science & society -- from dissemination to deliberation

International Conference on Science Communication,Teadusrikkuse levialas, Talin / Estonia, October 2010

Alexander GerberManaging Partner, innocommHead of Marketing & Communications, Fraunhofer ICT Group

Science & SocietyFrom Dissemination to Deliberation

http://www.slideshare.net/AlexanderGerber/DebateTallinn@InnoVisions / #SciEst

2Status Quo: Dissemination

Gaskell et al. (2006). "Europeans and Biotechnology in 2005: Patterns and Trends"Eurobarometer 64.3http://ec.europa.eu/research/press/2006/pdf/pr1906_eb_64_3_final_report-may2006_en.pdf (zuletzt 19.09.2010)

“Which of these technologies will improve our way of life in the 20 years?”

3

winner

looser

still open

Status Quo: Dissemination

Gaskell et al. (2006). "Europeans and Biotechnology in 2005: Patterns and Trends"Eurobarometer 64.3http://ec.europa.eu/research/press/2006/pdf/pr1906_eb_64_3_final_report-may2006_en.pdf (zuletzt 19.09.2010)

“Which of these technologies will improve our way of life in the 20 years?”


► How do science communicators try to influence this agenda?


► What about these…?


We are used to justify the way our institution uses its resources.

► Who decides (in the future) about the research agenda?


Listening is the new marketing.

Social Media puts the publicback into PR and the marketback into marketing.

As marketing budgets are being slashed, having a roster of employees who want to go out and communicate with customers directly is really cost‐effective.

Bryan Rhoads, Digital Strategist, Intel

Brian Solls


We are used to fulfill the information needs of the media.

► Which channels are substituting the decreasing press impact?slideshare.net/AlexanderGerber

Blog: scienceblogs.de/sic


We are used to fulfill the information needs of the media.

► Which channels are substituting the decreasing press impact?

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

120.000

100.000

80.000

60.000

40.000

20.000


http://www.nasaspaceflight.com

(Technorati-Authority: 554, Science Rank: 4)


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience

(Technorati-Authority: 720, Science Rank: 1)


http://www.scilogs.de

http://www.scienceblogs.de

Scienceblogs in Germany, after less than three years, reaches more “Unique User” than the three main popular science magazines Bild der Wissenschaft, Spektrum der Wissenschaft und Technology Review have together in subscriptions.


http://www.dlr.de/blogs/desktopdefault.aspx

http://twitter.com/dlr_de

http://www.linkedin.com/company/dlr

The four DLR blogs reach approximately 30.000 “Unique User”.


http://www.scienceblogs.de/astrodicticum-simplex

Possible the best-read German science blog (65.000+ comments in two years)


http://www.scienceblogs.de/sic

Blog about science communication, especially with regard to interactive media


We are used to mainly answer what it is that out institution is doing.

► Why don’t we ask the questions ourselves?

http://blog.iao.fraunhofer.de (PageRank 6/10, 4.000+ Trackbacks)

Several awards for individual postings after just a few months online (webnews.de, yigg.de, scoop.at etc.)




yet2.com

innocentive.com

Theory: IBIS Grammar (definition of elements / icons and their linking) of tools like Compendium or Debategraph has been explicitly developed for such planning discourses.




Brainstorming: collect >> vote >> select ideas

Example: spot.us People publicly suggest subjects online;

other users comment and vote Journalists pick up suggestions and

publicly offer their exposés (incl. Production costs)

Users contribute money until the articleis budgeted

The journalist goes and researches andwrites his piece

Spot.us reviews the text and sees that itis going to be published

The users may get a share of the royalty




Echologic.org: e-participation / e-democracy Idea-a-day.com: exchange and trade ideas




delib.co.uk: share, store and rate ideas

spigit.com:collective intelligence and knowledge management


We neglect the most basic principles of marketing.

► Do you really think you know what your “customers” need?

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Information and justificationFROM

Communication and collaborationTO

Offering your competencies FROM

Listening to your customers’ needsTO

24Lookout: Collaboration

So-called Prosumers…

► expect a true dialogue with research institutions

► demand transparency and an unmediated discourse


Still think you’re in colntrol?

► BP tryied to “control”

public debate by buying

masses of search terms

(ca. $10,000 / day).


Debate nowadays is beyond control!

Connections between people using "oil spill" on Twitter.

As analyzed by Marc Smith from ConnectedActionin May 2010, there is not real 'center' of discussion yet.


We should be seeking transparency in order to…

► build up trust in new technologies

► promote readiness for change

28Relevance of Science in the Media

We should be seeking transparency in order to…

► build up trust in new technologies

► promote readiness for change

Study: Prime-time news in European television increase in number and airtime of science stories (x 4 since 1989) 45 Sci-Tech topics among the 2676 news stories (< 2 %)

29Relevance of Science in Society

Study: Eurobarometer 1 out of 4 Europeans believes, that only genetically modified

tomatoes contain genes, whereas non-GM tomatoes do not. Almost every second European believes that human genes

function differently from those in animals.

