ScienceOnline 2014-12-17T12:01:03Z http://scienceonline.com/feed/atom/ WordPress Scott Rosenberg <![CDATA[ScienceOnline to cease operations, cancels 2015 conference]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1655 2014-10-09T19:37:46Z 2014-10-09T22:15:41Z The board of ScienceOnline has reached the difficult but unavoidable decision to dissolve the organization.

ScienceOnline has a rich history of dedication to its mission: cultivating the ways science is conducted, shared, and communicated online. Since 2007 we have convened popular and groundbreaking conferences that bring together scientists, science writers, bloggers, journalists and other science communicators to move the field forward in the digital era. Participants in these events inspired the growth of a wider community and sparked the development of many important related efforts.

We have faced uphill challenges throughout the past year in assembling the money and the people resources (both staff and volunteer) necessary for the organization to sustain all of its projects. We have put considerable effort into exploring different scenarios for partnering with other groups and/or scaling back our operations, but none of these has provided a path forward. In June we concluded that we did not have the resources to support a paid executive director position, and we eliminated it.

As a result of our state of insolvency, the ScienceOnline board of directors voted on Oct. 6 to proceed with a plan for dissolution, which we will implement over the coming weeks.

One unfortunate but necessary consequence of this decision is that we have to cancel the ScienceOnline Together 2015 conference scheduled for Atlanta in February. We have notified those who have already registered for ScienceOnline Together 2015 and will be fully refunding registration fees.

We’re profoundly grateful for the countless ways that our participants, supporters, sponsors, volunteers, and friends have contributed to ScienceOnline over the years, and we’re proud of what we’ve been able to achieve together. This may be the final chapter for ScienceOnline, but we have great hopes for the future of science communication, and we know that everyone who has made the ScienceOnline community what it was will continue to create that future.

Thanks to all of you.

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Karyn Traphagen <![CDATA[Registration Open for #scio15]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1650 2014-08-26T12:24:12Z 2014-08-26T12:24:12Z sidebar_dateRegistration for ScienceOnline Together 2015 (February 18-21, 2015 in Atlanta) is now open. Information about the flagship conference of ScienceOnline will be updated on the #scio15 website. Plan to attend and register now. Come join us and be part of the conversations found at the intersection of science and the web.

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Karyn Traphagen <![CDATA[ScienceOnline Together 2015]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1648 2014-08-17T07:30:23Z 2014-08-17T07:28:35Z sidebar_dateScienceOnline Together 2015 (February 18-21, 2015) will be in Atlanta, GA. Information about the flagship conference of ScienceOnline will be updated on the #scio15 website. Registration for ScienceOnline Together 2015 will begin Monday, August 25, 2014 at 3pm EDT. The registration page can be found on the conference website. Come join us and be part of the conversations found at the intersection of science and the web.

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Karyn Traphagen <![CDATA[ScienceOnline Together 2015 moving to Atlanta!]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1638 2014-04-24T20:37:09Z 2014-04-24T20:37:09Z The annual flagship conference of ScienceOnline will be going on the road in 2015… to Atlanta, GA. Save the date: Feb 18-21, 2015 and plan to join us!

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Karyn Traphagen <![CDATA[Congratulations to Jordan Gaines Lewis]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1629 2014-04-24T19:44:16Z 2014-04-24T19:44:16Z We are very excited that our ScienceSeeker editor-in-chief, Jordan Gaines Lewis (@GainesOnBrains), was named as one of Pacific Stand’s 30 Top Thinkers Under 30!

Congratulations, Jordan!

(click on the image to read the full article)

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Anton Zuiker http://mistersugar.com <![CDATA[Thank you for making ScienceOnline happen]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1620 2014-04-24T20:06:18Z 2014-03-28T21:00:06Z Today marks the end of my role as a leader of ScienceOnline. (See this and this about my stepping away.)

I have enjoyed this endeavor, especially because of the talented, smart, thoughtful and funny individuals we’ve met along the way. Indeed, it’s the people who have made ScienceOnline a joy and a success. It’s you who have made science fun for me.

So, it seems appropriate to end my time with ScienceOnline by posting another installment in the annual Thank Them – They Made ScienceOnline Happen roundup.

