Chemistry Central Blog
'SciVee' to help take science the way of the YouTube generation
The Public Library of Science (PLoS), the National Science Foundation and the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) are set to launch SciVee in September, an internet source aimed at "free and widespread dissemination and comprehension of science" by using video and podcasts to supplement traditional peer-reviewed articles.
The project - which can is being seen as another example of the union of science with the 'YouTube generation' - is described as "mov[ing] science beyond the printed word and lecture theater taking advantage of the internet as a communication medium where scientists young and old have a place and a voice."
The site allows authors to record a video of themselves
speaking about their published work,
before then
using the online synchronization studio to link specific moments in the video with special features
of the manuscript such as tables and figures. So far, the experience has been
that pudcasts of 10 minutes or less are sufficient to cover the salient points
of most manuscripts. The website also offers tutorials and tips on creating and
uploading pubcasts.
"SciVee allows scientists to communicate their work as a multimedia presentation incorporated with the content of their published article... [as well as] facilitat[ing] the creation of communities around specific articles and keywords." Another aspiration of those behind SciVee is that the "medium [will be used] to meet peers and future collaborators that share your particular research interests."
The necessary software for the project is being developed by those at the University of California at San Diego, with the PLoS aiming to facilitate development and testing on its open-access, online peer-reviewed content.
Initially, it is planned that SciVee will offer authors of PLoS publications the opportunity to upload videos and podcasts, which will then be synchronized with the published manuscript. Later down the line, it is intended that SciVee will be offered to all biomedical publications made available through PubMed, and then to all scientific literature.
There are currently other sites that present videos, such as the search engine ScienceHack (whose focus, at present, is mainly physics and chemistry), The Journal of Visualized Experiments (aimed at the biological sciences), and VideoLectures (computer science).
All these projects present interesting possibilities in developing further this new, innovative dimension to the task of disseminating scientific research.
Posted by Gino D'Oca at 12:53 Comments (0)