Science Foo Camp
Science Foo Camp (scifoo) is an annual of interdisciplinary scientific unconferences organized by O'Reilly Media, Digital Science, Alphabet Inc., based on an idea from Linda Stone.[1] The event is based on the spirit and format of Foo Camp, an event focused on emerging technology, and is designed to encourage collaboration between scientists who would not typically work together. As such, it is unusual among conferences in three ways:
- attendance is by invitation-only
- the delegates come from many different areas of science rather than one subject, such as physics, chemistry or biology
- the meeting has no fixed agenda; the invited scientists, technologists and policy makers set the conference program during the conference itself, based on their shared professional interests and enthusiasms, aka unconference
![]() Some delegates at Science Foo Camp in 2009 | |
Venue | X |
---|---|
Location | Mountain View, California |
Type | Foo Camp Unconference |
Theme | Interdisciplinary |
Organised by | Google Digital Science O'Reilly Media |
Website | www |
The first event in 2006 was held under the Chatham House Rule. The policy at the second event was to allow open reporting by default; attendees were expected to indicate if their comments were off the record. Science Foo Camp has taken place annually at the Googleplex campus in Mountain View, California, United States.
Organization
As of 2022 scifoo is organized by
- Tim O'Reilly and Marsee Henon of O'Reilly Media (FOO stands for "Friends of O'Reilly")[2]
- Daniel Hook of Digital Science[3]
- Magdalena Skipper of Nature
- Cat Allman of Google[3]
Previously Timo Hannay, Sara Winge and Chris DiBona were also hosts and organisers.[4] In 2021 the organizers of Sci Foo released a series of 5-minute lightning talks from alumni on YouTube[5] and a twelve-minute video made at SciFoo 2009 is also available.[6]
Previous events
Science Foo Camp has run every year since 2006:
- August 2006.[7][8][9]
- August 2007[10][11]
- August 2008[12][13][14]
- July 2009[15][16][6]
- July 2010[17][18][19]
- August 2011[20][21][22][23][24]
- August 2012[25][26]
- June 2013[27][28][29]
- August 2014[30]
- June 2015[31][32][33][34]
- July 2016[35][3]
- August 2017[36][37][38]
- June 2018[39][40][41][42][2]
- July 2019[43][44][45]
- October 2020[46][47]
- Sci Foo Alumni Lightning Talks (online) May 13–15, 2021
- October 2021[48]
References
- O'Reilly, Tim (March 24, 2009). "It's Always Ada Lovelace Day at O'Reilly". Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- Sci Foo: intense intellectual, interdisciplinary interaction for influencers - July 17, 2018
- Haklay, Muki (July 25, 2016). "Science Foo Camp 2016". Po Ve Sham – Muki Haklay's personal blog. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- "Timo Hannay: Founding Managing Director, SchoolDash; Co-organizer, Sci Foo Camp". edge.org. Edge Foundation, Inc.
- "Foo Camp - YouTube". YouTube.
- "Science Foo Camp 2009: By Nature Video". YouTube.
- Hannay, Timo (September 4, 2006). "SciFoo review". Archived from the original on October 4, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- Anon (2006). "Foo's paradise: In praise of chat". Nature. 442 (7105): 848. Bibcode:2006Natur.442..848.. doi:10.1038/442848a. PMID 16929260.
- Back To Silicon Valley's Future - Forbes, August 11, 2006
- Hendler, James (August 6, 2007). "Science FOO Camp 2007 (Scifoo 07)". Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2007.
- Hull, Duncan (2007). "scifoo: Turn up, tune in, drop out". Archived from the original on August 7, 2009.
- Wilczek, Frank (September 3, 2008). "A Slice of SciFoo". Archived from the original on February 25, 2021. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- Gilbey, John (October 2, 2008). "Antimatter and antipasta at the anti-conference". Times Higher Education. Archived from the original on December 1, 2012. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- Williams, Antony (2008). "Scifoo Was Scifood for the Brain". chemspider.com. Archived from the original on March 10, 2018.
- Clarke, Michael (July 11, 2009). "Sci Foo Camp – Day 1". Archived from the original on September 21, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- "Science Foo Camp (2009)". Archived from the original on March 27, 2010.
- "Science Foo Camp (2010)". Archived from the original on February 11, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2010.
- A look at this year’s Science Foo Camp - 20 December 2010
- Nature Video - Science Foo Camp 2010 - Nov 30, 2010
- "Science Foo Camp (2011)". Archived from the original on July 1, 2012. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
- Reflecting on this year’s Sci Foo - 23 September 2011
- We’re off to (Science Foo) camp - 12 August 2011
- The future of science from Sci Foo - 3 March 2011
- Nature Video - Sci Foo: Imagining the future - Feb 17, 2011
- "Science Foo Camp (2012)". Archived from the original on January 24, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
- Science Foo Camp - 3 August 2012
- "Science Foo Camp (2013)". Archived from the original on May 6, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
- "Sci Foo Camp Postgame Report". Archived from the original on May 24, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2014.
- SciFoo Camp 2013 - 21 June 2013
- "Science Foo Camp (2014)". Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
- "Digital Science - Science Foo Camp 2015". Archived from the original on September 26, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2016.
- Sci Foo 2015: The Multiverse, Genetics, Workplace Equality, False Memories and More! - 9 July 2015
- SciFoo Camp 2015 - 26 June 2015
- We’re at Sci Foo 2015 This Week! - 25 June 2015
- Chew, Elaine (July 12, 2016). "Going to Sci Foo 2016". Elaine Chew, research. Archived from the original on October 14, 2016. Retrieved May 19, 2021.
- "SciFoo Camp 2017". August 4, 2017. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- A Collective Noun for Science #SciFoo 2017 - 25 August 2017
- SciFoo Camp 2017 - 4 August 2017
- "We Are Getting Ready for SciFoo!". June 20, 2018. Archived from the original on May 17, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- Sci Foo 2018: Changing the World, One Weekend at a Time - 2 October 2018
- Digital Science - Scientists Predict the Future at Sci Foo - Oct 2, 2018
- We Are Getting Ready for SciFoo! - 20 June 2018
- "We Are Getting Ready for SciFoo!". July 10, 2019. Archived from the original on January 30, 2021. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- https://www.digital-science.com/blog/news/scifoo-2019-a-weekend-of-ideas-and-collaboration/ Sci Foo 2019 – A weekend of ideas and collaboration] - 7 August 2019
- We Are Getting Ready for SciFoo! - 10 July 2019
- Orzel, Chad (October 28, 2020). "When Is It Time For A "Manhattan Project"?". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 6, 2020. Retrieved May 17, 2021.
- SciFoo: ‘The Conference That’s all Hallway Conversations’ - April 1, 2020
- "Science Foo Camp". Gernot Wagner. Retrieved October 22, 2021.