Each year since the beginning, I have used this post to record and reflect the amazing convergence of ideas, efforts, resources and funds that made the annual ScienceOnline conference possible. ScienceOnline Together 2014, the eighth annual conference, was the most important yet, happening in a time of challenge, transition and change for the organization. We have many individuals and organizations to thank for keeping the event moving forward.

(We thanked the sponsors of ScienceOnline2013 here, ScienceOnline2012 here, ScienceOnline2011 here, ScienceOnline2010 here, ScienceOnline’09 here, the second event here and the first event here.)

The attendees
Take a look at the Look who’s coming to #scio14 post – more than 400 individuals who convened in Raleigh to continue our discussions and debates and demonstrations about science on the web. The conference happened for them, because of them: the program was built from their ideas and proposals, and each session had a moderator who put extra time into preparing to make the discussions as inclusive and productive as possible.

Our hosts
For the third (and final) year, North Carolina State University hosted the conference in the McKimmon Conference and Training Center. NC State has been a great place for the conference to grow in scope, and we are grateful for the welcoming space. Matt Shipman and his communications colleagues across the university partnered to cover the costs of the center rental. Professor David Hinks of the NC State Forensic Sciences Institute kicked off the conference with an official NC State welcome.

We also thank the science labs and centers that welcomed small groups of our attendees for tours and demonstrations: NCSU Osteology Lab (the “bone lab”), NCSU Human Physiology of Wearable Robotics Lab – PoWeR Lab, NCSU Your Wild Life Lab, Duke Lemur Center, Duke Immersive Virtual Environment, Scott Huler’s walking tour of the Downtown Raleigh stormwater tunnels, and the NC Museum of Natural Sciences Paleontology Lab.

The sponsors
The generosity of our sponsors and donors helped us provide the meals, coffee, wifi, badges and lanyards, streaming and so much more. Huge thanks to them all! (See the sponsor log page.)

Burroughs Wellcome Fund, an independent private foundation dedicated to advancing the biomedical sciences by supporting research and other scientific and educational activities, repeated its support of our conference for the eighth year in a row (and that after providing the crucial planning grant that helped us form ScienceOnline as a nonprofit organization). Russ Campbell, communications director, is a great supporter of ScienceOnline, and we’re grateful for his continued friendship.

Grant funding from The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation – which believes in “bold ideas that create enduring impact in the areas of environmental conservation, patient care and science” – supported multiple ScienceOnline programs in 2013, and we were delighted to receive additional support as funding of ScienceOnline Together 2014. Our thanks to program officer Chris Metzel for traveling from California to attend the conference.

North Carolina Biotechnology Center, another repeat sponsor, helped to underwrite the boosted wifi.

Alltech once again donated its delicious brews for our gala. Genome Alberta, PLoS, Sigma Xi, Promega, CrossMark came back as sponsors, too.

New sponsors this year included Talk Science to MeMosaicProQuestBioMed Central and Springer Open.

And, hundreds of books came from all over, donated by publishers and authors so that each attendee could leave with one, two or more titles to read on their travels home. See the impressive list of books here.

Volunteers
ScienceOnline relies on the efforts and ideas of volunteers. Brian and Tara Malow were extraordinary in planning the Friday night InterGalactic Gala and organizing the game rooms (and lots more). Doug Johnston was back again to coordinate the bus transportation that got attendees from the hotel to McKimmon Center and back again. Chris Smith coordinated the Wednesday field trips, and once again donned his lemur costume for an appearance during the gala. David Arneke, Sonia Furtado NevesSam Lemonick, Rachael LudwickKatie Mack and Katheryn Patterson served as the Response Team. Janet Stemwedel once again coordinated the SciKids room.

Others pitched in throughout the conference. Doreen McVeigh, Diane Bosnjak, Clara HealyEmily Buehler and Gabriel Aponte helped load the truck with pre-conference boxes; Gabriel also monitored the livestream so that our Watch Parties could enjoy the conference from afar, and speaking of Watch Parties, thanks to those who facilitated these remote gatherings. Katy Chalmers was our book table helper and volunteer captain. Russ Creech pitched in with lots of things, and snapped hundreds of images as our official photographer. David ShiffmanJanet Stemwedel, Eleanor Spicer Rice and Robin Anders stepped up at the hotel on the first day to greet people as they arrived to register. Helen Cummings helped numerous times and places.

