Wow – I got an invite to Nature and O’Reilly’s Science Foo camp 2008! Without question my experiences last year led me to conclude that this was simply the best science gathering ever. To get reinvited back is a real honor. This unconference brings together people working on the bleeding edge of their fields, who are helping to define the future of science, art and technology. The eclectic mix of invitees dynamically build a schedule over the course of the meeting, which (as in previous years) is held over three days this August at Googleplex in Mountainview, CA. As George Dyson noted from last years experience, the resulting schedule presents you with "the impossible choice" of deciding which sessions to attend.

I would be interested to hear from any other invitees, especially those working in the biodiversity informatics area. I’m not sure what I will talk about this year, but given the difficulties facing the EOL project in authoring and quality control of 1.8 million species pages, this seems an obvious choice. If anyone is interested in co-running a session with me on this (or a related bioinformatics topic), let me know.

PS. I’ll try to better document my experiences this year. Alas my 17” powerbook is a little obtrusive. Perhaps I’ll have to invest (or more likely borrow) an Air!