NeuroOnline is a platform that was initiated by Konrad Kording (@KordingLab) and maintained by the community, which aims to bring anyone from the neuroscience community together in a series of online meetings to discuss topics from science to brewing beer. This is a platform that welcomes the members of the community who are interested in sharing their experiences, ideas, discussions over theories, paradigms, or their love of cooking or drinking by simply joining from their own locals.
We had our first successful meeting on 14th March, which started in the European time zone and continued towards the American time zones with many researchers from various backgrounds being present. The next meetings will be held on Thursdays at 8:30pm CEDT and/or 8:30pm EST, please join us at Zoom. You can find the details of the meeting here!
We are still experimenting with the online meetings, creating the content on how to successfully run them so that everyone can receive as much benefit as possible from all. So please have a look at the materials created so far and let us know what you think, or how we can make the whole concept better and more accessible. Send your recommendations as issues and let's grow together!
This document outlines the general rules and practicalities on how to maintain a fair and healthy conversation between participants of chatrooms without overstepping the general aim of these community gatherings. The recommendations listed here are based on the best practices on online meetings, experienced and shared by the community over time. We are open to recommendations on improving the rules. Please do not hesitate to send your comments as issues.
Please make sure to follow and to make everyone else follow the rules listed below to create an environment in which everyone feels included and is given enough chance to represent him/herself. The general rules are to assure you will receive the highest benefit from these online discussions and gatherings. Therefore, there will be no exception regarding those rules.
We also address several practicalities to provide a guideline on facilitating your engagement in the chatroom discussions. These are not obligatory but will be helpful to both you and the other participants in maintaining smooth communication. Please use those practicalities as you see fit to fulfill the aim of the discussion room’s general topics.
- Please make sure that you truly read and follow the requirements of the Code of Conduct.
- Please share the responsibility for the maintainance of the healthy discussions and community engagements, and if it is necessary, please do not hesitate to remind your colleagues kindly to read through the Code of Conduct.
- Please make sure to keep yourself muted while you are not actively talking.
- Please avoid cross-talking.
- Please avoid long and open-ended discussions that might not give enough room to the others to participate in those discussions.
- Please avoid dominating the room’s chat.
- Please avoid raising controversial topics from those listed in the Code of Conduct.
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Please join our Mattermost channel to follow the updates!
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Please do not feel obliged to use your webcam throughout the meeting. The spirit of sharing is more important than anything for us!
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Throughout the discussions run in topic-specific chat rooms, it is always helpful to have a clear agenda regarding the topic of discussions. We would recommend keeping an agenda and meeting notes in a publicly editable agenda for everyone to follow easily.
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After a quick intro, please ask everyone to add their names and affiliations, Twitter handles, research topics, etc. to the About Me! document. Afterward, pin the document to the channel so that new participants who join the chatroom at a later stage can easily add their personalia as well.
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Use the raise your hand facility of the Zoom communication channel when you would like to ask something/talk. Here you can find a tutorial that explains how to use it.
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It is a nice common courtesy to inform the others in the chatroom before you leave. You do not have to give a reason but it’s just a nice gesture of acknowledging.
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Address/acknowledge the new participants who join the chatroom at a later stage and refer them to the publicly editable agenda listing the chatroom’s topics or any other sources, and preferably give them a brief summary of the ongoing discussion(s).
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Please do not feel obliged to contribute to the discussions; you can also be a listener-only, i.e. just listening and exposing yourself to the ongoing discussions.
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It is always nice to ask others how you can help by taking notes so that a discussion’s main points are preserved.
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Please try to use the time given/allocated for that chat room wisely and make sure that everyone who would like to talk has a chance to talk.
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We know that sharing makes everything even better! Feel free to share your suggestions on which books/papers to read, tutorials/talks to watch/go through, a podcast to listen to, movies/documentaries to watch, with the community using Recommend it! excel sheet!
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If you would like to continue your discussions with (a) participant(s) offline, please make sure that each party has agreed on the continuation of the discussions/interactions and do not forget to exchange the required contact information.
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Please avoid being persistent and insistent on your requests throughout your conversations with the rest of the participants either online and offline.