Many others helped, by setting up the book tables, preparing the hotel ballroom for the gala, cleaning up the McKimmon Center at the end of the conference, and participating in the discussion sessions as scribes, time keepers and logistics helpers. I know we’re missing your names here, but please know how much we appreciated your efforts.

The organizers
In her role as cofounder of ScienceOnline, Karyn Traphagen has been a stalwart and visionary leader taking this organization beyond its initial conferences to exciting new areas of intersecting science and the web. As executive director, she has been a tireless administrator and unstoppable organizer of ScienceOnline Together 2014. I am in awe of what she has accomplished, and how far she has gone to reflect the ideas, preferences and requests of those in the ScienceOnline community. Thank you, Karyn, thank you.

My fellow ScienceOnline board members (also volunteers) Scott Rosenberg, Meg Lowman and Mark Benerofe gave hours of counsel and direction in the runup to ScienceOnline Together 2014, and then were on hand to help set up, drive attendees to tours, meet with individuals to hear their ideas and perspectives, and pitch in at the end to clean up.

We also honor the volunteer leadership of Liz Neeley and Jamie Vernon, who organized ScienceOnline Climate; David Shiffman, who organized ScienceOnline Oceans; Stacy Baker, who organized ScienceOnline Teen; and Bethany Brookshire and Jason Goldman, who began to organize a future ScienceOnline Brain event.

Similarly, the leaders of the ScienceOnline satellite groups have organized local and regional communities to find ways to explore science and science communication together throughout the year. Please find one near you and join in their activities.

Final thoughts
After each conference, we’ve ended the feedback form with a variation of an open-ended question, Final thoughts?, and each year the suggestions and wishes and hopes and ideas that you entered there gave us inspiration to iterate the conference, to make it that much better the next time around. My heartfelt “Thank you!” to each and every one of you for being so engaged – in ScienceOnline, and online science, and science, and society – and for enjoying the conversation and company of each other as we seek to learn more, do more, be more.

I hope to see you at the next ScienceOnline event.

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ScienceOnline http://scienceonline.wpengine.com <![CDATA[ScienceOnline Brain Postponed to 2015]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1614 2014-04-24T19:47:41Z 2014-03-27T06:30:26Z sciobrain-CAPSIn an effort to make ScienceOnline Brain (ScioBrain) the best it can be, the Board of Directors of ScienceOnline have decided to postpone the conference until the summer of 2015. This decision was made in part to allow more time for fundraising. With more preparation, we will be seeking to increase participation in the conference and will be seeking a larger venue that can accommodate up to 200 attendees, and an institutional or university host partner as we have had for previous conferences. We are exploring two or three options, but welcome suggestions from the community for host venues.

We believe the additional time spent preparing will result in an even better conference. Thank you to those of you who have suggested topic ideas for the program. We’re excited about the ideas that have been submitted, and will take them into account as we move forward, as well as opening up submissions for new ideas. We will continue to work hard to bring together a diverse set of topics and speakers about communicating ideas in psychology and neuroscience. We hope to have more details soon.

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ScienceOnline http://scienceonline.wpengine.com <![CDATA[Board response to #sciosafe Open Letter]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1608 2014-03-24T12:06:41Z 2014-03-20T17:00:41Z The ScienceOnline community is full of people who are passionate and inspired about our mission. We’re grateful for that level of commitment, and we know that it is also shared by the community participants from the #sciosafe discussion session that took place at ScienceOnline Together 2014. The ScienceOnline board received (as an email) an open letter from some of the people who had participated in that discussion (and others who joined their concerns online). We aim to answer the concerns of that letter here as thoroughly as possible, with good will, and within the bounds of what is legally appropriate.

Moving Forward and Preparing for ScienceOnline Together 2014
In October, 2013, ScienceOnline—the nonprofit organization—needed to respond to the repercussions that resulted from the actions of one of our board members, Bora Zivkovic. After first one woman and then others publicly accused him of inappropriate behavior, the ScienceOnline board looked carefully into the issue, met with him, and—after hearing Bora’s account of the issues—accepted his resignation. Board statements were issued on October 16, 2013 and October 21, 2013.

