ArtSCI meetings: Portand<Oregon
posted by Gabriel Harp (gharp@indiana.edu), 20.11.2003, 16:34

I agree completely that we should organize local meetings. The majors (San Francisco, New York, London) are hotbeds of activity 1) because of events like the recent symposium Gene(sis)in Berkeley/seattle, the Einstein what-not in NYC 2002, and the 2000 Spark festival in Kensington and 2) there is likely a critical mass of folks interested in these things. Nonetheless, many of us may feel isolated because of location and/or because there exist few people around that share interest and/or expertise (synthesis is not an easy proposition).

That said, I do not think ASCI should be responsible. The success and/or failure of such groups depends completely on the motivation of those involved, and no amount of oranizing by ASCI can change that. Obviously, we are a group of highly motivated individuals with definite ideas. Surely we can arrange something. ASCI's role has been that of facilitator, and I applaud its efforts to date. This board is a fine example of those efforts. The problem is that perhaps the lack of an institutional affiliation can make it difficult to find rallying points. I was trained in science (biology), and we had lab group meetings every week. Members of the group traded off presenting topics for discussion, practicing upcoming public presentations, designing experiments, and reviewing papers. The group need not be large (five is a great number), but it is important that meeting are regular and objectives are realized. We concentrated on host-parasite interactions, and our aim was to publish scholarly journal articles, define our ideas, and develop public presentations. I feel that local meetings should be organized similarly- in the interest of advancing the state of the field. Think of the progress that could be made if tens of these groups organized, and as a result contributed at least one presentation to the annual meeting. Then we have a basis of comparison for the effectiveness of collaboration- particularly wrt group membership.

Anyway, here's to getting a lab group up and running in Portland, Oregon. Yes, Eugene, you too. I'm new to portland, but there is a lecture series here for those interested http://www.lectureseries.org. As described above, I'm interested in something a bit more errr...shall we say...academic.
I critique your manuscript if you critique mine...

cheers
gabriel

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complete Thread:

ASCI meetings from Michael Strasmich on 15.11.2003 at 20:42

ASCI meetings from Deborah MacPherson on 17.11.2003 at 09:35

ASCI meetings from Cynthia Pannucci on 18.11.2003 at 15:54

ASCI meetings from Michael Strasmich on 18.11.2003 at 17:37

ASCI meetings from Cynthia Pannucci on 19.11.2003 at 10:48

ASCI meetings from Michael Strasmich on 19.11.2003 at 12:34

ASCI meetings from Cynthia Pannucci on 19.11.2003 at 21:14

ASCI meetings from Deborah MacPherson on 20.11.2003 at 13:31

ASCI meetings from Cynthia Pannucci on 20.11.2003 at 16:00

ArtSCI meetings: Portand<Oregon from Gabriel Harp on 20.11.2003 at 16:34

ArtSCI meetings: Portand<Oregon from Gabriel Harp on 20.11.2003 at 16:39

ArtSCI meetings: Portand<Oregon from Cynthia Pannucci on 20.11.2003 at 17:17