Submit Ideas and Vote on Ideas for Presentation Topic Ideas for Special Session at the ASM General Meeting in SF 2012

Calling all microbiology fans - The American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is doing something very different for the 2012 General Meeting in San Francisco that might be of interest.  There will be a special session, organized by the Communications Committee (of which I am a member) where everyone/anyone can propose topics and then these get voted on to determine the winners (see Your Topics, Your Votes, Your Choice).

From the web site

Submit your scientific presentation topic for ASM2012 and then vote and comment on your colleagues’ ideas. The people who submit the top 5 entries will receive a travel subsidy of $800 (or $1200 for international submitters) and will present their topics at the General Meeting in San Francisco, on Tuesday, June 19 at 2:30 p.m., PT.

The submission deadline closes Feb. 1, 2012 at noon, GMT. The top 5 voted topics will then be approved by March 1, 2012.

The rules of the system are as follows (also from the web site)

• All scientists are encouraged to submit, especially undergraduates, graduate students, post-docs and technical staff.
• Registered site users get 10 votes to allocate among topics, with a maximum of 3 votes per topic. However, votes can be reallocated up to the Feb. 1, 2012 deadline.
• Topics must be submitted with a title. A 3 to 5 sentence description is strongly encouraged. You may also include links to additional or background materials by inserting an http:// before a URL in the description field.
• While multiple topics may be submitted. Only one topic per submitter will be selected. In other words, if a submitter gets 3 topics in the top 5 by Feb. 1, 2012, that person will only be allowed to present on one topic at the meeting.
• The submitter must be the presenter.
• No pseudoscience allowed. If you see an entry that looks suspicious, please flag the idea as inappropriate at the end of the topic's description. ASM reserves the right to remove improper submissions and comments.
• Topics must be presented within a 30 minute time slot, 10 minutes of which will be allotted for questions and answers.
• Speakers for invited sessions at ASM2012 are not eligible to participate in this session.

So - please consider submitting ideas and voting on ideas and spreading the word.