Responding to the issues raised by Bora’s actions was (and continues to be) an important priority for the organization, especially in preparing for the ScienceOnline Together 2014 conference (Feb 27-March 1, 2014).

Here are some of the things that were put in place to respond to the situation and the issues that were raised. (Also, see Scott Rosenberg’s recent blog post describing our actions and the thought process behind them).

Karyn Traphagen, the executive director, sought third party professional advice in preparation for making ScienceOnline Together 2014 a safe and welcoming event and also to fulfill our commitment to find ways to include conversations about harassment and women-in-science gender issues. She spoke specifically to eight women’s group leaders and conference organizers. Some specific organizers were suggested by attendees of ScienceOnline conferences. Almost all of these professionals requested that their conversations with us be kept anonymous or confidential. These organizations outlined how they handle harassment policy and procedures, how they train their volunteers and how they handle reports. We expanded our harassment policy and added a Code of Conduct. We made these available online in several places and also printed them in the Scio14 event program.

We had extensive, and sometimes conflicting, feedback from the community prior to the conference. Some wanted a plenary about harassment and specifically about Bora’s situation. Some wanted closed-door sessions. Some did not want us to focus on Bora at all—they just wanted to come and talk about science. There was a wide range of emotions and needs.

We discussed how to talk about Bora at the conference—or if we even should. On the counsel of several third-party professionals, we decided to broaden the conversation. We set up sessions that focused on a variety of aspects of the issues:

We followed the advice of the third-party professionals that we consulted about setting up a volunteer response team that would be a conduit for reporting any unwelcome behavior or incidents during our conference.

Most of this was communicated either online or during the conference, from the stage. Karyn especially drew attention to the fact that we had consulted with several other third-party professionals to make sure we were making effective and responsible choices.

Some of the other steps we took were less visible, but we want you to know about them:

All of these efforts took considerable time and resources and a significant share of our online communications. We realize that, nonetheless, these actions may not be sufficient for some of you. Others may feel we went too far. All we can do is what we judge is best by taking into account the diverse feedback, counsel and professional advice we received.

We also know that the situations that came to light in October 2013 tapped into concerns and issues that are much larger in scope and scale than what ScienceOnline, both organization and community, can address or solve on its own. Challenges that women face in science and society are huge. ScienceOnline is committed to talking about these issues along with the many other organizations, institutions, and individuals who are interested in seeing change happen.

Here are some thoughts and ideas in response to the specific concerns, questions and suggestions that emerged from the #sciosafe open letter.

Communication to and from the ScienceOnline Board
The ScienceOnline Board meets four times a year (once in person, the remaining times virtually). It has worked via email and phone calls when needed between official meetings.

Board communications (links to online statements since October 2013)

Executive Director communications (links to online statements since October 2013; these are in addition to conference-specific mailings, emails, and blog posts)

This board, like that of most non-profit organizations, is responsible for guiding the organization’s operational leadership – especially its executive director – in keeping with its mission, and for assembling resources to help it achieve that mission. It is not charged with the day-to-day operations of the organization (that is the purpose of the organization’s employee).

The executive director serves at the request of the board to develop programs, to handle day-to-day operations, to organize events, to develop resources, and to handle compliance issues as a nonprofit.

The Board and Executive Director feel that we have been responsive to the emails we have received and have tried our best to consider all feedback. We understand that crises like we experienced last year call for extra communication, which we have done our best to provide. We’re not able to monitor every twitter stream and blog post. The executive director and each of the board members’ email addresses are public.

Karyn has been very accessible via email and phone. She almost always responds to email in less than 24 hours.

Organizationally, we cannot post a public response online for every individual email received.

Board members have fulltime jobs and they work on a volunteer basis.

Plans for Building the ScienceOnline Board
Since the October 16 and October 21, 2013 board statements, the board has added two new board members and is committed to continuing to expand the board in 2014, in order to strengthen the organization.

A board consultant has helped us identify our current and most pressing needs (some of these needs could be filled by a person with multiple areas of expertise):

  • New board members (at this time of search) should have previous board experience (priority for nonprofit experience).
  • A potential board member with experience in resource development and fundraising.
  • A potential board member with legal experience (particularly nonprofit law).
  • A potential board member with accounting experience.
  • Other considerations for diversity: someone under the age of 40, someone who works internationally, and someone from an underrepresented group.

