Mozilla Science Lab Week in Review, Sept. 15-21

Shoutouts

Many thanks to Peggy Storey for her conversation this week about her fascinating research in how software developers use social media to ply their craft; there are lots of lessons to be learned there for the scientific community, too, and I think we’ll see some ideas that came out of that conversation crystallize in future Science Lab offerings.

In & Around the Lab

Abby Cabunoc was off adventuring this week at Strange Loop, the annual conference for emerging ideas in computing (check out a repo of content from the conference), but nonetheless found time to implement some awesome frontend work for our forthcoming engagement pilot, Interdisciplinary Programming; Strange Loop 2013 was where Bill Mills and Angelina Fabbro first announced plans for this program, and we’re really excited that it’s finally coming together. Bill spent the week rounding up the last details for our first offerings, in preparation to launch early October – stay tuned for more details!

Also on the docket this week: MozFest prep! We’re just over a month away from Mozilla’s big annual festival, and preparations are well underway – sessions have been submitted, and plans are coming together to put on an awesome sprint where we can all get together and work on some projects, with plenty of support on hand from reviewers, publishers and technical experts to make this the most productive hackathon ever. I am told there may even be a gong.

Next Week’s Forecast

Next week Friday (the 26th) is time for Round Two of Instructor Hangouts! Topics will include a roundtable on how to discuss tools & best practice in a workshop when students may have conflicting beliefs or professional cultures, and a review discussion of Damien Irving‘s recent teaching videos with Research Bazaar. Feel free to propose a topic, or post a video of your teaching (either from a workshop or just as a webcast), and we’ll put you on the list – add your ideas to the etherpad under the ‘Any other business’ section of the session you would like to attend (9AM or 9PM PDT).

Also, we’re going to try Hangouts on Air for this round – if you’re keen to jump into one of the conversations, please let me know (in the comments or at bill mozillafoundation org), and I’ll make sure you get a speaking spot (since Hangouts only accommodates ~10 speakers). If you’d just like to spectate, the session will be recorded and simultaneously broadcast to youtube – link forthcoming!