I was really excited when I got the e-mail telling me there were podcasts of the Academies' Communications Fair. They had fabulous people like Shawn Otto of Science Debate 08 and Sue Allen and a topic I care greatly about, "Science for All Seasons: Communicating Science to Diverse Audiences". So what innovative things did they do? They had a panel with a really boring introduction and then each speaker, with a different topic, had seven minutes to present. The innovative thing was that people could ask questions at the end of each presentation rather than waiting until the end of all the presentations.

Yes folks the Communication Fair communicated in exactly the same, ineffective, ways we've been doing for years and years and years. Sigh And oh yes, the saddest part was when Don Hoyt Gorman asked how many Science bloggers were in the audience--it appears there weren't any.
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