What You’re Doing Is Rather Desperate

During discussion of the ISMB 2008 room, Thomas asks: “Does FF really provide long-term archival?” Lars points out that it’s as permanent as anything else on the Web, Dorothea points out that FriendFeed offer no guarantees and Deepak discusses the FriendFeed API.

Question: how useful is the FriendFeed API as a tool to, for example, archive a FriendFeed room?
Read the rest…

ISMB 2008 wrapped up yesterday. I enjoyed it immensely and will have much more to say in the coming weeks. Right now I just wanted to say:

- It was great to meet so many of my online friends for the first time. I’ve “known” some of you for years, others for a few months and really enjoyed catching up with you all in person.

- Thanks to all who contributed to the coverage in the ISMB 2008 FriendFeed room. It was quite an experiment and I think we were all pleasantly surprised by how well it worked out. Looks like this could lead to some form of semi-official live blogging next year too, which would be excellent.

Tomorrow takes me through Chicago to Manchester, UK, then north to a little place called Carlisle – which happens to be where I was born. It’s not the most wired town in the world, so networking could be sporadic until I get back to Brissie on August 5th.

The last major international conference that I attended was ISMB 2003. It was – right here in Brisbane, although I was living in Sydney at the time. I have to admit that I haven’t always been proactive when it comes to seeking funds to attend meetings. I’ll admit too that I have mixed feelings about conferences. Many of my best friends are scientists, but there’s something about being in a confined space with several hundred intense, academic types that unsettles me. There’s also the prospect (for Australians) of travelling for 24 hours to reach N. America or Europe.

Tomorrow, I’m jetting off to ISMB 2008 in Toronto. I’m sure that I’ll have a fine time once I get there and look forward to putting faces to those names that I’ve known for some years now. I’ll be standing next to this poster at some point too.

Look out for updates here and most likely, via FriendFeed.