We welcome suggestions for people with these characteristics and experience, which should be directed to the board via email.

We are also committed to the development of an advisory council to assist the Board in fulfilling the mission of ScienceOnline. Each conference in 2013 and also ScienceOnline Together 2014 had an advisory panel to help with programming. We have appreciated the volunteer work of these individuals and their input. Extending that model to include a broader advisory council for the organization is something we have been working on. We have spoken to other organizations about the best way to develop and initiate such a council and are proceeding with care to make sure we do things in the best manner. The Board has had many recent issues to focus their limited time on and will continue to develop the process for creating the advisory council.

The ScienceOnline events policy and process for harassment reporting
Board member, Scott Rosenberg described our process and thoughts about the harassment response team (March 7, 2014):

In the time between Bora’s resignation and the conference, Karyn had reached out to many of our peers at other conferences (including ones suggested by community members) for ideas. She consulted them about what processes and systems they had in place for dealing with codes of conduct and harassment incidents, and what advice they might have for holding sessions in which people could discuss these issues. We took their advice. The approach we took at SciO14 reflected that research.
Since the conference, Karyn has continued to be in touch with these colleagues to debrief and further improve our approach (which included a volunteer response team, a code of conduct and a harassment policy published in the program). Our policies are comparable to how many other events handle this important process, and more thorough than some others.

To expand on this explanation: Karyn contacted more than eight organizations and leaders directly–some conferences that were contacted were suggested by ScienceOnline attendees—such as the GeekGirlCon. Several organizations preferred to remain unnamed and requested confidentiality. We also researched policies as posted online at conference and organization websites.

The two models for harassment response teams at the conferences we researched are:

  1. Volunteer workers who are instructed to be professional, comforting, take reports, make sure the reporter is given phone numbers of professionals if there is an immediate unsafe issue, and to pass the decisions on to conference management for response. The volunteer does not provide harassment counseling or make decisions on behalf of the organization. This is for liability issues and to protect the volunteer. Reports and any actions as a result of the reports are kept confidential, which is considered a best practice in this area. The organization or event manager makes a decision for any response, based on the report.

    Our Harassment Policy says “If a participant or exhibitor engages in harassing behavior, the conference organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, ranging from a simple warning to the offender to expulsion from the conference.” Again, reports and any actions as a result of the reports are kept confidential.
  2. Local Police on site as the professionals to take all reports. This model has only been used by the large conferences we contacted. For the 50,000-60,000 attendee Dragon Con in Atlanta, the local police are hired to be on-site and to handle security, including harassment reports.

We sought to meet or exceed industry standards. A survey of many organizations that we contacted and others in the science and related fields shows that we do that. All of the organizations we contacted noted that our process, code of conduct and efforts to respond were extensive. We will continue to evaluate our policies and procedures. We will continue to post online the Code of Conduct and Harassment Policy for our events and will add information about the process for reporting an incident.


Relationship of ScienceOnline and Bora Zivkovic

In regard to the issues with Bora Zivkovic, we responded quickly (within 48 hours of the Oct 14, 2013 public comments we met with Bora, investigated the situation, and responded publicly), appropriately (accepted his voluntary resignation, removed him from all ScienceOnline projects, and noted that he would not be present at ScienceOnline events in 2014), and proportionately (his behavior and public comments about the behavior were dealt with in regard to his position on the ScienceOnline board; he was not an employee of ScienceOnline, and thus there were no employment issues to address).

The board will continue to try to handle all questions with the same balance of responsiveness, appropriateness, and proportionality. We work hard to create safe and welcoming conferences. We must take the needs of a diverse community into consideration.

ScienceOnline Organizational Structure
We recognize that the organization serves a diverse group of people with many needs. No organization is able to meet everyone’s needs, even though we seek and consider all feedback as we make our plans and decisions.

Here is some background to how ScienceOnline came to have the nonprofit organizational structure it has today.

