That means I’ve got about a week to put together a 30-40 minute talk. I won’t have any trouble filling up the time, of course — the real problem is what NOT to present. I aim to use the web instead of powerpoint, by creating a series of bookmarks that I can open in browser tabs (or from a History sidebar; haven’t decided) and move through those like slides. I plan to follow the basic format of my old essays: we’re all familiar with Free/Open Source software, the NIH just mandated a kind of Open Access so here’s what that means and what that can do, and what else can be Open? leading into Open Data, Open Standards/semantic web, Open Licensing — in short, Open Science.
The Berglund Center is affiliated with Pacific University, a “a small, private university with a blend of liberal arts, education and health care”. I attended the Center’s Summer Institute this year at the kind invitation of the director, Jeffrey Barlow, after he read Mitch Waldrop’s “Science 2.0” article and noticed that I was local. (Sadly, I could only attend one day, but it was both fun and productive. The whole thing was also filmed, so I’ll make a note when the footage and transcripts are available.)
Pacific U’s College of Arts and Sciences includes schools of biology, bioinformatics and chemistry, and all three strongly encourage undergraduate research. I hope to tailor the presentation somewhat in the hope of getting faculty in these schools enthused about Open Access and Open Science.
So, my question to you dear LazyWeb, is essentially: what should I present? What are the basic, must-know tools and ideas of Open Science? How can I best introduce the possibilities of Open-ness to faculty and students at a small liberal arts college? Who has given really good presentations from which I can swipe ideas? I have an opportunity here to expand the Open Science community; help me make the most of it.
Update 080909: the slides — after a suggestion from John Dupuis, I ended up using Google Presentations — are here, and I’ll post when the video becomes available.