Last Week in Palo Alto at the Institute for the Future, a collective of scientists, engineers, researchers, journalists and science advocates gathered to talk about, well, whatever they wanted to.  I let my geek flag wave proud and high, as did everyone else, with one participant sporting a shirt that says "Science, it just works bitches!"

We met for two days in an un-conference self-governing style. Topics ranged from the future of academic journal publishing, front lines of geek imperialism in Afghanistan, science sensationalism, reformating public education, incentivizing scientists, and many more..including a session from the one and only Science Comedian!

Ariel Waldman, founder of Spacehack.org and I gave a talk on "Open Collaboration between Scientists, Communities, and The Unknown." Discussion notes and session afterthoughts can be found here. Our goal was to shed light on science communities we're familiar with and how they work, what obstacles we've faced in facilitating communities (online and offline), and provide a vision of what we'd like to see and how we're trying to get there. The talk was such a success that we've decided to submit it for SXSW 2010! Thanks to everyone who came to the session and walked away with some useful information to integrate into your labs, communities, and research.

Other great coverage of the event from Subversive Science,  #sbcpa on Twitter, and on Friendfeed. Videos of some sessions are up at Livestream and Ustream.