How online networks (mostly) kept a lone bioinformatician from going insane

How online networks (mostly) kept a lonebioinformatician from going insaneNeil Saunders

DIGITAL PRODUCTIVITYwww.csiro.au

Social Networking: Slide 2 of 29

obligatory advertising slide

Transformational Bioinformatics TeamAustralian eHealth Research Centre, CSIROhttp://aehrc.com/research/biomedical-imaging

Goal: develop advanced computational and statistical methodologies and apply them to large datasets in the health/life sciences space

Bill Wilson Denis Bauer Firoz Anwar James Doecke Neil Saunders Sam Burnham Aidan O’Brien

Type Detail Value People

Software NGSANE: Lightweight Production Informatics Framework for High Throughput Data Analysis

Collaborators: MQ, Garvan, ANU Denis

Contract Colo Vantage modeling CRC interventions Janssen (J&J Pharma)

$100,000$125,000/yr for 2 years

RobSam

Publication A blood based predictor for neocortical Aβ burden in Alzheimer's disease: results from the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and lifestyle study of ageing

Burnham et al. Molecular Psychiatry. IF=15

Sam, James, Bill

Grant MND Research Institute $100,000 Denis, Bill


a quick introduction to mefor the purpose of this talk


back in the year 2000sequencing microbial genomes

one Windows machine, several thousand chromatograms


online support back then came in one formthe mailing list


what I learned from mailing lists“community norms” :-)

Neil,I’ve never written a “RTFM” post in my life...


the mailing list is not (quite) dead


experiments in more “personal” communitythe Nodalpoint portal


what we learned from Nodalpoint

if you build it, they might come


the rise of the bioinformatics blog2004 - 2008


blogs as communitybio::blogs


what we learned from blogswant to express an opinion? be prepared to engage

https://xkcd.com/386/

https://xkcd.com/386/


structural bioinformatics Brisbane 2006 - 2009predicting protein-protein interactions (Predikin)

something else happened in 2006 (more on that later)


an unlikely science communitythe life scientists group at FriendFeed


rewards & recognition via online networks


why was FriendFeed important?because it was not one of these - “facebook for scientists” a.k.a. fb4sci

social networks for scientists

too many

high barrier to entry

benefits unclear

but do give you ”web presence“

N. Saunders (SMMS, UQ) Science networks November 26, 2008 8 / 29


health “omics” CSIRO 2009 - presentthis is very much the age of Twitter

but what can you do with a real-time stream of 140-charactermessages?


post links to interesting articlespossibly your own


provide status updatesservices, software


advertise jobsalso meetings, events


advertise your other online content


ask/answer questions


discuss topical issues


and so back to forums...forums have evolved and are still valuable


thoughts on online community 1/nfour ages of online interaction (at least since c. 2000)

the age of forums/mailing lists and portals

the age of blogs

the age of “facebook for scientists”

the age of Twitter


thoughts on online community 2/nonline communities

No matter who you are, most of the smartest people workfor someone else- Bill JoyIt’s not information overload. It’s filter failure.- Clay Shirky

clearly they are A Good Thingthey’ve provided me with advice, support and comfort for 15+ years


thoughts on online community 3/ndon’t be a lone bioinformatician

https://biomickwatson.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/a-guide-for-the-lonely-bioinformatician/

https://biomickwatson.wordpress.com/2013/04/23/a-guide-for-the-lonely-bioinformatician/


thoughts on online community 4/nlocal versus online

is online community “enough community”?what about local communities?

what about bioinformatics in Sydney?

DIGITAL PRODUCTIVITYwww.csiro.au

CSIRO Digital Productivity

Neil Saunderstew website

http://nsaunders.wordpress.com

How online networks (mostly) kept a lone bioinformatician from going insane

Science

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