1. University of California San Diego
Experiences with Rich Media in the Dissemination and Comprehension of Science
Philip E. Bourne
University of California San Diego
ICSTI Winter Workshop, Paris February 10,2010

2. Yes Brian I will Do What You Told Me !
Multimedia innovations such as SciVee (‘YouTube for Scientists’) improve the immediacy and impact of scientific reporting, but do they carry the risk of ‘dumbing down’ the information content? Are they a useful adjunct to the written word, or will they replace it in some circumstances? What new challenges of citability and archivability do they raise? What new tools are needed by authors to compose in the new interactive media? Will they be willing to learn? Will the new ways of communicating science change the way scientists work, and indeed how they think?

3. Yes Brian I will Do What You Told Me !
Multimedia innovations such as SciVee (‘YouTube for Scientists’) improve the immediacy and impact of scientific reporting, but do they carry the risk of ‘dumbing down’ the information content? Are they a useful adjunct to the written word, or will they replace it in some circumstances? What new challenges of citability and archivability do they raise? What new tools are needed by authors to compose in the new interactive media? Will they be willing to learn? Will the new ways of communicating science change the way scientists work, and indeed how they think?

4. Some Background My main job is as science practitioner
I got interested in scholarly communication since there seemed to be opportunities that were not being exploited by publishers and societies
The last 2-3 years have been a rollercoaster ride, but…
I am still not sure of the answers to most of the questions raised .. here is what we have found

5. First More Background

6. The Lab Experiment My students enjoyed the experience
The shyest student was actually the most bold in front of the camera
“We will become a generation of “sciencecastors”
They liked the exposure for the most part – rather than the PI it puts them out in front

7. 2 Years Later www.scivee.tv Organic Growth
Some of their work viewed 20,000+ times
Global audience of researchers, educators and academic/research institutions
75,000+ unique visitors & 150,000 pageviews/month
9,000 registered users & 350 communities
3,500 uploads of video content (about journal articles, conferences, research news and classes)
Growing 4-5% monthly
“YouTube of Science” 7

8. Will Multimedia Supplement or Replace the Written Word?
Dissemination
Reward
For the next 5 years anyway it seems destined to supplement

9. Will Multimedia Supplement or Replace the Written Word?
Unique learning experience
DOIs assigned
JOVE in Pubmed
18 hours / Min Upload
Faculty doing it
Quality good enough
(SciVee survey)
Supplement
Enhances the learning experience
Journals promoting supplement model
Tenure committees
Still not ubiquitous technology

10. SciVee Assumes Supplement with PubCasts

11. SciVee Assumes Supplement with PubCasts

12. Initial Exposure to Pubcasts
“This will change everything” Pavel Pevzner
“We should be doing more of this” NSF Director
“I will do one” many researchers (but a relatively few follow through)
After Ars technicha announcement millions of page views

13. PubCasts – 1-2 Years Later
It is not authors who are the drivers, but a limited number of publishers
Pubcasts do increase access/interest in the paper
Led to new directions

14. PubCasts – Class Reaction
Experiment
Gave ½ the class a paper to read for the same time it took the other ½ to watch a pubcast of the same paper
Multiple choice questions on the paper
Result
Pubcast very slightly better result – need more tests for statistical rigor
Students liked the pubcast more

15. Is This a Risk of Dumbing Down?
I suppose so if they were going to read the whole paper but…
Biochem. J. (2009) 424, 317–333

16. Products: {x}casts Products Application Product Primary Customers
Journals PubCast Journals, publishers, societies
Meetings PosterCast Societies, conference orgs.
SlideCast
Communication PaperCast Societies, journals
Podcast
Education PosterCast Societies, universities
Books BookCast Publishers, book sellers
A PubCast is a scientific publication combined with a corresponding video.
Really, that means --any video that is relevant to the work described in the publication can be combined to create a PubCast.
The point is to draw attention to the research and promote the article’s readership, exposure and possible citation.
There are many reasons why video combined with the paper helps accomplish this.
But in order to gain the greatest benefit from a PubCast --it is MOST beneficial if the publication starts out as an open access publication… 16

17. What new challenges of citing and archiving do xCasts raise?
DOIs are assigned
Video content is CC 3.0, but recovery may be an issue
Synchronization could be lost
Embedding keeps me up at night
Persistence is that or a start up

18. What New Tools are Needed by Authors to Compose in the New Interactive Media?

19. Content Synching-1 Content Selector Video Content Select content to be
synched w/cropping
tool…
Confirm
Selection 19

20. Content Synching-2
…and drop into timeline
Content
Tabs
Timeline 20

21. What New Tools are Needed by Authors to Compose in the New Interactive Media? – Probably a Bottleneck
“Writers” strive for the highest quality”
“Readers” do not seem to care
Synchronization only used in 50% of cases
Perceived value is low?
Web tools too cumbersome?
Time is better spent on your next paper

22. Student uses drop box to provide me with audio
What New Tools are Needed by Authors to Compose in the New Interactive Media? - Not Sure These are the Bottleneck
Student records lecture on iPhone with added microphone – also captures Q&A in a 100 seat room
Student uses drop box to provide me with audio
Posted to SciVee with slides the day of the lecture
Lecture podcasting is becoming routine

23. Will They be Willing to Learn?
A few because they love technology
Most no unless there is that reward
Video competitions are becoming a SciVee mainstay

24. Will the new ways of communicating science change the way scientists work, and indeed how they think?
Yes & No
Change will be wrought more by volume than by media type – volume will drive change which includes new forms of rapid communication

25. In the time I have been talking ~200 papers have been indexed by PubMed

26. We Cannot Possibly Read a Fraction of the Papers We Should
Drivers of Change
Renear & Palmer 2009 Science 325:

27. We Are Scanning More Reading Less
Drivers of Change
Renear & Palmer 2009 Science 325:

28. Rich Media May Be One Solution
Abstract: minutes
Pubcast: minutes
Full paper: minutes

29. SciVee in Summary
“Phil, not sure this will go the way you expect, but something will come of this” David Lipman
Uptake on Pubcasts has been slow
Other {x}casts and video growing steadily
Video competitions popular
Business may depend on traditional publishers and aggregators

30. What I Would Do If I Were a Publisher – Become a Contractor for All Aspects of Scholarly Output
Data
Scientist
Idea
Product
Experiment

31. What Would This Mean to Me and my Science Group?
The intellectual memory of my laboratory would no longer be my folders
Different views could be placed on my laboratory output – ideas, grants, data, software, rich media, publications, metrics etc. – for example, temporal, project based, person based
Traditional publication would be easier

32. Acknowledgements SciVee Team Apryl Bailey, videographer
Tim Beck, systems
Scott Bourne, videographer
Leo Chalupa, co-founder
Lynn Fink, content management
Marc Friedman, CEO
Ken Liu, VP business development
Alex Ramos, programmer
Willy Suwanto, programmer

33.
Questions? 33