Before ScienceOnline organized as a nonprofit (incorporated June 13, 2012), Anton and Bora (and then Anton, Bora, and Karyn) organized the annual conference (beginning in 2007), shouldered the financial responsibility (often contributing personal funds) and did most of the work for years. In working to create an event that people would want to come to—one that they themselves would want to attend—they put their ideas for new types of conferences into practice. They wanted to surprise people and make the event really special. They wanted the details to matter. Many people came, embraced the idea, and jumped in to participate, and some even helped volunteer. But the business of the conference, the fundraising, the contract negotiations, the planning, the logistics, the programming decisions, the bulk of the work came down to the same handful of people.

This was exhausting for the three conference organizers. The stress of the finances, the amount of work, and the amount of time was weighing on all three of them. They decided they needed to either stop or form some kind of organization or business so that the conference (and any future projects) could move forward.

Anton, Bora, and Karyn discussed handing the project (including the conference) over to an academic institution, but they discovered that the constraints would be too great. They also wanted ScienceOnline to be independent of any single academic institution or corporate sponsor so that (a) it would be easier for multiple academic institutions to participate and (b) it could help diverse groups cohere, coordinate and collaborate.

They offered it to another organization already in existence, but that organization had no interest in taking on the responsibility. They debated whether to pursue a business or a nonprofit.

They also looked at the different types of nonprofits—including a member organization. They chose not to take the membership model for several reasons (some financial, others because of values). One priority was to be inclusive (and member organizations are, by nature, organizations which people must pay to join, which means not everyone can participate—you have to pay to join). They also wanted the organization to be able to continue to create exciting, inspiring events open to anyone that cultivated discussions, collaborations, and the resources for the ways science was conducted, shared, and communicated online.

In the end, they went with organizing a nonprofit so that ScienceOnline could pursue support from foundations aligned with the organization’s mission, and also so that individuals could receive a tax-deductible benefit from contributions.

This has been successful on the funding side from foundations and sponsors. Funders liked seeing the 501(c)(3) status (indeed, some require it). But even before October 2013, individual financial support (necessary to maintain our IRS status) has been a challenge. Total individual donations for 2013 were only 4% of the actual expenses (half of that amount was from board members).

The annual conference has always been organized by what became the initial leadership of the nonprofit. What changed when the nonprofit was organized was the possibility of having someone do this fulltime as a paid job, instead of in addition to a fulltime job — especially as all three volunteers could no longer sustain that level of commitment professionally or personally.

A Note about Community

ScienceOnline has always aimed to support and nurture the relationships that developed out of its events. But while Anton, Bora, and Karyn did create an event and eventually organize a nonprofit, they did not create the ScienceOnline community.

Communities arise out of shared experiences or circumstances.

People that attended the ScienceOnline events liked them, liked the people they met, and wanted to stay in touch and build on those relationships. We encourage that. In fact, when people wanted to start to meet up locally during the year to keep the vibe going, we helped them by saying they could use our branding and start ScienceOnline satellites.

We didn’t charge anything. If these satellites wanted to use the ScienceOnline name and brand, we simply asked them to follow some general community guidelines that would keep things in line with our values, and to follow our branding (for consistency). The local groups are autonomous. They are locally led. They can set up their own hierarchy, leadership, plans, agenda, programming, etc. They find their own venues, own local sponsors, etc. We don’t step in to micro-manage that at all. We DO however offer support at no cost to the local satellite – such as website space, email, domain name to match our branding, Livestream subscription access, and Google business apps access.

Final Words

We hope that this (rather long) post explains more of the behind-the-scenes story of the ScienceOnline nonprofit organization, the way the Board works, the thought (and process) behind our policies for conduct at events, and our efforts to be the kind of leadership that listens and leads in a responsible way. Like many others, the Board members are passionate about the mission of ScienceOnline. We continue to invest our energy, effort, time and finances to see the mission of ScienceOnline move forward.

Thank you.

Scott Rosenberg
Karyn Traphagen
Meg Lowman
Mark Benerofe
Anton Zuiker

Note: Comments are turned off based on the advice of legal counsel, but of course we welcome responses and feedback as always, via email and other channels.

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ScienceOnline http://scienceonline.wpengine.com <![CDATA[Announcement: Open Lab Anthology is available as ePub]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1603 2014-04-24T19:45:50Z 2014-03-17T13:10:08Z On February 28 2014 ScienceOnline released The Open Laboratory 2013: The Best of Science Writing on the Web. It’s available now on the Creatavist site.

