which not only showcased my abilities as a microscopist but also provided a medium for other scientists to share their work with the public.

To my delight, shortly after beginning my adventure online I was selected to attend the Walkley Freelance Focus Conference 2015. Personally, I felt that the sessions entitled ‘twitter for journalists’ and ‘your brand online’ held the most promise for providing guidance to my latest adventure. However, it was three points raised by the key note speaker Noah Rosenberg (founder/editor/CEO of Narratively) which resonated the strongest with me.

Noah takes a holistic approach to writing an article. It may seem obvious, but he strongly encourages you to start with a plan before scripting your next article. First you must consider your intent. Ask yourself, who is your audience? How will they access your material? Will it be via computer, tablet or phone? Furthermore, how will your audience experience your content? Will your article be accompanied by visual or audio aids? Finally and perhaps the most important question, how will your content reach your audience? The web is big! On the web it is far easier to produce content than to circulate it.

Where traditionally a journalist may have been able to rest easy after the publication of their work in printed media, Noah stated that in the online world this is not true. Narratively is active in promoting content published on their site; however it is also part of the company’s ethos to encourage authors to promote their own content. In a very frank manner, Noah expressed that as journalists publishing content online we should not feel ashamed to share our content with our friends and to enlist them to share with their friends.

Noah is serious about data and he thinks you should be too! Narratively monitors the flow of traffic on their website in order to understand from where and how readers are being directed to their website. Statistical analysis of this information provides insights into which promotional strategies are working and how the organisation could become more efficient.

Through following Noah’s advice, I have been able to grow my Facebook audience whilst writing this article. This morning only 117 people had liked my page. I am pleased to report that after a little self-promotion I have been able to gain an additional 75 likes, which equates to an ~64% increase in my audience.

Event Review: inaugural Australian Citizen Science Conference

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Thanks to Vicki Martin for the event review.

 

Review of the inaugural Australian Citizen Science Conference

Canberra, 23-25 July 2015

bit.ly/ACSA2015

The chilly winter Canberra morning couldn’t slow down the enthusiasm of attendees at the inaugural Australian Citizen Science Conference on 23rd July this year. Seats were as rare as hens teeth at this over-subscribed event, with more than 200 attendees registered from all over Australia and far flung corners of the globe.

After a warm welcome to country from Aunty Agnes Shea, elder of the Ngunnawal people, welcoming remarks were made by Professor Suzanne Miller (Queensland Museum), and Simon France (Inspiring Australia). Australia’s Chief Scientist, Professor Ian Chubb opened up the conference with a rousing pep talk about the importance of engaging the public in citizen science. The event coincided with the release of an Occasional Paper, Building Australia through Citizen Science, by the Office of the Chief Scientist. The paper can be accessed through bit.ly/CitizenSciencePaper.

We were very fortunate to have two passionate speakers from Cornell University in the USA. Keynote speaker and singing ornithologist, Rick Bonney, shared his vast experience in the world of citizen science and public engagement in research. His singing was pretty good, too! (On the second day he sang us out to lunch – how many keynotes do that?)

The first of a series of speed talks and workshop sessions followed Rick’s keynote address, led by his colleague, Jennifer Shirk. Jennifer is well known for her contributions to the theory of public participation in scientific research (PPSR). Throughout the two days, the speed talks opened our eyes to the incredible array and diversity of citizen science projects across the planet and in our own backyard. The conference organisers allowed plenty of time for poster and networking sessions, during which the Shine Dome buzzed with conversation and connections, information and good food. Day two saw more speed talks and a panel discussion on the many forms of citizen science. The full program and book of abstracts are available for download at bit.ly/ACSA2015.

An additional day was added to the conference for groups wanting to discuss specific issues in citizen science, including Bio Blitzes, the usability of technology, and citizen science and its influence on policy. These sessions were great for attendees to cement the lessons learned from practitioners in these areas, and allowed for more focussed discussion on these topics.

The feedback from people was overwhelmingly positive. Not only did attendees learn a lot, and have a lot of fun, it gave many a strong sense of community which will only help to strengthen the practice of citizen science in Australia. With the newly formed management committee, chaired by Philip Roetman, the potential for citizen science to build stronger partnerships between Australian scientists and the community looks very promising indeed. I’m looking forward to the next conference already.

Event Review: A quiet Wednesday dinner

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Thank you to Amy Nisselle for her reflections on the dinner.

On Tuesday 22nd July I had the pleasure of attending a dinner hosted by ASC Vic Branch President George Aranda for visiting science communicator, Núria Elías at Artusi, Southbank. Núria was in Melbourne for the ASC’s Science Storytelling Workshop and we had a great time swapping stories about our areas of study, research and practice, plus the best places to spot Australian fauna (who knew there was a world-famous koala colony on the Great Ocean Road?!).

Núria told us about the NeuroEnhancement Responsible Research and Innovation (NERRI) program she coordinates for the Science, Communication and Society Studies Centre (SCS-UPF) at Universitate Pompeu Fabra (UPF), in her native Barcelona. I had no idea of the variety of neuroenhancements available, from pharmacological to physical to magnetic and electric, having relied solely on caffeine when writing my thesis. The NERRI program is asking Europeans their opinion about neuroenhancements – would they use them? If so, what type, under what circumstances? Our party was split. Some fervently said they’d never use anything, while others thought if they were going to use something then they’d trust magnetic stimulation in a medical setting over tablets, which is currently an unregulated industry.

Throughout the conversation we feasted on Artusi’s delicious fare, tasting each others risotto, pappardelle and tagliatelle and splitting decadent desserts. On a personal note, I was really excited to introduce my younger cousin to the ASC. Benny was in the first cohort of students at Melbourne’s John Monash Science School and is now studying Law/Commerce at uni. He said afterwards it was incredible to have dinner with such informed people and he was in awe most of the time. It was a nice reminder of something I take for granted these days – being surrounded by such learned, experienced and inspiring folks in the ASC.

 

Event Review: Science Storytelling Workshop

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Thank you to George Aranda for the event review.

On the 16th of July ASC Victoria was delighted to host NZ Science Communicator – Elizabeth Connor, Captain of The KinShip (http://www.thekinship.co.nz), a science communication organisation that “connects science with the human side of the equation.”

Elizabeth ran a Science Storytelling Workshop with about 20 guests who included science PhDs, scientists, science communicators and educators. She took us through her story of science communication, including some great original drawings that made the story all the more enjoyable. After a break for dinner which was provided by the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, we broke into groups examining the ways that we could elicit stories from the scientists in the group. This included using metaphors to embody those things that help and hinder scientists as they do their work; ideas for questions; the different types of ‘why’ that one can ask; and creating a positive environment for interviews. She showed videos of presenters at the start of a series of workshops and their presenting afterwards, where they had found the story in the science and could more easily communicate to the public. Overall it was a great night with lots of learning opportunities.

Some feedback about what people enjoyed:
  • Really enjoyed the group answers to questions posed in the workshop. Hearing from a number of people made the various points easier to learn
  • The “why” session.
  • Great presenter! Very likeable, interesting presentation and great knowledge/experience
  • Fun, great drawings. Loo conveyed a lot of information through her own stories. Personality really came through