BioBarCamp
A few weeks ago I had the good fortune of being able to attend BioBarCamp in Palo Alto. It was first BarCamp I was able to attend in its entirety and I am still impressed with just how well an unconference actually works. The sessions ranged from strictly bio (biology of aging and DIYbio) to more general issues in science (open science, online communities for scientists, and scientific intellectual property) to the rather unique (science as a religion). The one downside of a BarCamp is that you can’t attend every session.
One of the more interesting sessions I was able to attend was “Dealing with Noise in Science / How should scientific articles be measured?” lead by Pedro Beltrao and Peter Binfield of PLoS ONE. The session discussed how impact in science is currently measured and explored what some better alternatives might be (right up our alley!).
Photo by Easternblot
For those who couldn’t make it, there was plenty live blogging coverage in the BioBarCamp room on FriendFeed. I hope to see more unconferences for scientists pop up in the future. I might just have to organize one here in Southern California.
Tags: biobarcamp