310 likes | 439 Views
ePOD’s first 5-years: Turn ESO’s outreach into a light-house for science communication!. ePOD’s next 5-years: To make ESO a household science brand in the eyes of the Member State tax-payers and worldwide!. ePOD’s First 5 years. Lars Lindberg Christensen, Head of ePOD lars@eso.org.
E N D
ePOD’s first 5-years: Turn ESO’s outreach into a light-house for science communication!
ePOD’s next 5-years: To make ESO a household science brand in the eyes of the Member State tax-payers and worldwide!
ePOD’s First 5 years Lars Lindberg Christensen, Head of ePOD lars@eso.org
ePOD Mission Mission: • Position ESO in public opinion as the most productive ground-based observatory in the world • Increase the awareness of ESO and ESO’s projects through production of excellent education and public outreach (EPO) materials targeted towards: • Lay people/tax payers in ESO member states, potential member states and worldwide • Mass media and new media representatives • Decision makers and industry players • Educators (both institutions and teachers) • ESO user community (students, scientists etc.) • Propagate the awareness that Europe is the world-leader in ground-based astronomy with ESO • Also: European Space Agency/Hubble and International Astronomical Union, astronomy in Europe, general astronomy communication (previously also through IYA2009).
The News • Press releases (“Science”, “Organisation”, and “Photo”), Announcements, Pictures of the Week: • ESO: 53 releases, 103 announcements, 53 PotWs in 2012. • ESA/Hubble: 21 releases, 19 announcements, 53 PotWs in 2012. • IAU: 6 releases in 2012. • Supported by images, illustrations, and HD video. • Virtual press conferences with Adobe Connect for the biggest stories.
News End-to-End • Workflow well established • Thorough evaluation during initiation • Newsteam discussion • PI involvement and approval • Science Liaison evaluation • ESON evaluation • Post-release evaluation of impact
The Print • All our products online. • Books: e.g. Europe to the Stars, The Jewel on the Mountaintop, Eyes on the Skies, Hidden Universe, Cosmic Collisions. • Brochures, postcards, stickers, handouts, technical documents, other merchandise. • Periodicals: Messenger, CAPjournal, Annual Report.
Print End-to-End • Needs determined via • Inventory status • New ideas • Distribution plan • Procurement info preserved => full handle on pricing (!) • Workflow extremely well established
Distribution, promotion End-to-End • 600 distribution tasks, 500 shop orders in 2012 • Full inventory overviews Garching and Chile • Stocks determine reprinting cycle • Distribution plans for each medium-sized product and up • Every target group corresponds to a Contact Group in the Address Database • Each big product has a promotion plan using our standard news items and triggers Contact Groups updates and expansions • Social Media, Partnership is an area of strong growth • Visitor Centre era
Audiovisual products • Video podcasts: ESOcasts, Hubblecasts, now subtitled in multiple languages. • Video visualisations. • Europe to the Stars movie. • Virtual tours. • Image gallery. • Video gallery. • 715 subtitles.
ESO 50th Anniversary • Europe to the Stars movie and book, The Jewel on the Mountaintop book • Choose What the VLT Observes and Tweet Your Way to the VLT! competitions • Awesome Universe exhibition campaign • Anniversary events with ESO speakers at international venues • A Day in the Life of ESO live webcast
The Exhibitions • Due to cut-backs, no exhibitions in Europe from 2013 • Nominal exhibition activities continue in Chile • Permanent ESO exhibitions: at Deutsches Museum in Munich, MIM Interactive Museum, Antofagasta Ruinas de Huanchaca, Taltal, Paranal, La Silla etc. • Excellent temporary exhibitions to support ESO Representation towards decision-makers, like the CELAC-EU Summit • Visitor Centre at HQ (!)
The Visits • Media visits to sites: IMAX Hidden Universe, National Geographic World’s Toughest Fixes, Monster Moves, Quantum of Solace, etc. • VIP visits to sites: Summit of the Pacific Alliance, King of Spain, etc. • Almost 8000 public visitors/year to La Silla-Paranal.
The Visits: End-to-End • One entry point for most media visits: the media visits form • Thorough, consistent evaluation of the return on investment • All unusual requests are evaluated with the special untraditional visits evaluation workflow • Visibility benefits for ESO are being requested either informally or via an agreement (using a guideline) • All information, incl. Safety and release forms, now online in English and Spanish • Fun fact: a one-week media visit for 2 journalists costs us ~5000 euro to arrange and implement
The Web • Continuous development of our online EPO digital assets management system • Every single product we produce is published through this highly sophisticated, efficient and tailored system • Integrated with/leading the standardised ePOD workflows • Increase in numbers of resolved tasks with time • Impressive stats
Astronomical Images: End-to-End • Dedicated work producing stunning astronomical images: • Coordinated scouting of data from archives. • Astronomical image processing. • Conversion from FITS (“Liberation”) to bring out the best in the data. • Combination of multiple datasets. • Further cleaning, colours, and processing in Photoshop, using colour calibrated monitors. • These are often the best available outreach images of the astronomical target. • Acquisition through the Cosmic Gems project, v2 ongoing
Photos: End-to-End • Historical digitization project concluded • Acquisition through • Your ESO Pictures Flickr group • Photo Ambassadors • Media visits win-win partnerships • Evaluation for PotW, Online, Master archive • Colour Correction • Upload • Captioning + metadata • Very well-functioning workflow • 7803 images, 2133 videos
ESON 2013 • Representatives at national level in Member States and other countries. • Press releases now available in 19 languages • ESON “micro-sites” in 8 additional languages
ESON 2013 • Solid system, very successful, steadily expanding with new countries • Press releases Staging • Announcements Staging • PotW Staging • ESON is by far the best national network anywhere!
Closing words • After almost 5 years ePOD is at its halfway point in making ESO a household science brand • We now have a real End-to-End data-driven production • We have the best people in the business • We are still missing some crucial target groups and recently have had to down-prioritise those • We are feeling the economic austerity in the Members States • But we have exciting new projects • And we are on the right track and are well on the way • Partly thanks to your hard work! Thank you!