Cheminfostream

Blending meeting presentations with virtual community activity

Rich Apodaca made the suggestion to me that we should consider making presentations available from our face-to-face community of practice activities to the virtual.  We have actually taken this approach with eCheminfo and InnovationWell and both with virtual conferences and face-to-face meetings since we started the communities late 2003.  And I currently have a headache to solve - how can I combine such material into a useful community resource archive?

Another problem I have had is the level of effort required for such activity.  Technically we can do it but it takes time and resources.  Plus there is then editing and review.  And on top of that, there are all the complications on varying permissions that different participants may have for you.  At last's years Autumn meetings I just pulled back and went for the simpler solution of pdf file sharing through a wiki, as I could not deal with adding additional workload at that time.  Plus this kind of knowledge-sharing is usually mainly a cost rather than a revenue stream that can pay for the effort, and although there could be some possibilities there, it is not a major motivation for me to be spending my time on such a direction.

But tools are getting better and I am on the look out for what could be a better solution.  File sharing tools like box, video-sharing tools like youtube, widgets linking your presentations into LinkedIn or a Wetpaint wiki are all getting more user friendly.  But like U2's Bono I have not yet quite found what I am looking for.  Perhaps people have some suggestions to make?  Let me try some requirements for the solution:

- has content management and workflows for the content

- has self service for group members with permissions and review

- handles files, audio, video

- easy-to use live and playback multimedia editing and upload

- effective search over content including multimedia

- supports vocabulary, tagging

- works for variety of situations including face-to-face, virtual and blended

- supports user registration and profiles

- affordable

- usable

- Open Source would be nice

- interoperable with other collaboration and Web 2.0 tools so we can maintain context

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- And for the specific eCheminfo context, also adding interoperable cheminformatics capability would be very nice!

I recently posted some related thoughts on Context, Google Wave and Colayer on the Ferryman.

Welcome your suggestions!

eCheminfo Virtual Community Activities in Cheminformatics

When I started the eCheminfo community of practice in late 2003 we focused initially on using the approach of virtual conferencing and communications to get the community started.  More recently I have given more attention to developing face-to-face conference and workshop activity and initiating collaborative research. While on this journey it has been personally rewarding to have met and made contact with hundreds of scientists in the international community and to additionally be involved in supporting their networking, career development and research in drug design, discovery and modelling. It has also been rewarding to have just met so many great people and to have had the chance to interact with them, be it on a computer, in a workshop exercise, or on a punt trying to get down the river as we usually do when we are in Oxford.  So far we seem to be better on computer-based physics than boat physics!

And so I have come full circle and can see the need to prioritise the virtual community aspects of eCheminfo further again, to support the continuation of all these worthwhile interactions in the community.  So LinkedIn is one place to start.  I have been on there for some years and we have had a group area, but have not really done much with it.  It has primarily been useful for some introductions between people.  However recent feature additions for discussion, posting of news, job announcements etc. have been added, so it seems worthwhile to try using it more for supporting continuing interactions in the community.  So I am initiating today invitations to the eCheminfo community to join us there for discussion, news and networking on what is happening in the world of drug discovery informatics, cheminformatics, bioinformatics, etc.  Use of the group is intended for scientific and professional exchange purposes only.  As included in our mission we encourage cross-disciplinary cross-sector participation so from medicinal chemists in the pharmaceutical industry through toxicologists in government institutes through PhD students working on their modelling research problems are welcome!

To request joining the eCheminfo LinkedIn group please follow the following link and introduce yourself with a group joining request:

https://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1173/77EB680070FF/

I also really welcome suggestions from the community there on what you would like to see as further developments in coming years!

Barry

eCheminfo and InnovationWell Autumn 2005 Program

I summarise below the list of sessions with over 100 top speakers and discussion leaders for the program listing for the upcoming Autumn InterAction Meetings taking place in Philadelphia and Basel. Please add a traceback or link for other like-minded folk to find!

I also provide an electronic brochure for download here for the InnovationWell Autumn Program on Knowledge-based Innovation in Life Science Product Development:
http://barryhardy.blogs.com/theferryman/files/InnovationWell-ProgramAutumn05.PDF

And the equivalent eCheminfo brochure on Drug Discovery:
http://barryhardy.blogs.com/theferryman/files/eCheminfo-ProgramAutumn05.pdf

Note: The poster sessions will be run as electronic poster sessions using tabletop spaces, a wireless network and Internet facilities at the meetings, in addition to virtual access through the website, i.e., the posters will be electronic but the access can be face-to-face or virtual. You can participate in person and virtually in the poster sessions.  We can supply nourishment and refreshments locally; remote participants may have to order out! [We also expect, subject to on-site testing, to have live conference call capabilities for remote participating members to join local discussions.]  Anyone interested in presenting such an "electronic poster" should directly contact us via email at innovationwell at douglasconnect.com

Look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia or Basel!

