Sorry, but don't apologize

One of the bits of advice floating around for scientists is, "Don't apologize for your work". Usually this advice is dispensed within the context of giving a presentation - don't start a presentation with, "Sorry", don't apologize for unreadable graphs, etc.

But I think this advice should be extended to all professional scientific communication. If you hurt someone's feelings or spill their coffee, absolutely you should apologize. Of course you should speak considerately and professionally to all people. But when it comes to communicating science don't apologize for yourself. Don't degrade your expertise, don't qualify your statements.¹

You can qualify presentations of information, for example, "This work is preliminary" or "This was just a first step to exploring this problem area." But that is very different from saying, "I realize I am only a masters student" or "Sorry, I am a n00b here" or "I know my undergraduate degree is in French literature, but..."

Be bold! Yes, you will probably need to wave the white flag sometimes. But don't start out with your flag waving. Start out strong.

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¹ Unless you work in a country where apologizing is the norm for professional communication, in which case, I'm sorry for this post. ;-)

Youth Training Announced for Green Code Meetings

The next round of Green Code meetings has been announced! The meetings will take place between Monday, February 28th and Saturday, March 5th. Check out the map to find the meeting closest to you!

HKHC Buffalo has been working closely with its partners to determine the best ways to get Buffalo youth out to the meetings. We have met with many community groups and youth leadership groups - including the Buffalo Public Schools Inter-High Council - to talk about the importance of the youth voice at the Green Code meetings.

Our youth representatives, Adriana and Robert, told us that students will need some help finding their voice around issues of land use and zoning. When we asked how, they responded that a youth-led training could help students find buddies to attend the meeting with, learn about land use and create talking points so they could convey a clear message. We listened.

A free training for Buffalo youth interested in participating in the Green Code meetings will take place this Thursday, February 24th from 5:00 - 8:00 pm. Dinner will be provided to all attendees, and the training is open to middle- and high-school students. The meeting will take place at the Innovation Center at 640 Ellicott Street.

We know school is out this week - and that students are excited for time off and families are relaxing together. We have worked with the youth leaders to make this training fun - and students can count the meeting attendance toward their community service requirement! Plus, participating in the Green Code process is too important to pass up. We need to hear from youth and their families about what they want most out of their city.

RSVP for the training to Erin at 882-5327 or sharkey@mass-ave.org. You can download the flyer here. See you there!

my new "grab bag"

i have something new going on at the Designer's Attic on Fridays now....it's my version of an instant room!  i had a lot of fun making the first one...i hope y'all will enjoy it too!  thanks jenny for the twitter shout out, i'm honored you like it ;)

New year, New book!

Hello Readers,
                       I thought I'd take this weeks post to announce that I just signed the contract with McGraw Hill to write a new book. It will be called 'Computer Forensics, A Beginner's Guide'. It's meant for those of you already in the IT field who are looking for a jump start into your first computer forensics investigations. I'll post more details as I finish the manuscript but we are currently set to have in stores in early November.

Prescient spam

I work in area X. I recently wrote a paper on area X_1, and submitted it to a conference. It was rejected. So I revised it and resubmitted it to a more topic-relevant conference, and it is currently under review. There is absolutely nothing in the public sphere indicating that I have done work in field X_1 that I am aware of.

Today I got a spammy email from one of those shady journals that spams anyone who ever published something in IEEE Xplore or the ACM Digital Library, saying:

Dear Dr. FCS,      // Not a bad start, calling me "Dr." instead of "Ms." (or "Mr.")

Our Journal of X has a special issue coming up on X_1. Given your expertise in this area we would like to invite you to submit something. 

Sincerely,

Editor in Chief of Shady Journal

Mostly I am fascinated that they somehow know I am working in area X_1. Looking at the editorial board of the shady journal and the PC of the two conferences this paper has been seen by, I see no obvious overlap.

The funny thing is, this journal never spams me on areas of X_2, X_3, or X_4 (none of which I work in, but they publish in), so this is fairly deliberate spam.

So how did they know about my new professional foray? Clearly this is evidence that they are psychic. Or one of my reviewers blabbed. I'd say it's a 50/50 probability of either.