SciVee: The YouTube Of Science

Science and entrepreneurship don't usually slow as much as other sectors in the economy doing economic downturns. Mike Micalowitz, author of The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, even says these are the best times to start a business. Further, since science isn't as wrapped up in the business world, and because science is so much about inquiry and experimentation, there is a great likeliness that science will continue to produce great things no matter how bad the economy is. However, by wrapping up the industry of entrepreneurship, the savyness of the web, and science into one mold there might just be something great on the horizon; SciVee. Founded by Professors Philip E. Bourne and Leo M. Chalupa (of UC San Diego and UC Davis respectively), SviVee makes a unique service for scientists and students to share findings, reports, projects, and thoughts. The greatness of the idea and service relies heavily in the ability to create a professional and easy to use interface where scientists can upload videos, online presentations, writings, power point presentations, and other things. The following is a description written up by the SciVee team:

“SciVee is an online science community where scientists can make their research known to their fellow peers as well as the general public. Scientists can create "pubcasts" which are online presentations that allow a scientist to combine their publication with media such as video, audio, images, and text to allow visitors to quickly grasp the key concepts of their publications, as well as an increased chance for citation. Scientists can also form communities around their research/projects/interests and can start discussions or plan events with their group.”

SciVee can best be described as a YouTube for science; even though the video section is not necessarily predominant (it doesn't take up the whole user area), videos tend to be the main medium for scientist and presenters to convey their discoveries and research. By providing reading material, slick design with miscellaneous tabs that provide specific information, and videos or podcasts, the scientist can make a powerful impression. For instance, http://www.scivee.tv/node/7830 is an example of someone presenting their idea, project, and technology by using a video, pictures, and a brief written description of their subject of discussion. On the bottom are tabs which supplement and help people take part in the project in some way through using the comment tab, uploaded material tab, related content, and the ability to more formally contact the author of the presentation.

In many ways, it is a paradise for people who love shows like the discovery channel or enjoyed watching Bill Nye The Science Guy as a kid. However, the founders of SciVee promise something much more essential: a medium for budding scientists to present their ideas freely to open community of like-minded individuals in a professional, yet mainstream media, type of environment. 'Free and open community', in this context, doesn't necessarily mean the community of scientists within the university, club, or organization, but anyone out there on the Internet who may be interested.

Though this is a service that has a well defined aim and well executed model, there is still a question of how and whether SciVee will make money. Will SciVee put ads up by big pharmaceutical companies or like businesses? Will people be able to sell through SciVee by buying software or scientific gadgets that are presented by scientists and others through their site? As for advertising, ads might cheapen the presentation feel and distract from the content. On the other hand, it is absolutely normal to put up ads on the home page and non-user/video pages. The question of money is always a hot issue within the scientific community and whether SciVee can afford to put many ads up on their website remains open. However, since SciVee is still in Beta, it may be best for them to remain agnostic about it as they gain more recognition and users. It may turn out that the goal isn't to make money, but to attract entrepreneurs to take their ideas and research off the shelf to commercialize and license. In that case, revenue may come indirectly to those organizations and research labs.

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