Telling Research Stories Through SciVee

Philip E. BourneUniversity of California San Diego

pbourne@ucsd.eduwww.sdsc.edu/pb

AAAS February 21, 2010

Agenda

• Motivation for founding SciVee• A brief history • What have we found along the way relevant

to researchers and educators• How well does it tell the story?• The future

Motivation

MotivationThe Research Article is Not Necessarily the Best Way to Convey the Science

MotivationWe Cannot Possibly Read a Fraction of the Papers We Should

• Abstract: 1-2 minutes

• Pubcast: 5-10 minutes

• Full paper: 120-180 minutes

Renear & Palmer 2009 Science 325:828-832

The Lab Experiment

• My students enjoyed the experience• The shyest student was actually the most bold

in front of the camera• “We will become a generation of

“sciencecastors”• They liked the exposure for the most part –

rather than the PI it puts them out in front

A Brief History

Organic Growth

• Some of their work viewed 20,000+ times• Global audience of researchers, educators

and academic/research institutions– 75,000+ unique visitors & 150,000 pageviews/month– 9,000 registered users & 350 communities– 3,500 uploads of video content (about journal articles,

conferences, research news and classes)– Growing 4-5% monthly– “YouTube of Science”

2+ Years Laterwww.scivee.tv

A Brief History

What Emerged? {x}casts – A Mashup of Traditional and New Media

A Brief History

Products

Application Product Primary Customers

Journals PubCast Journals, publishers, societies

Meetings PosterCast Societies, conference orgs.SlideCast

Comm. PaperCast Societies, journalsPodcastSlideCast

Education PosterCast Societies, universitiesSlideCast

Books BookCast Publishers, book sellers

Products: {x}casts

A Brief History

Content Synching-1

Video

ConfirmSelection

Content Selector

Content

Select content to besynched w/croppingtool…

A Brief History

What Have We Found Along the Way?

• “This will change everything” Pavel Pevzner• “We should be doing more of this” NSF

Director• “I will do one” many researchers (but a

relatively few follow through)• After Ars technicha announcement millions of

page views

What Have We Found Along the Way?

Like it or not, dissemination often does not bring the necessarily reward

Dissemination Reward

PubCasts – 1-2 Years Later

• It is not authors who are the drivers, but a limited number of publishers

• Pubcasts do increase access/interest in the paper

• Led to new directions

What Have we Found Along the Way?

User Perceptions

• “Writers” strive for the highest quality• “Readers” do not seem to care

• Synchronization only used in 50% of cases– Perceived value is low?– Web tools too cumbersome?– Time is better spent on your next paper

What Have we Found Along the Way?

Services & Features Used

• Video competitions popular• Communities popular• Video only remains the most popular media

type• Publishers increasingly interested• Comments feature poorly used• Embedding popular• Occasionally some content will go viral

What Have we Found Along the Way?

How Well Does It Tell the Story?

• Experiment• Gave ½ the class a

paper to read for the same time it took the other ½ to watch a pubcast of the same paper

• Multiple choice questions on the paper

• Result• Pubcast very slightly

better result – need more tests for statistical rigor

• Students liked the pubcast more

There Have Been a Few Ah Hah Moments

How Well Does IT Tell the Story?

There Have Been a Few Ah Hah Moments

Discussion oflatest paper

We rediscovered what TV discovered years ago

The interview format is compelling

SciVee in Summary

• “Phil, not sure this will go the way you expect, but something will come of this” David Lipman

– Uptake on Pubcasts has been slow– Other {x}casts and video growing steadily– Video competitions popular– Business may depend on traditional publishers

and aggregators

AcknowledgementsSciVee Team

– Apryl Bailey, videographer– Tim Beck, systems– Scott Bourne, videographer– Leo Chalupa, co-founder– Lynn Fink, content management– Marc Friedman, CEO– Ken Liu, VP business development– Alex Ramos, programmer– Willy Suwanto, programmer– Ben Yukich, systems

http://www.scivee.tv

Questions?

pbourne@ucsd.edu