Barry Hardy
Community of Practice Manager
Douglas Connect
http://douglasconnect.com/
+41 61 851 0170 (office)

InnovationWell & eCheminfo InterAction Meetings
Philadelphia, US, 11-12 October 2005 and Basel, Switzerland, 9-10 November
List of Sessions with Speakers & Schedule (InterAction Autumn Meetings)
http://innovationwell.net/ and http://echeminfo.com/

Registration to attend the meetings or to access virtually is available through the websites or through contacting Nicki Douglas [nicki.douglas at douglasconnect.com]

InnovationWell eCheminfo meeting workshop conference management executive drug safety KM Life Sciences Pharma Drug Discovery Drug Development Healthcare Innovation Informatics cheminformatics Knowledge Management events

…PROGRAM LISTING CONTINUING IN FULL POSTING…..

eCheminfo Autumn 2005 Program Brochure - Cheminformatics & Modeling Applications in Drug Discovery

Here is a copy of the Program Brochure for our eCheminfo Autumn 2005 Program on Cheminformatics & Modeling Applications in Drug Discovery including our US InterAction Meeting in Philadelphia 11,12 October 2005 and our European meeting in Basel 9,10 November 2005:

Download eCheminfo-ProgramAutumn05.pdf

Barry Hardy
eCheminfo Community of Practice Manager
Douglas Connect, Switzerland
+41 61 851 0170 (office)

CFP: Posters, Contributed talks, Bursaries for eCheminfo Autumn meetings on Drug Discovery

Poster Abstracts for eCheminfo Autumn InterAction Meetings should be submitted as soon as possible and at the latest by: 15 August ’05 for US meeting posters; 31 August ’05 for European meeting posters.

Posters can be on any informatics or modeling topic (and can also be combined with experimental approaches) of relevance to Drug Discovery.

Poster Abstracts (ca. 300 words) should be sent to eCheminfo at douglasconnect.com

We will select a number of contributed talks to be presented at the meetings based on abstracts submitted.  We also have sponsorship requests under review to support travel bursaries for a selection of young academic investigators to attend the meeting based on submitted abstract.

Papers submitted related to poster presentations or talks will be refereed for consideration for publication in a special Drug Discovery issue of the Molecular Simulation journal.  Deadline for paper submission: 31 October ’05 for US meeting; 30 November ’05 for European meeting posters.

Subscribed members who cannot attend the meetings in Philadelphia or Basel in person will be able to access all meeting presentations with audio and to submit posters through the eCheminfo website. 

You must also have completed your annual membership subscription or meeting registration in time through the Online Ticket Office available after login to http://echeminfo.com/ so that access rights or a meeting place reservation are provided for you.   Alternatively contact Nicki Douglas (nicki.douglas at douglasconnect.com, +41 61 851 0461) for support.  Academic and group rates are available.

Barry Hardy
eCheminfo Community of Practice Manager
Douglas Connect, Switzerland
+41 61 851 0170 (office)

eCheminfo US Autumn 2005 InterAction Meeting:  Applications of Cheminformatics & Chemical Modelling to Drug Discovery
October 11-12, Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, USA
and
eCheminfo European Autumn 2005 InterAction Meeting:  Applications of Cheminformatics & Chemical Modelling to Drug Discovery
November 9-10, Swissotel L’entrée Conference Center, Basel, Switzerland

You can view meeting abstracts in the Program area of http://echeminfo.com/

eCheminfo pharma Drug Discovery cheminformatics Molecular Simulation conference meeting science chemistry events

Chemical Knowledge Integrated Environments

I list a few questions here with regards to enabling Chemical Knowledge Integrated Environments.  If a collective set of affirmatives could be given, we could have tremendous benefit to both the chemical and pharmaceutical industries and the academic world of research:

Can we effectively, quickly and easily exchange chemical information in context?

Can we exchange chemical knowledge between chemists? Between chemists and other disciplines? Automatically between systems? Across the life science product life cycle?

Do we have a standard universally agreed format for the description of chemical structures and analytical information?

Can desktop applications receive all relevant chemical information alerts from global sources that are personalised to my interests?

Can scientists working with varied and heterogenous applications easily exchange chemical information in collaborative research and development systems?

Do we have a Chemical Semantic Web?

About the Cheminformatics & Modelling Community of Practice

The Cheminformatics & Modelling website echeminfo.com is an Internet-based community system for the cheminformatics and chemistry communities which was opened in November 2003.  Activities include:

- Virtual Conferences and Lectures: keep up with the latest developments from experts around the globe, talk to presenters live or listen to recorded events, ask your questions
- Networking:  contact other members on the Hub for advice, recruitment or potential collaboration
- Company Exhibitor area:  view latest product information and news from companies which supply cheminformatics products and services, alert them with your questions or arrange an online meeting with them
- Meetings facilities:  Hub members may use the Hub meeting facilities to arrange a private or open meeting with other Hub members
- Library:  View previous presentations, lectures and panel discussions on the Hub. 
- Community and Discussion groups:  create your own sub-community and discussion group where you can carry out your own group discussions

Please visit echeminfo.com and register to access facilities and to be kept informed of upcoming activities.

Barry Hardy
www.douglasconnect.com

Cheminfostream opens

I have started this Cheminfostream Blog as a place where I will post news and views in the areas of cheminformatics, chemical modelling and chemical information.  The Blog is a complementary if somewhat different different space to our recently launched Cheminformatics & Modelling Community of Practice Hub at eCheminfo.com.  In this Blog I will report on presentations, discussions and activities occuring on this Hub but will also be including selected news and developments from other sources and projects and the field in general.  I welcome your comments and interaction!

Barry Hardy
www.douglasconnect.com