Random admin stuff

I haven't been a great team player recently, so this post catches up on some things going on in the world recently. These are in no particular order.

  • The USA Science and Engineering Festival is coming up in the Fall. ScienceBlogs is the official blogging partner and thereâs a blog here to talk about the preparations. This is one reason why itâs cool to live near DC â I get to go and wave the flag. (hm. mpow should have some representation, too)
  • 3/14 is fast approaching and there will be a pie bake off. My pies are notoriously tasty but ugly. Unfortunately, youâll be judging them on looks not taste so Iâll see what I can do.
  • Elsewhere, Nature Blogs has updated their platform â and itâs gorgeous!
  • The National Academies have a communication award with serious cash as a prize. People interested in communicating science with the public should make some nominations.
  • A couple of excellent conferences lately with video and slides posted on line. In particular, check out the Science Commons Symposium which was held in Redmond, Washington on February 20th.
  • The new version of Mendeley is out with lots of cool updates. One of the neatest things is the collaborative pdf annotation with highlighting and sticky notes.
  • There is a lot of discussion about ebooks now â this requires a post of its own â itâs not clear if thereâs really anything new at all or if itâs just more of the same bemoaning discovery, use, DRM, platforms, etc. The Highwire survey(pdf) is an example. The CrossRef discussion on The Scholarly Kitchen is another.
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