OMG! SciBlogCon '08!

I'm very stoked to be going to the 2008 North Carolina Science Blogging Conference. I hope we get a good turn out so we get a nice discussion going, such as some of the points on our conference discussion wiki (click the link for examples of real-time blogging we pulled from the blogosphere):

-Using blogs as a tool in Science, Conservation and Marine Education
-Blogs as filters of novel research and synthesizers of concepts
-Communicating Marine Science to the public via blogs (including podcasting and video blogs) to increasing public awareness of Ocean Science and related issues (i.e. who reads marine biology blogs and why).
-Blogging from the field as a method to communicate the scientific method, how research is done and what its like to be a scientist
-The multifaceted constraints of blogging in the field and to what extent blogging does or does not represent the organization you work for.

This conference is following the "unconference" format so come prepared to discuss and exchange ideas! For those unable to attend we are going to try to have a few options in place.

First: Jason over at Cephalopodcast, one of the session co-moderators, will try to stream the presentation (9:50 to 11am ET). Here are details:

• My conference updates will be available at the Offical Cephalopodcast NC Science Blogging Conference page
• Any streaming will take place at the Cephalopodcast ustream.tv channel
• If ustream fails, I might try Talkshoe

Second: SciBlogCon has set up chat rooms through Pibb.com (instructions here). You have to register, but each session at the conference is supposed to have a chat room. Once logged in the chat channel is called NC Science Blogging Conference 1. Would be interesting to try out!

Third: Live blogging! I am sure each of us will be live-blogging the whole weekend, so keep your eyes peeled to our blogs or your RSS feeds for updates. Obviously I will be blogging here, Jason has set up a special little place for the conference (first bullet point above), Rick blogs at Malaria, Bedbugs, Sea Lice, and Sunsets, Karen blogs of The Beagle Project (and possibly her new little personal space on the web: Data Not Shown), Peter blogs at Deep Sea News. We encourage questions, discussion and comments at any of our blogs ALWAYS!