A warm 'Hello' from the World Association of Young Scientists
Thanks to the participation of our members and volunteers, WAYS has been growing by leaps and bounds during the past few months. We've been hard at work - both online and offline - to make the world's largest grassroots network for young scientists even better. If you haven't done so lately (where have you been?) visit the site to join the global conversation.
Along with the features you've grown to know and love - such as events, jobs, the researcher database and your own personal science blog - we've added tight integration with 3rd party networking service, such as Twitter, Facebook, del.icio.us, FriendFeed, identi.ca and more. When you add your account information to your WAYS profile for any of these networks, your posts are shown in the "ScienceStream" where they're, uh, streamed to WAYS to promote your work to a much larger, yet more focused, audience of Scientists (and Science lovers!) from across the globe. You also earn valuable WAYS points for each of your posts that appear here, simply by continuing your regular web browsing! Note that we ask that you only add your account to this service if your posts are mostly of a scientific nature, and only if you agree to display them on the WAYS website. We hope to use the keywords and metadata collected here to build a real-time visualization of what Scientists are doing on the web.
You asked, and we listened. In addition to the blog facilities we've always offered, there is now an open, moderated forum where users can ask a question or start a discussion informally. Many of you felt that the blog format seemed difficult to approach and understand, while the forums are something that most users feel more comfortable interacting with. There are many different categories already established in the forums, but feel free to suggest new ones.
Here are a couple of the latest posts to get you started:
Another big change you've been asking for is the ability to control how much of your profile is public. Now, by editing your profile (or at registration, if you're still new around these parts) you can decide to make each profile item public or private. In that way, you can build a public profile on WAYS exactly the way you want it, by being as public - or private - as you want. WAYS is one of the first networks for young scientists to offer this level of granularity.
As if all this wasn't enough, we've made it much, much easier to find other interesting Scientists on the network. Searching for potential partners and collaborators is now possible by keyword, location, status, or profile field. Also, you can check out our new About section in case you were wondering exactly who the heck we are.
In a nutshell, WAYS is unlike any other network for scientists because:
- We are scientists ourselves.
- We are not a company, NGO or government. We are all grassroots volunteers.
- We do this simply because we want to build the most awesome network possible to help young scientists in their careers.
- We promise never to sell or rent any of your private data without your consent.
Welcoming some new friends into the WAYS fold.
We have several new partners and supporters to help us move WAYS forward. We also have many new sister networks and subnetworks that are coming onboard to help expand the WAYS family. Here are two of them:
Quebec Training Network in Perinatal Research (QTNPR)
CIHR-Quebec Training Network in Perinatal Research (QTNPR) Programme is an innovative, sustainable inter-university transdisciplinary research oriented training programme in reproduction, perinatology and early infant health.
QTNPR serves to facilitate collaboration across the spectrum of disciplines, beginning with the basic sciences to include clinical research exploiting our large cohorts and clinical trials, and population health and health services research, with the close links to government policy makers and with the active approach to knowledge translation.
QTNPR develops educational paradigms that place Mentors and students at the interface between disciplines and pillars (between basic science and clinical research, and between clinical research and health services research) and favours the development of skills and attitudes required for translational research and interdisciplinary collaboration by taking advantage of our outstanding mentorship and pedagogical expertise and by consolidating and structuring linkages between pedagogical leaders of these complementary networks and projects.
http://www.qtnpr.ca/
DISCCRS (coming soon on WAYS)
The Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Climate Change Research (DISCCRS, pronounced discourse), connects natural and social scientists engaged in research related to climate change, impacts and solutions. The goal is to broaden perspectives and establish a collegial peer network to address climate challenges at the interface of science and society.
DISCCRS includes this website with a searchable database of PhD dissertation abstracts, along with resources concerning early career development and climate change, impacts, and solutions. PhD graduates who register their PhD dissertations are automatically added to the DISCCRS news, a weekly electronic newsletter with time-sensitive information. Annual DISCCRS symposia bring together a select group of early career scientists interested in working across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
http://www.disccrs.org
WAYS at the 2009 World Science Forum in Budapest, Hungary
WAYS will have a delagation at the 2009 WSF, and we will also have our own organized session entitled "Science and youth", Friday November 6th at 13:30 in Room A (tbd).
We will bring you commentary, videos, photos, podcasts and a live feed from the World Science Forum in our WSF2009 section on our website. Stay tuned!
A message from one of our partners, CatComm.
One of our network partners, Catalytic Communities, is in the running for $10,000 to train community leaders to ensure the preservation and protection of Rio de Janeiro's favelas. Please help by voting by the deadline - tomorrow!
Please watch the video and vote for CatComm's idea to empower Rio's leaders in the run-up to the Olympics: http://www.ideablob.com/ideas/6590-Rio-Olympics-Ensuring-a-Powerf. Voting is open until Saturday. We are particularly concerned because the communities that seem to be slated for removal are the few in the city of Rio that are truly peaceful: no militias, no drug traffickers. We have been following and working with them for years. And we want to make sure they have a voice in the Olympic process. Can I count on your vote? Note you'll just need to register an email address and then make sure to confirm it in your inbox.
What´s our strategy? YOU!
1st - If you haven´t yet voted please don´t wait any longer: VOTE NOW. The contest ends at midnight October 31st. You just have to register an email address and confirm the vote in your inbox. Ideablob doesn´t spam.
2nd - Make a personal appeal to 10 close friends and family who have not yet voted. Then follow up. Personal appeals work best. If everyone reading this right now does this, we will have our 600 votes.
3rd - Post to your online networks: Facebook, Twitter, WiserEarth + to get the word out further.
4th - Join us on Twitter or Facebook to get the low-down as our journey continues to ensure a true social legacy from the Rio 2016 Olympics. If we win, and as we train leaders, we´ll need every one of you spreading their voices around the world. That is how they will be heard by local authorities: through growing concern around the world.
On behalf of hundreds of communities across Rio, thank you for all your help! Let´s make it happen. VOTE NOW!
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