It’s that time again! Less than a week until AGU’s Fall Meeting in San Francisco and my schedule is already full with a whole slew of great sessions, events and activities. As is my annual tradition, I’ve collected a list of various social-media-related items for you to peruse.

The meeting app:

Here’s the big change – you can’t get the meeting app by searching on the app store for AGU! Instead, you need to look for the “ScholarOne My Itinerary App” and then select the Fall Meeting on it. It works the same way it has in the past, keeping track of your itinerary and (depending on your device) linking it up to your calendar so you can easily get at all your activities. Get more information on it here.

Events:

Once again, I’ll be participating in a blogging forum (this time on Tuesday evening from 5-6PM in Moscone West Room 3000). I’ll be joined by Larry O’Hanlon (AGU’s current blogging guru, @Earth2larryo on Twitter), Austin Elliott of the AGU Blogosphere Trembling Earth blog (@TTremblingEarth on Twitter), and Laura Guertin of the Teaching With Technology  and Journeys With Dr. G blogs (@guertin on Twitter). Come and ask us questions about our experiences, how blogging can help you and how to get started, or just bounce ideas off us! It’s always a fun discussion.

*Update* Olivia Ambrogio (AGU Strategic Communications Specialist and coordinator of AGU’s Expert Outreach Network) reminded me that I’ll be hanging out at the AGU Booth as part of their “Ask an expert” corner on Wednesday from 10:30-11:30 AM. I’ll be available to answer questions about social media and blogging, so come by and chat!

On Wednesday afternoon, there will be an even more involved workshop on social media, “Social Media Strategies for Successful Engagement and Community Building”, where you can learn how to apply all kinds of social media outlets (including blogging) to education and outreach projects. You’ll need to register online and block off a chunk of time to attend – it’s Wednesday from 1-4pm in the Marriott Marquis Salons 12-13.

The conference online:

There are a lot of ways to participate in the Fall Meeting even if you can’t make it to California. The meeting website has a page with details on virtual options for participating, and I’ve highlighted a few below:

ePosters are a great way to see poster presentations without schlepping to San Francisco – or to catch posters you missed when you were trying to attend multiple sessions in an afternoon. AGU’s ePoster interface can be found here. You will have to create an account to see the posters, but it’s free and painless. (When I finish making my poster, I’ll be posting it there. Naturally I am waiting until the absolute last minute to do this…)

Another way to see conference presentations if you’re not able to make it to the meeting or miss a session is through the video-on-demand page. Some sessions have both live streaming and video on demand (24 hours afterward), but a few only have VOD. Here’s a list of everything with either of these options; again, you’ll have to create an account to watch, although instructions for viewing don’t seem to be up just yet.

Some poster sessions are set up to allow the presenter to join in remotely, rather than physically being at the meeting. Kiosks with audio/video connections and monitors will be set up in the poster hall, and presentations will happen during morning poster sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. You’ll have to dig through the abstracts to see who’s presenting what and when, but all the basic info can be found here.

Twitter & Blogs:

This year’s hashtag is #AGU13 – follow it to see what we’re all chattering about! I’ll be tweeting from @Tuff_Cookie as always, and you can follow @theAGU for even more updates and announcements.

I’ll be (once again) attempting to cover the meeting on my blog, but in case I get behind, you can also look at the Blogroll to see who else is talking about Fall Meeting. (And those of you who haven’t signed up, go do it! I guess the page got a little buried this year, but I know it can’t just be me and Andrew Alden going!) Also, you can follow AGU’s Geospace Blog for conference happenings.

Sessions:

Finally, here are a few conference sessions highlighting various kinds of social media. This is by no means a comprehensive list – if you want to look for specific topics, use the Abstract Central interface to browse or search by keyword, name or topic. Some of these sessions have virtual options, so if you can’t make it to the conference, you might be able to see presentations via streaming video.

PA31B. PA31B. Social Media for Science: Challenges, Opportunities, and Maximizing Impact Posters
Convener(s): Gretchen Goldman (Union of Concerned Scientists), Liz Neeley (COMPASS) and Jamie Vernon (AAAS/DOE)
8:00 AM – 12:20 PM; Hall A-C (Moscone South)

“While science blogs, twitter feeds, crowd-sourced and crowd-funded projects enjoy increasing visibility and success, they raise important challenges. The speed and structure of these tools can be at odds with traditional information release processes. How can we express complex ideas in 140 characters? How can we correct errors in scientific information that propagate through social media? How does communication on social media change the overall conversation? And what are the consequences—good and bad—for scientists who choose to embrace these tools? It’s time to take a synthetic look at where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and what we can do better as scientists in the social media space.”

PA42B. PA42B. Scientists Must Film! Using Video to Enhance and Expand Science, and Science Communication II (Virtual Option)
Convener(s): Dan Brinkhuis (ScienceMedia.nl), Ryan Vachon (Earth Initiatives), Elizabeth O’connell (WonderVisions) and Philip Wade (Western Oregon University)
10:20 AM – 12:20 PM; 104 (Moscone South)

“Online video is transforming the way we see the world. We now have easy access to lectures by the famous and the obscure; we can observe lab experiments, documentaries of field expeditions, and actually see recent research results. Most significantly we can easily present our own scientific results to new and important audiences. How can scientists and science educators best use the appeal of video to communicate science to diverse audiences? How is video used as a scientific tool? This session will explore how video can be used to extend scholarly scientific communication, and enhance science. We will discuss methods, give examples and make connections.”

IN23B. IN23B. Collaborative Frameworks and Experiences in Earth and Space Science Posters
Convener(s): M Allison (Arizona Geological Survey), Ilya Zaslavsky ( ), Emily Law (CalTech JPL) and Erin Robinson (Foundation for Earth Science)
1:40 PM – 6:00 PM; Hall A-C (Moscone South)

“With the rapidly increasing scale and complexity of ross-disciplinary research in Earth and space sciences, there is an increased need of elastic access to vast amounts of data and knowledge. Crowdsourcing is becoming an important part of collaborative cyberinfrastructures that seek to obtain data and research insights by soliciting contributions from the science community at large as well as interested citizens.This session invites papers on:● The power of crowdsourcing● Current implementations of crowdsourcing tools and capabilities for science research● Engaging crowd contributions● Crowdsourcing trends that are applicable to science research● Life cycle management of data obtained via crowdsourcing”

ED43D. ED43D. The Role of Scientists as Communicators: From the Classroom to the Pub I Posters
Convener(s): Heidi Roop (GNS Science-Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences Ltd), Bethan Davies (Aberystwyth University) and Thomas Wagner (NASA)
1:40 PM – 6:00 PM; Hall A-C (Moscone South)

“Scientists communicate to non-peer audiences through numerous pathways including websites, blogs, public lectures, media interviews, and educational collaborations. A considerable amount of time and money is invested in this public engagement and these efforts are to a large extent responsible for the public perception of science. However, few incentives exist for researchers to optimize their communication practices to ensure effective outreach. This session encourages critical reflection on the role of scientists as communicators and provides an opportunity for scientists to share their best practices, motivations, and ways in which outreach impacts can be evaluated. The oral session will include a discussion.”

 

If I’ve missed anything, please post it in the comments and I’ll add it on. And as always, feel free to say hi to me at the meeting – if you can catch me in between all these great events!