20140217 Open Lab 2013 BC blue iPHONEThis year for the first time the annual compendium of excellent science communication appears as an ebook, created on the Creatavist publishing tool and downloadable for $6.99 in all major ebook formats. Attendees to the ScienceOnline2014 conference received coupons for free copies of the book.

Edited and with an introduction by author and science blogger Scott Huler, the collection includes work from high-profile sites like Boing Boing, blog networks like Discover and the Scientific American Blog Network, and many independent blogs like Deep Sea News. As an ebook it contains drawings and audio stories, and when viewed online readers can click to videos and other linked stories.

Some 30 volunteer judges from throughout the online science community whittled more than a thousand nominated entries down to fewer than a hundred, from which Huler chose the winners. Featuring noted authors and journalists as well as the brightest up-and-comers writing online today, this collection provides a comprehensive look at the fascinating, innovative, and trailblazing scientific achievements and breakthroughs of 2012, along with elegant and thought-provoking new takes on favorite topics.

This is the seventh anthology of online essays produced through ScienceOnline, and the collection remains much as it has in each previous edition, marrying cutting-edge science with dynamic writing that will inspire us all. They range from brief infographics and results sharing to highly personal musings on topics like abortion. The only theme among them is excellence.

The entries for this volume were sorted by the ScienceSeeker website (another project of ScienceOnline), and the 2014 edition of Open Laboratory will be part of the annual ScienceSeeker Awards process.

The project was created on the Creatavist platform through the help of Olivia Koski and The Atavist. If this is how easy it is to create ebooks, count us in.

Talk Science to Me generously provided the services of artist and designer Mari Chijiiwa to design the cover of Open Laboratory 2013.

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Scott Rosenberg <![CDATA[ScienceOnline Together 2014: A view from the board]]> http://scienceonline.com/?p=1601 2014-03-09T13:07:36Z 2014-03-07T18:56:14Z Last week’s conference was my fourth time attending ScienceOnline, and my first time as a board member. For me, the conference remained the unique experience it’s always been — a convivial meeting ground for scientists, writers, students, and those passionate about science to exchange ideas about how their work can flourish online.

But it’s also true that, as many of you know, it’s been a rough few months for ScienceOnline as both an organization and a community. After three women courageously stepped forward with accusations against Bora Zivkovic, one of the ScienceOnline organization’s founders, the SciO community and the organization had to deal with the fallout.

The board immediately investigated the situation carefully. We met with Bora, and, within 48 hours of the initial public complaint, asked him to resign from the board, which he did. That was the start of what has been a conscientious and continuing effort to make sure ScienceOnline is a welcoming and safe environment for everyone who attends.

As this conversation continues, it’s important — particularly for people who care about ScienceOnline but couldn’t or didn’t make it to Raleigh this year — for us to lay out clearly what those efforts were, and how we made some of the decisions that led up to the conference.

We wanted to start the conference off with a direct acknowledgment of recent history. Here’s what Karyn Traphagen, our executive director, said at the very start of ScienceOnline Together 2014. It’s a long quote, but it bears reporting here in full (you can watch the video here):

Science communication, ScienceoOnline, and many other conferences and conventions and groups of people over the last year — year and a half — have experienced some challenges about being welcoming and about being accessible and safe places. And we’ve worked really hard this year with other leaders, and with our board, and with you to make ScienceOnline Together what we’ve always wanted it to be: [that] is a place of respect, and a place of welcome and [a] place where everyone feels that they can be.

To do part of that, this year, if you notice in your program there’s two pages, one page is a Conduct Page and one page is a Harassment Policy page. I love the conduct page because this is what we should all be doing. I would really ask if you have not already read the Code of Conduct that you take a moment during the day and realize that you are a part of making this successful by doing these things: by demonstrating respect for everyone, and including everyone, and embracing a spirit of sharing. Read through these different things — they’re on our website too — and you will be a huge part of making ScienceOnline Together a really productive, welcome, and safe place.

