Implementation of Scientific “Blogging” into Chemical

Laboratory Research

Albert Fahrenbach

Flood Group, Chemistry Department, Indiana UniversityTuesday 27 March

ACS Spring Meeting 2007, Chicago

OUTLINE

•Background•Visions of Scientific Blogging•The How and Why•Forces at Play•Two Examples –

1. Online Office Hours2. The Flood Group Research Blog

•Conclusions

Chemical & Engineering News Releases

• Shameless Self-Promotion Rudy Baum, Chemical & Engineering News, 2006 84 11. March 13, 2006

• C&EN Blogs ACS Meeting Rudy Baum, Chemical & Engineering News, 2006 84 14. April 3, 2006

• Bloggers Anonymous Bethany Halford, Chemical & Engineering News, 2007 85 41. January 29, 2007

The Vision

• “International Online Office Hours”

• For teachers and students

• Crosses all borders of academic disciplines

• Available to the public

• Online location for sophisticated

synchronous interaction

How and Why?• Construct and Host a Database/Social

Network

• Collaborative Software

– VoIP (Voice-over IP)

– Instant message

– Video chat

– Application sharing

• Interact with Chemists around the Globe!

…And the pi-pi stacking?...

…Yes, it will be considered…

Force Field Diagram Driving Forces Restraining Forces

Interoperable

Networked Applications Cost of Development

Lack of Flow

Lack of Training/Awareness

Inertia/Resistance to Change

Emerging Industry-Wide

Standards

Computational Power

New Economic

Opportunities

Community Mind

StatusQuo

Interoperable Networked Applications

• Simultaneous sharing of applications across multiple users

• Compatible between operating systems

Both users are sharing one application across two computers e.g. ChemDraw

Emerging Industry-wide Standards

• VoIP

• Synchronous communications

• Web browser based platforms– Server Side Software– Coalesces with “Data Cloud”1 concept

1. Roush, Wade. “The Internet Is Your Next Hard Drive.” Technology Review, MIT. July 24, 2006 http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17195&ch=infotech

Computational Power• Moore’s Law - Computers continue to get

cheaper as they get faster2

• Broadband penetration increasing3

• Software should follow suit and continue to improve

2. Patterson, David A. “Latency Lags Bandwidth”. Comm. Of the ACM, October 2004. Vol. 47, No. 10. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1022594.1022596 Accessed March 15, 2007

3. “Internet and Broadband Growth Accelerates Worldwide .” ComputerEconomics.com . February 2007 http://www.computereconomics.com/article.cfm?id=1206

Broadband penetration continues to grow worldwide!

New Economic Opportunities

• Employment as an Online Tutor

• Increases the University’s Outreach

• Eliminates Travel Costs– More energy efficient by 3 orders of

magnitude– Lessens dependence on oil– Cut down on greenhouse

emissions

Community

• Popularity of internet technology increasing4

• Definite benefits from using web based communication tools5

• Collective creativity

• Social directory of logged on users with searchable interests

• The value of community6

4. Shiu, Eulynn. Lenhart, Amanda. “How Americans Use Instant Messaging.” Pew Internet and American Life Project. September 1, 2004 http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Instantmessage_Report.pdf

5. Lock, Jennifer V.; Redmond, Petrea. “International Online Collaboration: Modeling Online Learning and Teaching.” MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. Vol .2, No. 4, pp 233-247. December 2006

6. “The Horizon Report 2007.” New Media Consortium & Educause. 2007. http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf

Restraining Forces

Cost of Development• Collaborative software too expensive

– Starting from $20,000 for one time license

• Hosting is too expensive– Resource demanding– Large amounts of dedicated servers necessary

• Not quite a

profitable/sustainable

venture yet

# Users

Cost

revenue

Lack of Flow7

• Large delay between observables• Data Compression

– Decreases audio and video quality – Things feel “skippy”

• Resource demanding on client side– Even good computers take

time to load

7. Bederson, Benjamin B. “Interfaces for Staying in the Flow.” Webcast. Mircosoft Research. January 26, 2005 http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?rID=4567&fID=345

Lack of Training• Software is generally unfamiliar• A bit complex for typical user• Learning curve• Significant training may be required –

unknown at this point but is it really a problem for the future…

“There is a gap between understanding how to use tools for media creation and how to create meaningful content” – NMC Horizon Report 20076

“Two undergraduates have suggested to me that blogging would be good for the research group within a six month period.” Amar H Flood, 2006

Inertia/Resistance to Change

• As a consequence, even more time is spent interacting online

• Anonymous identities8

– Trust

• Educator’s Concerns– Extra work but no extra recognition– Too hard to do without tenure8

8. Bray, Cathy. “Coming out in Bytes and Pieces: Self-identification Online.” MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. Vol .2, No. 3, pp 233-247. December 2006

Conclusions of Forces at Play• Driving Forces Having Net Effect

• Lack of Flow, Costs– Moore’s Law– Cheaper computational resources– Augmenting bandwidth worldwide– Improving Software

• Tackling Inertia, Awareness – More energy efficient– Value of Community

My Progress A. Online Office Hours• Sought out a professional partner• Hired a programmer• Constructed the site• Installed the collaborative software• Beta testing in

progress

My ProgressB. Flood Group Research Blog• Rented a server ($60/year)• Set up a private group workspace• Tested various free software• Passed out surveys

Our latest version - Wordpress

Force Field Diagram for Flood Group Blog

Driving Forces Restraining Forces

Interoperable

Networked Applications Cost of Development

Lack of Flow

Lack of Training/Awareness

Inertia/Resistance to Change

Emerging Industry-Wide

Standards

Moore’s Law

New Economic

Opportunities

Community Mind

StatusQuo

ConclusionsFlood Group Research Blog

• No need for synchronous communication tools

• Group members need confirmation that others in the group are also using it

• Software still needs more flow in order to maximize usefulness

Online Office Hour Project - What You Can Do

• Become a Beta Tester on o2hu.com – Need intelligent users like yourself– Build your own interactive community

• Donate your time

• Already in Action!– TeachOut– Creates WS’s using

collaborative software

AcknowledgementsOnline Office Hours

Jeremy Macke

Jonathon Baumann

Special thanks to Indiana University withoutwhich none of this could have happened.

Flood Group Blog

Amar FloodKristy McNittYongjun LiAndrew ShareEmma Shansky Kumar ParimalJoseph Meisel Eddie Witlicki Kevin BarrySune Nygaard