Join us for our popular Edinburgh Beltane breakfast personal development and networking event!

Wednesday 18^th August 2010

8.30am                       Arrival, coffee / complimentary breakfast served

8.45 - 9.30am              Presentation - ‘What is the value of science blogging for public engagement’ (Ken MacLeod and David Shenk)

9.30 - 10.00am            Informal networking session

The session includes a presentation, “What is the value of science blogging for public engagement?” delivered by two national and international authors, Ken MacLeod and David Shenk (see below for brief biographies!).

This will be followed by an informal networking session for communications professionals, knowledge outreach officers and public engagement practitioners with an interest in communications activities.

Our last event was over-subscribed- select a free ticket now to guarantee a place!

The Edinburgh Beltane Team

*Please note* The primary focus of this seminar is blogging, not science communication. Researchers from all disciplines who are interested in communications and social media will benefit from the discussion!

The speakers

Ken MacLeod (http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com/) is writer in residence at the ESRC Genomics Forum. Ken is a science fiction writer of international repute. He has written eleven novels and many shorter pieces of fiction and non-fiction. (His novels often explore socialist, communist and anarchist political ideas and encompass themes such as divergent human cultural evolution. Ken has a degree in Zoology from Glasgow University, has worked as a computer programmer and has written a masters thesis on biomechanics.)

David Shenk (http://www.davidshenk.com/) is the award-winning and national-bestselling author of six books, including The Forgetting: Alzheimer's, Portrait of an Epidemic, Data Smog: Surviving the Information Glut, and The Immortal Game: A History of Chess. He is a correspondent for TheAtlantic.com, and has contributed to National Geographic, Slate, The New York Times, Gourmet, Harper's, The New Yorker, NPR, and PBS.

Reasons to blog?

Does the expression of personal views on controversial subjects (such as religion or politics) result in 'science' being identified with these views? Does the (often sharp) tone of blog comments put readers and potential contributors off? Or is this new, no-holds-barred culture just what science communication needs?

Find out the advantages of joining the researchers in natural and social sciences who already blog- individually or linking to others through social media sites such as scienceblogs.com. Your blog could contain reports, discussions about research, personal experiences of lab life, musings and polemics.

Best known science bloggers- such as biologist PZ Myers- are perhaps those least restrained in expressing their personal views. Blog comments (responses by readers to a post) are often even less restrained still!