ESOF still has two days to go, but one of yesterday's sessions was already looking ahead to the next edition, in 2010 in Turin, Italy. Among the new features: an ambitious plan to Webcast the meeting in its entirety. As reflected in the periodic table-inspired portion of its logo, the appropriately Italian theme of the 2010 conference is "Passion for Science." Turin beat out Paris, Copenhagen, and Wroclaw in an Olympic-style bidding process to host ESOF. The city won the bid with help from the Compagnia Sao Paolo, a big Turin-based private foundation that has also promised to be a major sponsor for the event. The size of its contribution remains to be determined, however, as do those from local and regional governments and businesses that ESOF is hitting up for money. Indeed, covering the 4 to 5 million Euro provisional budget "is our main concern right now," says physicist Enrico Predazzi, president of the ESOF 2010 management board.
As to the program, Eastern Europe will feature more prominently, said program committee chair Helga Nowotny, as will private business. And Swedish scientist Carl Johan Sundberg, who dreamed up the first ESOF meeting in 2004 and is still involved in its organization, says he wants sessions to be more dynamic--with "fewer talking heads and more participation from the audience."
Turin computer scientist Angelo Raffaele Meo, who addressed the audience by video, has taken up the challenge of webcasting the entire meeting live. Remote viewers will also be able to interact, Meo promised, by emailing questions for speakers, for instance. And all the sessions will be stored in an online video archive. "Even kids in a straw hut in Africa can watch this," said Meo.
If they have electricity, a computer, and an Internet connection, that is.
--Martin Enserink
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