Science Foo Camp

Science Foo Camp, also known as SciFoo, is a series of interdisciplinary scientific conferences organised by O'Reilly Media (FOO stands for "Friends of O'Reilly") and Nature Publishing Group. It is based on the spirit and format of Foo Camp, an unconference focussed on emerging technology, and is designed to encourage collaboration between scientists who would not typically work together. As such, it is particularly unusual among scientific conferences in three ways; it is invitation-only, the invitees come from all over science rather than one subject (such as physics, chemistry or biology), and the meeting has no fixed agenda; the invited scientists, technologists and policy makers set the conference program during the conference itself, based on their shared professional interests and enthusiasms. The first event in 2006 was held under the Chatham House Rule (meaning that what is said at the conference cannot be attributed to any one person). The policy at the second event was to allow open reporting by default; attendees were expected to indicate if their comments were off the record.

Thus far, SciFoo has been hosted by Google at the Googleplex. The event has taken place three times:
# The first meeting was held in August 2006 [cite web | last = Hannay | first = Timo | title = SciFoo review | date = 2006-09-04 | url = http://blogs.nature.com/wp/nascent/2006/09/scifoo_review_1.html | accessdate = 2007-05-19 ]
# August 2007 [cite web | last = Hendler | first = James | title = Science FOO Camp 2007 (Scifoo 07) | date = 2007-08-06 | url = http://www.mindswap.org/blog/2007/08/06/science-foo-camp-2007-scifoo-07/ | accessdate = 2007-08-07 ] .
# August 2008 [cite web | last = Wilczek | first = Frank | title = A Slice of SciFoo | date = 2008-09-03 | url = http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/scifoo08/scifoo08_index.html | accessdate = 2008-09-10 ] [cite news |first= John |last= Gilbey |title= Antimatter and antipasta at the anti-conference | url= http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=403752 | work= Times Higher Education |date= 2008-10-02 |accessdate=2008-10-04 ] .

References

See also

* Foo Camp

External links

* http://www.nature.com/nature/meetings/scifoo/
* http://www.nature.com/scifoo/ Nature SciFoo aggregator
* [http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/08/conference-science-google_cz_ec_0911valleyletter_print.html Back To Silicon Valley's Future] - "Forbes", August 11, 2006
* [http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/442848a Foo's Paradise] ("Nature" editorial on SciFoo 2006) "Nature" 442, 848 (24 August 2006). Published online 23 August 2006.