This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Heat of summer is coming, but we are not falling asleep. ScienceOnline community, and the organization under the able leadership of executive director Karyn Traphagen, is busy planning future events and projects.
Our flagship conference, now renamed ScienceOnline Together, is in full swing of preparation. The eighth annual event will be held on February 26 – March 1, 2014. in Raleigh, NC, and the planning wiki will be open for submissions in a couple of days - keep an eye on the #sciox hashtag on Twitter, or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus.
The local satellite events are springing up everywhere! ScienceOnlineVancouver, ScienceOnlineSeattle, ScienceOnline Bay Area, ScienceOnline San Diego, ScienceOnlineDenver, ScienceOnlineDC, ScienceOnlineLeiden and ScienceOnlineAdelaide are up and running, and more will be joining soon. Is your local community interested in hosting one of those? Let us know.
On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
Often these events grow out of more informal gatherings and tweetups (or Watch Parties of the main event), as our community realizes that they have sufficient numbers locally, and suffient energy and interest to invest into organization of a more formalized and more regular event. A number of such tweetups are ongoing, usually every month. Check out our local community tweetups: New York City (#NYCscitweetup), Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill (#TriSciTweetup), Washington DC (#DCscitweetup), Philadelphia (#PhillySciTweetup), Boston (#sciobeantown), Los Angeles (#LAscitweetup) and Chicago (#ChiSciTweetup) meetings have been going on for quite some time. Recently, Georgians started alternating their tweetup by having one in Athens (#ATHSciTweetup) on even months and one in Atlanta (#ATLSciTweetUp) on odd months. And the latest addition is Toronto (#TorSciTweetup). If you think there is a local community that should start such informal events, let us know so we can help you out in getting started.
Our topical events are attracting quite a lot of excitement, it seems. The first one, ScienceOnlineTEEN held in New York City last month, focused on education, and was a great success.
The next thematic event will be ScienceOnline Climate (Twitter, Facebook) in Washington, DC from August 15-17, 2013. The planning wiki is now open for your submissions for sessions. The wiki opened on May 20 and will close on June 7, 2013.
After that, on October 11th – 13th, 2013., in Miami, FL, we'll have ScienceOnline: Oceans (planning wiki, Twitter, Facebook). There may still be a couple of open slots left fot registration if you hurry up!
As for our projects, ScienceSeeker portal keeps getting developed, and recently announced the winners of its first annual ScienceSeeker Awards. Many are asking about the next edition of Open Laboratory, the annual anthology of best science writing online - there will be announcements soon about the new publisher, new judging methods, etc, soon.
Check out ScienceOnline forums, watch the videos of past events if you missed them before, and follow our official blog.
Please, share your story with us - how has ScienceOnline made a difference for you? And then help us continue to make the difference, by supporting us and the community. Thank you!
