The Hustler is a great movie, but is it really the model for science crowdfunding?
A few days ago, Ethan Perlstein provided some guidance over at the Microryza blog about how to succeed at science crowdfunding. His bottom line? The secret is to hustle, hustle, hustle during a crowdfunding campaign to get the word out and to get media attention. With all respect to Ethan, if all researchers running campaigns follow his advice, then that’s the end for science crowdfunding. And that would be a tragedy because science crowdfunding has the potential to solve one of the key problems of our time: the giant gap between science and society.
UPDATE (APRIL 9): Registration for our class has closed early. We have received 170 applications in less than a week (way more than we expected) and we want to make sure that we don’t have more course participants than we can handle. We have more outreach training classes coming over the next few months and you can sign up for our e-mail list to keep informed.
Our outreach training course will be even MORE exciting than a giant tiger jumping through fire.
Hey Scientist!
Itching to tell the public about your science? At a time of slashing cuts to science funding, maybe you want to explain to the public why your field deserves public support. Maybe you want to set the record straight about misconceptions the public holds about your field (here’s looking at you, evolutionary biologists). Or maybe you just want to finally be able to explain to your friends and family what it is you actually do at work.
But how do you, dear scientist, get started with your outreach? After all, very few researchers have any experience or training in connecting the public with their science. That’s where SciFund Challenge comes in.
Join the SciFund Challenge community for our first online course aimed at helping scientists get started with outreach. Over 5 weeks, we’ll demystify the business of communicating science and equip you with the tools and confidence you need to get started.
Go to Facebook and fill out the “Create a New Account” section. You can change everything later, so feel free to be honest about your name and everything else and if you want to change the account to represent an organization later, you can. Once you’ve submitted that information, you’ll have to verify your identity by entering a code sent from Facebook to your email address or phone. Following the code verification, Facebook will walk you through how to set up your profile. You will definitely want a profile picture (which you can change later), but finding people you know is optional at this point, as is touring privacy settings. Either of these activities can be done later, once your account is set up. I’d recommend taking the privacy tour, though, because it’s only 4 short screens to look through and the first screen is especially useful- it shows you how to set viewing privileges for every post you will make.
And that’s it- you’re ready to go!
Facebook’s frontpage, viewed from a computer’s internet browser.
2. SEND US YOUR USERNAME
A. Computer view: click on your profile picture and your first name at the very top of the screen (the red box in the image below). Then read the address bar in your browser, which should say something like “facebook.com/username”. Please send us the “username” part of that address.
The top of the Facebook profile page for Virginia Schutte, viewed from a computer’s internet browser. There is a red box around the profile icon, which can be used to return to the profile at any time.
B. Mobile view: Your username is currently unavailable to view from a mobile device, so head on over to a computer.
Sign up for our mailing list!
The two kinds of email that we send.
Announcements about upcoming events: mostly about our upcoming classes (sent out every 1-2 months).
SciFund Solutions: 1-minute communication tips for scientists (sent out every 1-2 weeks).
