I wonder how they're dealing with the issue of gated or subscription-only papers that are uploaded to the site.

It's not really an issue in an academic setting. Pretty much everyone has access already.

I think labmeeting is a great idea and also something which could be very useful.

Specifically, I believe there is a lot of value in breaking up the traditional research publication methods - Conferences, Papers, Journals and the costly (atleast for developing nations) access to this material controlled by a view publishing houses.

Research and collaboration needs to open up for everyone and should work freely over the internet rather centered around conferences etc. If labmeeting can enable something like that (which I guess is something its founders would have though about) it can very well change the way research is conducted.

I work here. I love helping scientists do important research more easily.

We have big plans and we could always use more help in making things better, faster. We're hiring: jobs@labmeeting.com .

where are you and what technology stack are you using?

We use Ruby on Rails. I prefer Django but learning Rails was trivial after having practiced with Django for the past 2 years. We use Python for a number of tools internally. Lucene for indexing, Lighttpd webserver, MySQL db. Standard stuff.

How do you recommend approaching Rails from a Django background?

edit: also your signup process doesn't work

Whois:

    Registrant:
       Mark Kaganovich
       xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
       palo alto, California 94306
       United States

I have a Ph.D. in physics ('05), and this looks to me like something that would have been really valuable during grad school. Unfortunately, I can't try it out because they insist on a current academic email address for registration.

How did you make the transition from Physics to Hacking? I just finished my Physics PhD (along with a MS in CS) and have been pondering this move for a while... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I think scientists need a social network more than anyone...not so much a completely social network but definitely a professionally focused social network like this one.

A year from now, when we realize that no scientific progress has been made in months, we'll look back and curse this announcement.

Just sayin'.

(This post brought to you entirely in jest, because some people here are apparently confused.)

There are also some other "professional networks for scientists" out there. Some friends of mine have started epernicus.com, and I've seen some others, too.

pointless idea + bored engineers + tenuous market = WHY?

market i don't understand + non-programmer people's existing problems that i don't know anything about = troll-like comment.

last time i looked hypertext was invented to help CERN scientists discuss and share their results. i think that worked out well.

I do not think the idea is pointless. I want something like this. I have a ton of academic papers in pdf format that I find hard to manage. It's the webmynd style augmented memory type of functionality that I would find most valuable.

For the love of Jehovah... please, please no more social networks.