Empowering science with Web 2.0

Science and the scientific process is core to the delivery of modern government, with its focus on evidence-based policy and sound social research.

So it's about time we had an organisation in Australia focused on exploring how the arrival of Web 2.0 and Gov 2.0 is affecting science - how it is conducted, reported and used, how citizens engage in it and governments fund it (apparently the Australian Government believes this too - the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education is involved with the launch event).

'sciencerewired' is being launched by media140 Australia as a new organisation dedicated to exploring the intersection of the internet and science, starting with a one day event in Adelaide on 11 October this year.

This will involve participatory workshops, case studies and strategies for developing effective digital science communication and citizen science programmes.

Attendees will learn about the latest insights and strategies in social media, crowd-sourcing methods, community management, remote digital technologies and big data and how they can and are being applied to science communication and citizen science.

The event's themes will include:

• Active and passive citizen science strategies and platforms
• Managing and growing active science communities
• Remote learning technologies, connecting people across borders
• Dialling down the jargon, how to talk science to non-scientists
• Big data and visualising complex concepts
• The democratisation of science
• Gamification (theory of gaming and applications to science)
• Using tablets, iPads and moblie devices in science communication
• Blogging for science and using video and audio effectively

Speakers will include representatives from ScienceAlert, The Labshare Institute, theSkyNet, VIVOmiles, Atlas of Living Australia, RiAus, Veritasium and other innovators and digital pioneers in the field of citizen science, science education and communication.

sciencerewired is hosted in partnership with the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, Royal Institute of Australia, COSMOS Magazine, iiNet, TechNYou and media140 Worldwide.

Find out more and see the full event programme online.