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Original Text
>From [log in to unmask] (Michael Kenward), on 27/11/98 09:57:
To: [log in to unmask] ("k.john-pierre")
-----Original Message-----
A new report on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing
the public understanding of science community is now available on the Web at
http://www.uwe.ac.uk/facults/fas/graphicscience/publications.html
Please feel free to post any personal responses to the report on psci-com.
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It is ironic that something on PUS should presented in such a way that the
reader has to work hard to fathom the text. And those bouncing balls!!!
As someone who sometimes gets involved in funding, the observation that
funders should be "thinking strategically about where their money goes and
practically about the channels through which they dispense it" is a bit too
general.
So is the comment "the media needs to be handled more coherently and
consistently". Why? How?
The one thing I do agree with is the long(ish) list of weaknesses.
Not sure that there are "too few practitioners". There sometime seem to be
too many not very good ones. There are certainly too few excellent ones.
And what does it mean when it says "fails to distinguish between aims and
objectives"? Maybe PUSET folks have different definitions. But they appear
to be pretty well synonymous in most writing.
The good news is that there could well be a natural home for PUSET activity
in the new developments at the Science Museum at the Queen's Gate Centre.
But will people overcome their territoriality and unite?
When looking at proposals seeking funds, the biggest worry is the sheer lack
of professionalism in the execution. There are lots of great ideas out
there. But little to convince me that their proposers could see them
through.
The ideal would be for ideas and execution to be separate. It may sound like
heresy, but expensive PR companies are streets ahead of most academics when
it comes to knowing how to organise events and activities. But the academics
are much better at producing ideas.
Think of it in the same way that we approach innovation. The universities
come up with the science. Industry then turns them into technology and
products. A simplification maybe, but near enough to the truth to offer some
clues to the execution of PUSET activities.
MK
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Michael Kenward OBE / Phone: +44 (0)1444 400568 Fax: 401064
/
Science Writer & Stuff / Have words will travel
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