But we also recognize that we need to have things in place in case things don’t go the way we that we would hope, and so we have a response team and I’m going to ask them to stand right now. And these are people from the community, your friends, who’ve volunteered to be available (they may not all be in the room at the moment) and they have, they are listed on the bottom of the Harassment page with contact numbers, and I’m one of them too (you can sit down, thanks). We also have another little sticker on our nametag so if you need to talk to somebody, if you need to report something, please feel free to find me (my number’s on there) or these other people who have volunteered to help, or someone at the front desk. We want to respond, we want to make sure that things go well, so please take advantage of those things we’ve put in place for you for that.

In the time between Bora’s resignation and the conference, Karyn had reached out to many of our peers at other conferences (including ones suggested by community members) for ideas. She consulted them about what processes and systems they had in place for dealing with codes of conduct and harassment incidents, and what advice they might have for holding sessions in which people could discuss these issues. We took their advice. The approach we took at SciO14 reflected that research.

Since the conference, Karyn has continued to be in touch with these colleagues to debrief and further improve our approach (which included a volunteer response team, a code of conduct and a harassment policy published in the program). Our policies are comparable to how many other events handle this important process, and more thorough than some others. I’m sure we can keep improving in this area — and within the resources of a small, mostly-volunteer organization, we will keep aiming to do so.

A number of people at ScienceOnline told us they thought Karyn should have addressed the organization’s recent history with Bora directly from the start, and specifically mentioned his name from the stage. Everyone should know that this was not a spur-of-the-moment lapse or an act of denial. It was a careful choice that the ScienceOnline board and leadership pondered at length and agreed upon in advance. We felt strongly that the conference shouldn’t be about Bora or ScienceOnline’s difficulties in the wake of his behavior, but about the important work so many scientists and writers and science communicators are sharing. That was why we’d worked hard to hold this conference under difficult circumstances.

This still makes sense to me. I also know I’ve heard from more than one conference attendee that Karyn’s not mentioning Bora’s name at the start of the conference made them feel that we were discouraging discussion of what happened. That certainly wasn’t what we intended. Karyn, Anton, and other board members did speak directly about Bora specifically with many attendees one-on-one, and we encouraged people to ask questions and discuss the situations and their concerns.

ScienceOnline has always been focused on listening to feedback. So we knew different people were in different places at the start of our conference this year. Some were still hurt, many upset. Some wanted to talk about Bora. Some wanted to move on. Others wanted to talk more generally about how the world of science, science writing and science online could deal with the broader issues of women in science, fairness, and safety. And still others were there to talk about science, writing, and communication, period — or were new and didn’t know about the recent history at all.

At ScienceOnline 2014, we aimed to open many different spaces where people could feel comfortable and invited to discuss any and all of these sensitive and important topics. We talked to independent harassment experts about how to do that, and the sessions we held were based on that advice. We knew, as did those experts, that it was just the start of a conversation. We tried to make it possible for ScienceOnline attendees to drive these discussions for themselves, led by third-party moderators and not conference leadership. We put these sessions right at the start of the conference to spotlight them and make clear that we had no desire to sweep anything under the rug.

Those conversations happened — in the four sessions we kicked the conference off with that focused on different facets of the issues, in other sessions that covered topics like mentorship and diversity, at the open lunch-table conversations, and in the hallways and informal gatherings that have always been the heart of ScienceOnline. I participated in some of those conversations, and if you were at the conference you probably did, too.

Some attendees self-organized their own session called #sciosafe to extend this discussion. Two board members, myself and Anton, showed up and offered to listen to their concerns. (Karyn showed up, too, and said she was glad the session was happening, but then had to leave to tend to conference business.) The group preferred to talk without us present, so we respected that. That means that ScienceOnline as an organization wasn’t present at #sciosafe, and we still don’t really know in any authoritative way what was said there. We will do our best to respond to any report or suggestions or proposals that attendees of the session may make.

We want to make sure that everyone — those who were at ScienceOnline 2014 and those watching from afar — knows about the efforts we made. I’m sure our efforts could be improved upon, and we’ll keep listening and trying to do better. But I’m proud that ScienceOnline 2014 happened and went well, mostly thanks to Karyn’s efforts and the contributions of so many amazing participants; that so many of the sessions were so good; that so many people renewed old connections and, along with 200 new attendees this year, made new ones. I know I did.

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3/9/14: Please note, ScienceOnline’s executive director will be out of the office until Wed, Mar 12. No one will be available to moderate or respond to comments until after she returns.

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