[OWW-SC] Fwd: Science BarCamp/SHDH

[Mackenzie Cowell]

Jason Morrison found an interesting article called Silicon Valley Hackfest
Hints at How Laboratory Scientists Could
Communicate<http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/10/superhappydevcon_20_hints_at_h.php>.
Here's the money quote:

"Coders are accustomed to communicating with each other must faster than
their laboratory-bound counterparts. Some Google employees told me how they
are barraged each day with a phalanx of email. Countless message boards, IRC
channels, and other sites allow isolated programmers to share with each
other. And then we have this: a gathering with lightning talks and guys
squeezed ten to a folding table sharing ideas as quickly as they can speak.
Perhaps this allows their culture and projects to evolve more quickly as
well.

By comparison, there are few chemistry message boards, and only the open
access journals like chemistry central include a comments thread alongside
every peer-reviewed research paper, and conferences are dry, twice-a-year
poster and powerpoint affairs.

It makes perfect sense that information technology for laboratory scientists
would lag behind that which is at the disposal of career programmers,
because the coders can make their own. But despite that understanding, I
want more. I want lightning talks, and hack days, and zillions of active
boards for biologists and chemists and physicists."

Interestingly, Jason points out that he originally found the article because
it was linked two in a different post by Bryan Bishop, who has posted to the
BBF-standards workshop.

I'm not sure how a biology-based 12-hour hackfest / devhouse would work, but
we should figure it out and hold one (we could at least have a parts
curation party for the registry...).

Mac

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jason Morrison <jason.p.morrison at gmail.com>
Date: Jan 28, 2008 5:42 PM
Subject: Science BarCamp/SHDH
To: Mackenzie Cowell <macowell at gmail.com>


http://www.barcamp.org/Barcamp%20and%20Hackfest

(links to
http://scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/2007/10/superhappydevcon_20_hints_at_h.php
)

Of interest: I think the barcamp article is posted by Bryan Bishop
(http://heybryan.org/) from Austin TX and has posted to the
BBF-standards mailing list.

Jason

--
Jason Morrison
jason.p.morrison at gmail.com
http://jayunit.net
(585) 216-5657



-- 
Mac Cowell
iGEM Coordinator
igem.org
231.313.9062
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