 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to give a lightning talk at the Gov 2.0 Expo Keynote Kickoff. All of the talks were 5 minutes and consisted of 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. It was definitely a great experience.
The title of my talk was, “You’ve Been Scienced: Communicating Military Science and Technology with Social Media”. I would love to know your thoughts unless they aren’t complimentary.
On Monday, the Armed with Science blog featured a story about Army scientists who are printing human skin cells with a modified inkjet printer. True story. Naturally, this led to my inclusion in an Delta Bravo Sierra military cartoon. Enjoy!
Katie Packard at AFCEA wrote this very thoughtful article on Armed with Science. Check out the original.
Defense Department Wants You to Get Scienced
SIGNAL Online Exclusive, January 2010 – by Katie Packard
The U.S. Defense Department’s weekly podcast series, “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” emphasizes the important roles science and technology play in military operations by interviewing scientists, engineers, policymakers and other personnel. Not only does the series highlight cutting-edge technologies and capabilities, it also encourages information sharing and collaboration across the government and the military.
The series was launched in January 2009 through the Defense Department’s Emerging Media Directorate. It’s the only Defense Department podcast dedicated entirely to science and technology. Lt. Jennifer Cragg, USN, an operations officer in the directorate, explains that the concept was developed in 2008 after public affairs officers working in various commands in the U.S. Navy realized there was “a unique need to communicate effectively about science.”
Dr. John Ohab, a new technology strategist in the Public Web division of the Defense Media Activity, agrees. “We interview scientists, engineers, policymakers, teachers—anyone involved in science and technology in the government to have them talk about science in ways that are meaningful to the general public.”
The series has two goals, Ohab shares: to convey the Defense Department’s involvement in science and technology and to communicate science and technology in ways that are accessible to anyone. “We want to demystify science,” he says. “There’s often a disconnect between the general public, the government and scientists. We want to break down those barriers to show the scientists as humans.” (more…)
Drew Carey, host of The Price is Right, gives an Armed with Science shout-out during CES 2010.
The UCLA Alumni website will feature a recent UCLA Magazine story about Armed with Science to ring in the new year. The swanky banner will be live at the top of the page Dec. 28, 2009 – Jan. 3, 2010. I like to think that the banner represents my internal struggles as a human-robot hybrid with a fragile sense of self. It is also might just be a neat collage.
Here’s the teaser:
Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working on an advanced battery that will power tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to John Ohab Ph.D. ‘07 on Armed with Science, a weekly audio webcast launched by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Check out this new story, Armed and Scientific, just released by UCLA Magazine. I was recently interviewed for the “Quick Takes” series, which highlights former students and their work since graduating from UCLA. Much of the article focuses on my experiences at the Defense Department, but the author did include a brief ditty about Science Cheerleader, describing it as “a web-based media platform that… aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience.” Woohoo!
By Dan Frankel
Published Oct 1, 2009 8:00 AM
Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working with industry and academia on an advanced battery that will power, among other things, tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” a weekly audio webcast that the U.S. Department of Defense launched in January at blogtalkradio.com/ArmedwithScience.
Hosted by neuroscientist Dr. John Ohab Ph.D. ‘07, the show features one-on-one interviews with scientists from a wide variety of government agencies discussing everything from electronic warfare to drug abuse in the military. A new media guru with his own weekly podcast, and nearly 2,400 followers on Twitter, Ohab’s mission is to make the broad topic of science accessible to the broader population.
“We’re primarily going after the non-science audience, people who have an interest in science but no science training,” he explains. “What it all goes back to is communication and information sharing. People say scientists can’t communicate. People say government can’t communicate. By and large that’s not true; we just speak different languages.”
Meanwhile, the program also serves the mandate of making the Pentagon more open and accessible to the tax-paying public. “People think of the Department of Defense as guns and missiles and tanks, and to some extent that’s true, but this is a great opportunity to understand the breadth of science operating within the federal government and to understand how it impacts society,” says Ohab.
Meanwhile, the peripatetic scientist/podcast personality is also fascinated by the ongoing media revolution, using just about every social networking tool he can find to expand his show’s audience. Besides his social network activity, Ohab seeks to expand on the “Armed With Science” dialog through his personal blog, and a key voice for the Science Cheerleader, a web-based media platform that, like Ohab’s podcasts, aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience. In fact, some of the questions Ohab asks his scientist guests originate among his Twitter followers.
“We’re sort of on the forefront,” he concludes. “To do something that no one else in the government is doing, that is to host a radio program that discusses controversial topics that have implications for our national security, is pretty neat.”
Last week, David Meerman Scott, marketing guru and author of “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” visited the Pentagon to discuss the importance of social media in the Defense Department’s communications arsenal. He spent two hours with the All Services Social Media Council, comprised of people from across the Department (ten points if you can find my forehead), and led a very interesting discussion about social media strategy and brand journalism.
I had the opportunity to chat with David during a 30-minute car ride, and I couldn’t help but detail all of the social media strategies we use to operate Armed with Science, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast. He was so impressed with our efforts to provide meaningful information about science and technology through social media that he even mentioned us in a blog entry, Brand Journalism in US Military Humanizes Large Organization.
Click here to read it.
This Pentagon Channel report investigates whether neuroimaging techniques can be used to detect deception. Dr. Bhatt previously appeared as a guest on the weekly science and technology podcast, “Armed with Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military”. The report also features my award-winning acting skills and demonstrates the razor-sharp wit and decision-making savvy required to answer personal questions under pressure.
Dr. Bhatt: Were you born in 1980?
John: Yes.
Virtually no hesitation.
Anyway, the neuroimaging report will air on the Pentagon Channel’s “Around the Services” program in the near future. In the meantime, some of the content was used as background footage in the above report on traumatic brain injury.
Check out the 2:20 mark for my world famous B-roll performance in the MRI scanner. Also making a guest appearance: my brain.
Here’s the part about Armed with Science:
Two really great shows can be heard mid-week. The first, Armed with Science, originates from the Pentagon and is hosted by John Ohab, an emerging media strategist for the Department of Defense and a PhD in neuroscience. Ohab interviews scientists who work with the military on everything from nantechnology to medicine to psychology. The focus is how scientific disciplines apply to military applications, but the content of this well-produced show ought to interest practically anyone. The approach is straight news and the format is short, just 30 minutes. If you listen to the live webcast (2 p.m. ET), you can email or tweet your questions and they will be answered live by Ohab’s guest. The show is archived so you can listen whenever you like.
