It’s the 10th ever Sci Foo this week and we’re really excited about it! We have a host of Digital Science people going, including Timo Hannay, Daniel Hook, Amy Brand, Nicko Goncharoff and more.

Sci Foo is a unique, innovative and interdisciplinary science conference jointly hosted by Digital Science, O’Reilly Media, Nature Publishing Group and Google. It brings together all sorts of people doing all sorts of groundbreaking work in diverse areas of science and technology.

The conference is based on O’Reilly Media’s Foo Camp (“Foo” = “Friends of O’Reilly”) which originated in 2003 and it follows the same “unconference” format. There is no predefined agenda, instead the attendees create one collaboratively, with little, if any, constraints on what can be discussed.

Timo Hannay described Sci Foo in the following way:

“Sci Foo is a classic example of something that doesn’t work in theory, only in practice.  The format sounds chaotic, and in some ways it is.  But it turns out that clever, engaged people don’t need keynote speakers, or even a schedule, to tell them what to talk about.  The subjects that come up constantly surprise and delight us, and finding out what the Sci Foo campers will come up with is always one of the highlights of my year.”

Sci Foo has gained cult status among those with a passion for science and technology. Sci Foo Camper Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, remarked,

“Well I suppose it’s what you call a happening or a sort of mini Woodstock of the Mind as it were, and what I learnt from this is exciting developments in a whole range of subjects, particularly from people whom one doesn’t normally encounter. I think it’s very important to realize that intellectual activity is not just what one’s academics do, it’s what many other people do.”

#SciFoo