30Relevance of Science in Politics

Innokomm Trend Study: General elections in Germany 2009 1 out of 9 people believed that the relevance of science during the

campaign had increased (compared to the previous election).

31How do Governments React?

Example: U.S. Science Debate 2008

171 TV interviews2975 questions

6 questions about “climate change”3 questions about "UFOs"

>> „Reason why“


Elections for Riigikogu in March 2011.


Elections for Riigikogu in March 2011.

► Which relevance will science gain in the campaigns?

34The Objectives of such Initiatives

Involve a much wider public in the process of defining the main issues and challenges of science in order to empower the so-called prosumers almost at eye-level with experts and political decision-makers.

► Build up a Scientific Citizenship and increase the social impact on science!

Reveal the conflicting viewpoints towards controversial subjects in science and technology.

► Make the process of creating knowledge more open and transparent!

Increase the societal feedback to industrial research, development, innovation and new technologies in general, as well as to the plans within national regulation policies leading to an interactive value creation and...

► Foster public readiness for change by building trust!

35The Objectives of such Initiatives

Involve a much wider public in the process of defining the main issues and challenges of science in order to empower the so-called prosumers almost at eye-level with experts and political decision-makers.

► Build up a Scientific Citizenship and increase the social impact on science!

Reveal the conflicting viewpoints towards controversial subjects in science and technology.

► Make the process of creating knowledge more open and transparent!

Increase the societal feedback to industrial research, development, innovation and new technologies in general, as well as to the plans within national regulation policies leading to an interactive value creation and...

► Foster public readiness for change by building trust!

36Challenged by Complexity

Uncertainty cannot be an excuse for ignoring knowledge.

Debates are threatened to become victims of their own success.

37Challenged by Complexity

How can many people discuss complex issues? How can large -scale online deliberation be accomplished?

How can hundreds of people engage in a debate and still find their way and orientation within the thread? How can they intuitively explore a highly complex subject in depth?

► new collaboration and visualization technologies

Who is qualified to neutrally conduct and moderate such a discourse, manage the sub-communities, research, validate and contrast certain facts, put these into the right context, initiate new discussions, activate, approach and interview important players?

► new line of action for science and innovation journalists!

38A New Science Journalism

► Embed / validate / check / contrast / contextualize facts

► Moderate the discourse

► Research pros and cons

► Manage sub-communities / networks

► Initiate new discussions

► Activate, approach and interview important players

As demanded by the World Economic Forum, journalism has to move

from gatekeeping to a networked model, “where journalists […] bring sources

and audience closer to each other, facilitating constructive interaction in society”

(Nordfors 2009).

39Lookout: Deliberation

People get access to dispersed knowledge.

The entire trial and error process becomes transparent.

Mind Mapping: Freemind family /commercial brothers and sisters, Mindmeister / Xmind

Compendium: Dialogue‐Mapping, open‐source, from Open University

Cohere: Open University, Argumentation and Web‐Annotation

BCisive and Rationale: Argument Mapping

Debategraph: Debate‐Mapping: not open‐source, but free = not being commercial


People get access to dispersed knowledge.

The entire trial and error process becomes transparent.

Differences: online/offline for profit/non profit Interactive and collaborative

Usecases: personal knowledge management education and learning visual tool for moderation of group‐discussion open debate

Argument maps do for deliberation what a chess board does for chess. Deliberation without one is like playing chess without the help of a reference tracking chess board. Martin Hilbert, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California


The Independent applied “Debategraph” to deal with

the complexity of the issue of climate change:

http://w

ww.inde

pend

ent.co.uk/enviro

nmen

t/clim

ate‐

change/deb

ategraph

‐cop

enhagen‐‐w

hats‐hap

pening

‐1835880.htm

l

42

Chesbrough Howe Hippel

Open Innovation

Trust CreationLuhmann

Malone Gloor

Rogers

Blumer

Market Diffusion

Decentralizing Decision Making

E‐Collaboration E‐Democracy

Deliberative Democracy

CSCW

Collaborative Innovation Networks

Symbolic Interactionism

Media DemocracyVeld

Friedmann Norris Hilbert

Davies / GangadharanNoveck

An interdisciplinary challenge

43

Science in SocietyFROM

Society into ScienceTO

Public Understanding of ScienceFROM

Scientific CitizenshipTO

45

Alexander Gerber‐Crawford

Managing Partner, innocommHead of Marketing Communications, Fraunhofer ICT Group

[email protected]+49 (0)30 ‐ 577 076 ‐ 141 Skype: InnoVisions

Blog: scienceblogs.de/sic

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