Check the latest episode of the Geek Whisperers podcast for an interview with Rakesh Bharania, who works as part of the Cisco Tactical Operations team. The team’s main job in emergencies is to help get large-scale communication and network systems back online when natural or man-made disaster strikes – but they also use a well-developed, coordinated social media strategy to help disseminate crisis information, rumor control and emergency coordination.

http://geek-whisperers.com/2013/05/episode-9-social-media-during-crisis-we-are-mall-cops/

How might organizations such as Sea Grant, which have people on or close to the scene of coastal disasters & emergencies, develop our own strategies for using social media and similar tools to broaden our effectiveness in times of crisis?

A couple of resources that might be useful as you ponder today’s ScienceOnline topics:

Formal Science Education, Informal Science Education and Science Writing

• The Free-Choice Learning Lab at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center. This Sea Grant project, funded by a five-year, $2.6 million NSF grant, is transforming the popular HMSC Visitor Center into a high-tech laboratory where researchers from around the world can study how people of all ages learn about science in informal, free-choice settings. Check out their blog.

Persuading the Unpersuadable: Communicating Science to Deniers, Cynics, and Trolls

Sea Grant Communications Director Joe Cone has developed a number of publications based on his NOAA-funded research with colleagues in Maine and elsewhere to understand how to develop sound information, grounded in surveys of local residents and opinion leaders, can give coastal communities the tools they need to actively prepare for climate change. The research is summarized here, with links to a number of videos and publications resulting from the project.

In addition, we’ve developed a number of short, free publications, grounded in this research, to provide science communicators with tools that can help them effectively deliver information about climate change and other “controversial” topics to the public.

Specialist Q&A

Conferees were divided into four groups to offer innovative examples of how they’re doing outreach & engagement:

Flacks & journalists (PIO model)

How do you balance telling a good story versus critical scientific thinking?

• Science stories should be written by people with science background. “Newspapers and other organizations should be looking for scientists and turning them into good journalsts, not the other way around.”
• How do you get good science to lawmakers?
  • Connect it to the money issues in their districts
• I’m a scientist and have a cool project I want the public to know about it. How do I do it?
  • Practice, practice, practice – get training by your PIOs.
  • Make sure you have an up-to-date Web page about your current research and that it’s Google-friendly so people – including reporters – can find you.

Blogging & social media

• Blogging: Opinion vs just the facts
  • Opinion & fun for the stuff you really know about
    • Do your research when you’re reporting on things outside your field and or scientifically controversial
    • Chad Orzel  (Uncertain Principles at scienceblogs.com): “If I’m going to write about anything it’s going to be my opinion because that’s the value I bring to the subject”
      
    • Others sasuggest y they do the research – comprehensive literature suggest that when writing outside your field, read the literature,understand the topic and write an “explainer.”
  • How do you get someone who’s not a blogger to try blogging?
    • For guest blogs, grab them at conferences or when they’re in the news.
    • Mentor them. Show them it’s easy.
  • If you’re trying to persuade them, don’t use the word “blog.” Just tell them it’s writing articles online.

Education-based outreach

• Foussed programs to reach small groups (ie, 30 of the best science students come to a workshop/camp. (Could you scale that kind of thing up to reach more people or keep them engaged via additional online content?)
  • Attend teacher meetings & conferences and distribute flyers about your Website/blog/online materials
  • Work with the experts to develop teacher training materials
  • Give kits to teachers
  • Tie content to STEM standards & requirements
• How much do you focus on getting kids to become scientists versus general science literacy/interest/enjoyment?
  • One program (Stemcell Talks) takes basic presentations in the school & allows interested  students to apply for a full-day symposium where they can engage directly with scientists
  • Online courses that keep kids excited
  • Go into schools and teach little kids the cool stuff about science to get them excited

Informal communication – directly to people

• How do you reach beyond the already interested?
  • Collaborative projects
  • “Guerilla Science” take it to the streets, to music festivals, to places you wouldn’t expect to learn about science
  • (See Saturday conference session: Outreach in Unusual Places) Go to science fiction conventions and serve on ask-a-scientist-anything panels