International Slime Mold Organization (ISMO) pronounced IS-MOE

[RyChu]

Hey y'all!

Has anybody ever thought of starting an international organization that makes decisions regarding slime molds? Like how they can be used in research or what the standards for raising them are... I'm pretty sure many fields have an organization that makes decisions like that. The group would essentially publish papers to set standards or compile information about slime molds, encourage public education, and so on. Kind of like a broader version of Ian's idea with the slime mold library.

Does anybody think that sounds like a reasonable idea? 

-Raichu

[Evan Brown]

Smart move Ian, I've done the same. Running Linux helps with the peace of mind too a bit, if you know how to use it. I was thinking a chat room, yes.  I don't do skype or webcam stuff myself either so text only for me.

[RyChu]

Perhaps we can find some time for a meeting in the chatroom at:

• GMT 10 pm
• EST 5 pm
• PST 2 pm

Are these time zones correct?

[Heather Barnett]

It’s great there’s so much activity on slimoco at the moment and a real desire to pool and share resources and advice. To access info here takes a bit of digging and I think there’s definitely a need for some comprehensive online resources to help people get started. This platform has sub groups and a live chat option so that might be a good start. Or maybe we could create a new area for information and resources to make it easier for people to find.. before committing to an external website. I definitely think the slimoco community can do something amazing if we pool our experimentation and experience.. :) 

[RyChu]

Just to confirm with everybody, how common is Google drive outside of the u.s.?

[ian]

I've used G. docs for manuscript editing that's as much as I've done with google drive  easy to set up though and work block dropbox. So are we leaning towards a physarum care manual here? 

[ian]

Another thing to think about is strain security - getting a few people propagating and storing different strains, it's not much effort, a yearly regrowth and drying keeps them going, an official Slimoco strain repository? 

[Evan Brown]

That's basically what I had in mine. We can all collaborate and share new strains too so we'd basically all have identical collections.

[RyChu]

Sounds cool! How about public outreach?

[RyChu]

Please use Times New Roman 14, single spaced. Aside from the setup and organization I can provide, there isn't much else I can do. I don't quite have the experience to be working on the documents themselves.

[RyChu]

Does that sound too ambitious? Is there anything we should change?

[Heather Barnett]

Thanks for setting these up Raichu.

So the links don't get lost in a conversation thread I've created a new section called 'links' and pasted your google links there.http://slimoco.ning.com/page/links

They are visible to members only at the moment, whilst they get populated. Happy to change settings.

[RyChu]

Thanks! Hopefully these will help compile all the knowledge this website/forum has generated so that repeat questions are less likely to occur and the information is even more accessible.