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Does anybody work in a lab that uses a lab message board?
I work in a moderately large (18 member) microbiology/virology lab and have proposed to my PI and various members of my lab group the idea of starting a lab message board. Would you mind sharing some honest information about how the message board was used?
*Did you find your lab's message board a useful forum of communication? Did you find it redundant or a useful resource? Did people collaborate on projects and talk about relevant, hot topics in your field via the message board?
*How much would you rate its actual use by fellow lab members?
*Also, would you mind sharing the basics of how the message board was organized and what sort of topics were discussed?
It is my hope that the board would be used to:
* Collect commonly used lab protocols and best practices
* Share useful external resources
* Document safety and equipment issues
* Encourage ongoing dialogue across projects
* Archive important conversations pertaining to the lab
* Foster a greater sense of inclusion and provide an additional resource for new entrants to the lab
* Record and summarize lab meeting presentations
* Recollect lab history
* Explore issues in the field
Access to the board will be restricted to lab members via the PI's homepage. An administrator can maintain top posts that list and summarize the content of each forum. E-mail is still important, but the message board will add a useful layer of communication with which to archive lab activity and discuss research issues.
I talked with the PI and he's ok with it but I haven't really received any response so far from lab members. Someone even told me that no one would use it and that it would be redundant... I would personally learn a lot from participation in such a forum since lab meetings can be above my head at times. While oral communication is wonderful when it's informative and respectful (which often is not the case towards me for sociological reasons), I think issues can be explored in a deeper manner in text, which would be a springboard for deeper, oral communication from a shared well of knowledge. People mostly keep to themselves and rarely actively collaborate between projects and from what I can surmise from some lab meetings, sometimes people make huge errors that could be corrected mid-way if there was a little more collective oversight.
So my question is: Does anybody else have experience with lab message boards and are they used/useful or redundant and seldom used? Is it a worthy or pointless endeavor?
I really do appreciate your taking time out of your day to share this information. I would really find it useful if there was a precedent we could follow.
Addendum: Someone from Harvard just informed me that their lab was starting a lab wiki as a master repository of information. I think it's a genius idea. Anybody else have a lab wiki or any similar collaborative forum with which to disseminate ideas and information to lab members outside of lab meetings?
I work in a moderately large (18 member) microbiology/virology lab and have proposed to my PI and various members of my lab group the idea of starting a lab message board. Would you mind sharing some honest information about how the message board was used?
*Did you find your lab's message board a useful forum of communication? Did you find it redundant or a useful resource? Did people collaborate on projects and talk about relevant, hot topics in your field via the message board?
*How much would you rate its actual use by fellow lab members?
*Also, would you mind sharing the basics of how the message board was organized and what sort of topics were discussed?
It is my hope that the board would be used to:
* Collect commonly used lab protocols and best practices
* Share useful external resources
* Document safety and equipment issues
* Encourage ongoing dialogue across projects
* Archive important conversations pertaining to the lab
* Foster a greater sense of inclusion and provide an additional resource for new entrants to the lab
* Record and summarize lab meeting presentations
* Recollect lab history
* Explore issues in the field
Access to the board will be restricted to lab members via the PI's homepage. An administrator can maintain top posts that list and summarize the content of each forum. E-mail is still important, but the message board will add a useful layer of communication with which to archive lab activity and discuss research issues.
I talked with the PI and he's ok with it but I haven't really received any response so far from lab members. Someone even told me that no one would use it and that it would be redundant... I would personally learn a lot from participation in such a forum since lab meetings can be above my head at times. While oral communication is wonderful when it's informative and respectful (which often is not the case towards me for sociological reasons), I think issues can be explored in a deeper manner in text, which would be a springboard for deeper, oral communication from a shared well of knowledge. People mostly keep to themselves and rarely actively collaborate between projects and from what I can surmise from some lab meetings, sometimes people make huge errors that could be corrected mid-way if there was a little more collective oversight.
So my question is: Does anybody else have experience with lab message boards and are they used/useful or redundant and seldom used? Is it a worthy or pointless endeavor?
I really do appreciate your taking time out of your day to share this information. I would really find it useful if there was a precedent we could follow.
Addendum: Someone from Harvard just informed me that their lab was starting a lab wiki as a master repository of information. I think it's a genius idea. Anybody else have a lab wiki or any similar collaborative forum with which to disseminate ideas and information to lab members outside of lab meetings?
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