Astronomy Cast Live: Bringing Science to the People in Real Time

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Dr. Pamela Gay (Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville) and the staff of "Astronomy Cast" will take the lead in producing the first "live casts" in astronomy - "Astronomy Live". They will build on their experience in working with new media to explore the realm of live blogging, and also live webcasting, in order to to research how to effectively employ science journalism and the relatively new technology of wireless internet multimedia to communicate astronomy to the public. From these initial trials, other public outreach and research programs (not necessarily in astronomy) will be able to use the results from this pilot program to learn how to make live blogging and webcasting work for them. "Astronomy Live" has the potential to allow astronomy enthusiasts around the world to experience the thrill of live astronomy announcements, attending talks in real time (even asking questions), and being "in the room" with astronomers via an Internet connection. Materials originally broadcast live will also be archived for asynchronous participation, allowing people to go back and "be there" on their own schedules. Beyond the public communications benefits of this program, it is also a program that allows the participation of an undergraduate student. The three-person team consists of an astronomer, a web journalist, and an undergraduate physics and computer science major. The student will use this experience to learn how to become an education and public outreach specialist and will gain experience in journalism while gaining knowledge of science.