Science Communication Conference - acronyms and initialisms list 2008

There's an updated list in this year's delegates' pack and I I need to update this electronically for 2009 (eg DBERR and DIUS are now DBIS)... but these might help people in orienting themselves among the fearsome acronyms of science communication.

Tell me what should be greyed out, rewritten, added etc., thank you. My email address is at the bottom of this post.

>>This is an old copy of the sheet of paper included in last year's delegates' packs for people attending the Science Communication Conference hosted by the then BA and now the British Science Association - a more up to date version is in current packs<<

Acronyms, initialisms and other science communication terminologies and resources A helpful orientation web resource, "Science policy and communication information - a directory" can be found at http://www.scienceandsociety.info/

A
ABSW - Association of British Science Writers
ACME - Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education
AHRC - Arts and Humanities Research Council {research council}
AMRC - Association of Medical Research Charities
ASE - The Association for Science Education

BBAAS - British Association for the Advancement of Science, aka The BA
BAME - Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups
BBSRC - Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council {research council}
Beacons for Public Engagement - six university-based collaborative centres (one National Co-ordinating Centre) supporting UK public engagement work, funded by UK funding councils and the Wellcome Trust (see NCCPE and UWE).
BIG - British Interactive Group
British Council - the British government agency responsible for promoting British culture throughout the world.

C
Café Scientifique - pub / café-based forum for debating science issues outside a traditional academic context.
CaSE - Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK
CCLRC - Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (as of 1 April 2007 CCLRC was combined with PPARC to form STFC).
COPUS - Committee on the Public Understanding of Science (now defunct)CREST / BA CREST - CREativity in Science and Technology (The BA's accreditation scheme for project work in science and technology, aimed at students aged 11-19).
CST - Council for Science and Technology

DDBERR - Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (replaced DTI as of June 2007).
DBIS - Department for Business, Innovations and Skills (a merger between DBERR and DIUS, as of June 2009).
DCSF - Department for Children, Schools and Families (created, along with DIUS, in June 2007 from DfES).
DEFRA - Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
DfES - Department for Education and Skills (as of June 2007 DfES was replaced by DCSF and DIUS).
DIUS - Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (created, along with DSCF, in June 2007 from DfES).
DTI - Department of Trade and Industry (replaced by DBERR as of June 2007).

EEcsite / Ecsite-UK - European Network of Science Centres and Museums / UK
ENSCOT - European Network for Science Communication Teachers
EPSRC - Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council {research council}
ESOF – Euroscience Open Forum, provides both the European and the international science and business communities with an open platform for debate and communication. In 2008, takes place in Barcelona, 18-22 July.
ESRC - Economic and Social Research Council {research council}
ETB - Engineering and Technology Board
EUSJA - European Union of Science Journalists' Associations

FFamelab - competition to find the new faces of science communication.

HHE / HEI - Higher education (institution)
HEFCE - Higher Education Funding Council for England
HFEA - Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority

IIET - Institute of Engineering and Technology
IOB - Institute of Biology
IOP - Institute of Physics
IPPR - Institute for Public Policy Research

JJISC - Joint Information Systems Committee, uses information and communications technology to support education and research, hosts psci-com's mailing list (via JISCmail) among others.

MMRC - Medical Research Council {research council}

NNCCPE - National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (see UWE)
NERC - Natural Environment Research Council {research council}
NESTA - National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
NSEW - National Science and Engineering Week (coordinated by the BA)
NSLC - National Science Learning Centre

PPD - public dialogue
PE / PES / PES - public engagement (in science) (and technology)
Planet SciCast - competition for (and database of) mini movies of science demos, funded by NESTA, IOP and ETB.
POST - Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, creator of 'POSTnotes' – short briefing notes on science topics for ministers.
PPARC - Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (as of 1 April 2007 PPARC was combined with CCLRC to form STFC).
psci-com - catalogue of evaluated web resources covering public engagement with science, science communication and the impact of science on society, best known for the accompanying email discussion list for science communicators (hosted by JISCmail) of the same name.
PUS - Public Understanding of Science
PUSET - Public Understanding of Science, Engineering and Technology

R
RAEng - Royal Academy of Engineering
RCUK - Research Councils UK {research councils - umbrella group}
RI - Royal Institution
RS - Royal Society

SSciDev.Net - Science and Development Network, web resource providing news, views and information about science, technology and the developing world.
Sciencewise-ERC - expert resource centre for public dialogue in science and technology. To be launched in late May 2008.
sci-soc - science in society
scizmic - The Science Discovery Clubs Network, part of Ecsite-UK
SCORE - Science COmmunity Representing Education, partnership convened by the Royal Society to strengthen science education.
SLC - Science Learning Centre
SMC - Science Media Centre
SPIN - Science Policy Information News (weekly online information bulletin from Wellcome)
STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (or medicine)
STEMNET - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network
STEMPRA - Science, technology, engineering and medicine public relations association.
STFC - Science and Technology Facilities Council {research council}

UUWE - University of the West of England (along with University of Bristol supports the coordinating centre for the six beacons for public engagement, see 'beacons')

WWellcome - Wellcome Trust, the world's largest medical research charity funding research into human and animal health.

This year's acronyms corralled by Jo Brodie.
Submit your missing acronyms or corrections to Jo.Brodie at diabetes.org.uk or Alice Taylor-Gee (whose new email address I need to add).

Watching conference tweets in real time - how best?

There are probably an unlimited number of ways of following real time Twitter messages during a conference.

The ones I know of and have played with include:

• Twitter search - search for the relevant tag and refresh periodically to bring up the latest messages
• Monitter.com - add search term to one of the columns and sit back and watch it scroll with latest messages (auto update) - this one seems to be a drain on computer resources though
• Twitterfall - similar to Monitter, real time (can vary the speed at which Tweets appear)
• FriendFeed - can be used in a variety of ways and is generally my favourite

For the science communication conference I've created a FriendFeed room which has a feed taken from Twitter. It's been set up so that every time someone writes scc2009 or #scc2009 in a Tweet then that Tweet will be sent to the room (unless their Twitterstream is private, in which case it won't).

The problem is that each Tweet has lots its 'owner' - there's no indication who said it and everything is re-badged as coming from the SCC2009 room. This is fine if you just want to see what's being said but not that great if you want to see who said it.

How can I amend the settings to fix this, or can this not be done? Should I have done something else ;)

All of the other three methods maintain the 'so and so said' connection. Can't understand why the FriendFeed room - which is taken from the Twitter search (which does maintain the connection) - loses who said what.

Compare the pictures on the left hand side of the pages to see what I mean:
http://friendfeed.com/scc2009
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23scc2009

Any ideas?