My Churchill Travel Fellowship - Public Engagement with science online

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This June 1 - 26 I am heading to North America to undertake the first part of my Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travel Fellowship focusing on online science communication.

I've created a travel map so others can see where I am and when. I'm keen to connect with people as I go (and I will add to this map as I travel). Follow my journey through my Twitter account and through my blog (you can subscribe via the grey box on the right hand side of the page).

'Public engagement with science online' is clearly a very large area so for this part of my trip and in the time frame I have I will be focusing my efforts on these three questions:
  • Can quality two-way dialogue and engagement between scientists and the public take place on social media?
  • What training and environment is needed to foster this quality two-way dialogue?
  • What can go wrong and how can that be managed?
These questions are broad and there are many themes I want to explore within them. Does social media offer an untapped opportunity for early career scientist? Or is this too risky? Can social media be properly recognised as part of the role of a scientist and does it need to be? These are just some. My next post will follow up on some further discussion.

My aims are still flexible and I welcome any thoughts or feedback on them.

For a broad overview of the project and how the Fellowship came about then I have written a little more about my project plan here.

Of course I will be Tweeting conversations as I go, I am going to use the hashtag #engagescionline

 I am also looking to connect with people via Skype! So please get in touch.





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