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International Conference on Science Communication,
Teadusrikkuse levialas, Talin / Estonia, October 2010
Alexander Gerber
Managing Partner, innocomm
Head of Marketing & Communications, Fraunhofer ICT Group
Science & Society
From Dissemination to Deliberation
http://www.slideshare.net/AlexanderGerber/DebateTallinn
@InnoVisions / #SciEst

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Status Quo: Dissemination
Gaskell et al. (2006). "Europeans and Biotechnology in 2005: Patterns and Trends"
Eurobarometer 64.3
http://ec.europa.eu/research/press/2006/pdf/pr1906_eb_64_3_final_report-may
2006_en.pdf (zuletzt 19.09.2010)
“Which of these technologies will improve our way of life in the 20 years?”

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winner
looser
still open
Status Quo: Dissemination
Gaskell et al. (2006). "Europeans and Biotechnology in 2005: Patterns and Trends"
Eurobarometer 64.3
http://ec.europa.eu/research/press/2006/pdf/pr1906_eb_64_3_final_report-may
2006_en.pdf (zuletzt 19.09.2010)
“Which of these technologies will improve our way of life in the 20 years?”

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Status Quo: Dissemination
► How do science communicators try to influence this agenda?

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Status Quo: Dissemination
► How do science communicators try to influence this agenda?

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Status Quo: Dissemination
► What about these…?

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Status Quo: Dissemination
We are used to justify the way our institution uses its resources.
► Who decides (in the future) about the research agenda?

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Status Quo: Dissemination
Listening is the new marketing.
Social Media puts the public
back into PR and the market
back 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

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Status Quo: Dissemination
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

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Status Quo: Dissemination
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

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Status Quo: Dissemination
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com
(Technorati-Authority: 554, Science Rank: 4)

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Status Quo: Dissemination
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience
(Technorati-Authority: 720, Science Rank: 1)

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Status Quo: Dissemination
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.

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Status Quo: Dissemination
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”.

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Status Quo: Dissemination
http://www.scienceblogs.de/astrodicticum-simplex
Possible the best-read German science blog (65.000+ comments in two years)

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Status Quo: Dissemination
http://www.scienceblogs.de/sic
Blog about science communication, especially with regard to interactive media

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Status Quo: Dissemination
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.)

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Status Quo: Dissemination
We are used to mainly answer what it is that out institution is doing.
► Why don’t we ask the questions ourselves?
 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.

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Status Quo: Dissemination
We are used to mainly answer what it is that out institution is doing.
► Why don’t we ask the questions ourselves?
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 article
is budgeted
 The journalist goes and researches and
writes his piece
 Spot.us reviews the text and sees that it
is going to be published
 The users may get a share of the royalty

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Status Quo: Dissemination
We are used to mainly answer what it is that out institution is doing.
► Why don’t we ask the questions ourselves?
 Echologic.org: e-participation / e-democracy
 Idea-a-day.com: exchange and trade ideas

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Status Quo: Dissemination
We are used to mainly answer what it is that out institution is doing.
► Why don’t we ask the questions ourselves?
 delib.co.uk:
share, store and rate ideas
 spigit.com:
collective intelligence and
knowledge management

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Status Quo: Dissemination
We neglect the most basic principles of marketing.
► Do you really think you know what your “customers” need?

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Information and justification
FROM
Communication and collaboration
TO
Offering your competencies
FROM
Listening to your customers’ needs
TO

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Lookout: Collaboration
So-called Prosumers…
► expect a true dialogue with research institutions
► demand transparency and an unmediated discourse

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Lookout: Collaboration
Still think you’re in colntrol?
► BP tryied to “control”
public debate by buying
masses of search terms
(ca. $10,000 / day).

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Lookout: Collaboration
Debate nowadays is beyond control!
Connections between people
using "oil spill" on Twitter.
As analyzed by Marc Smith
from ConnectedAction
in May 2010,
there is not real
'center' of
discussion yet.

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Lookout: Collaboration
We should be seeking transparency in order to…
► build up trust in new technologies
► promote readiness for change

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Relevance 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 %)

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Relevance 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.

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Relevance 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).

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How do Governments React?
Example: U.S. Science Debate 2008
171 TV interviews
2975 questions
6 questions about “climate change”
3 questions about "UFOs"
>> „Reason why“

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How do Governments React?
Elections for Riigikogu in March 2011.

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How do Governments React?
Elections for Riigikogu in March 2011.
► Which relevance will science gain in the campaigns?

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The 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!

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The 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!

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Challenged by Complexity
Uncertainty cannot be an excuse for ignoring knowledge.
Debates are threatened to become victims of their own success.

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Challenged 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!

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A 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).

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Lookout: 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

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Lookout: Deliberation
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

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Lookout: Deliberation
The Independent applied “Debategraph” to deal with
the complexity of the issue of climate change:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate‐
change/debategraph‐copenhagen‐‐whats‐happening‐1835880.html

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Chesbrough Howe Hippel
Open Innovation
Trust Creation
Luhmann
Malone Gloor
Rogers
Blumer
Market Diffusion
Decentralizing Decision Making
E‐Collaboration E‐Democracy
Deliberative Democracy
CSCW
Collaborative Innovation Networks
Symbolic Interactionism
Media Democracy
Veld
Friedmann Norris Hilbert
Davies / GangadharanNoveck
An interdisciplinary challenge

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Science in Society
FROM
Society into Science
TO
Public Understanding of Science
FROM
Scientific Citizenship
TO

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Alexander Gerber‐Crawford
Managing Partner, innocomm
Head of Marketing Communications, Fraunhofer ICT Group
a.gerber@innokomm.eu
+49 (0)30 ‐ 577 076 ‐ 141 Skype: InnoVisions
Blog: scienceblogs.de/sic
Nature Network: alex_gerber
Twitter: InnoVisions
Slideshare: AlexanderGerber
Delicious: InnoComm
Linked‐in: alexandergerber
Facebook: AlexanderGerber
Xing: Alexander_Gerber3
Competence Site: Alexander‐Gerber
ResearchGate: Alexander_Gerber