Carolina Science Concourse

There are a number of different Web 2.0 applications that are relevant for the sciences. The 2nd annual North Carolina Science Blogging Conference on January 20, 2008, held in RTP was a forum to discuss how scientists can use social software to communicate and share information. SciTech News, a publication of the Special Libraries Association published a report on this meeting and recommended a few relevant recent articles.

Murray, K. K. (2007). Mass spectroscopy and Web 2.0. Journal of Mass Spectroscopy, 42(10), 1263-1271. DOI: 10.1002/jms.1315. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jms.1315
This introductory tutorial gives brief descriptions of some of the major Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, and social bookmarking and how these are being used in the field of mass spectroscopy.

Bonetta, L. (2007). Scientists enter the blogosphere. Cell, 129(3), 443-445. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2007.04.032
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2007.04.032
Who are these bloggers, why are they blogging and how can you start blogging? Bonetta discusses some of the widely-read bloggers and how they are using this new medium to educate and communicate and also gives some tips on how to start your own blog.

Van Noorden, R. (2007). Surfing Web20. Chemistry World 4(12), 46-49 http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2007/December/SurfingWeb20.aspThis article discusses the growing amount of free chemical information on the Internet, the Open Chemistry project and how this is creating new opportunities and new challenges for maintaining quality and interoperability.