Comments on: Freelancing science – today and tomorrow

By: Barney

Barney — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:41:16 +0000

Do you know if there is any company that offers free lancing work for bench based scientists? As on terms of working on projects in an ad-hoc way. The scientist would be self employed and would dedicate set times to projects each month. The company paying for the scientist would only pay per hour and expenses. Costs less than an agency and less than full time employees. Obviously bench based scientists would have to utilise their area of experience but do you think there is space in the Market for this kind of approach to work?

By: Science in the Open » Blog Archive » The science exchange

Science in the Open » Blog Archive » The science exchange — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:03:43 +0000

[...] Networks on how to enable collaboration occurred almost at the same time as Pawel Szczeny was blogging on freelance science. I then hooked up with Pawel to solve a problem in my research; as far as we know the first example [...]

By: Pawel Szczesny

Pawel Szczesny — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 17:27:40 +0000

Thank you Richard. I’m not freelancing anymore (http://freelancingscience.com/2008/12/09/end-of-freelancing-as-scientist-for-now/), but I still think such approach is a great way to free oneself from administration. It has bunch of other issues (email me if you want to know some details), so I’m already thinking about some other path to explore.

By: Richard Haigh

Richard Haigh — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:50:34 +0000

I find your story inspirational. I would love the independence and risks of working for myself. I currently work in applied physics/engineering in academia, even though my work is industrially funded, and I bring significant funding into the institution I still find that there is a lot of administrative interferance to my working day. Some of this administrmania can be quite pernisous. Presumably your independence would go some way to isolating you from this?

By: Liza Loop

Liza Loop — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 20:46:23 +0000

I’m so glad to find this blog. Some of us don’t fit either the corporate or the academic model but we’re still good scientists – maybe better than those who have cut off our corners to stuff ourselves into round holes…

My new little company is addressing one problem freelance scientists have in the US. High speed internet connectivity is very hard to come by outside of institutions. So, my partner, David Gjerdrum, and I have created Fiber High, an incubator that has a direct fiber connection to the Pacific optical fiber network.

In our space, you can grab a cubicle, plug in your computer and get to work. Fiber High provides 40 Mbps internet on your desk, a new kitchenette with refrigerator, microwave, coffee maker and dishwasher; a comfortable lounge area and shared conference room, all bundled with the base rent of $450 per month for an 8 x 8 furnished space. We also have an on-site collocation facility and VoIP telephone as well as IT support available at very reasonable prices.

Because we’re so small, we don’t need fancy air conditioning or a massive electrical service so we were able to set up in a low rent former furniture repair shop. We’re much “greener” than other places because of our lower energy requirements and devotion to reusing items whenever possible. For example, local failing businesses gave us their used cubicles just for hauling them away. David knows computer networking from the ground up so we were able to do all of the wiring and set up the collocation site ourselves. We haunt the computer “junk” stores for old server boxes we can upgrade and put back into service. All this means we can offer a landing spot to freelancers for about one tenth the cost of executive suites or fancier incubators.

We’d like to see the Fiber High model replicated all over the world. What do you think? Is this needed? In the US? Elsewhere? If you reply on this blog, send me a personal link too because I don’t get here very often. Otherwise, here’s how to reach me:

Liza Loop, Fiber High, LLC
989 Commercial St., Palo Alto, CA, 94303 USA
650 964 5623 (messages), 650 619 1099 (direct)
liza@fiberhigh.com
http://www.fiberhigh.com

By: Envisioning the scientific community as One Big Lab « I was lost but now I live here

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:50:01 +0000

[...] science of science. Cameron’s own musings on that discussion. Pawel Szczesny writes about what it means to be a freelancing scientist. All of this is fascinating and it is exciting to contemplate both what the future of science holds [...]

By: Open science 0.9 beta « A Man With A Ph.D.

Open science 0.9 beta « A Man With A Ph.D. — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:08:28 +0000

By: Open science 0.9 beta

Open science 0.9 beta — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:00:52 +0000

By: Science in the open » The science exchange

Science in the open » The science exchange — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:24:00 +0000

By: Pawel Szczesny

Pawel Szczesny — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 10:39:49 +0000

Kay, Ntino, thanks for comments.

Kay, I’m pretty aware of limits one is facing as a consultant (I started to research the topic after reading your blog posts). That’s why academic affiliation is something I’m not willing to give away just like that – it makes enourmous difference in everyday scientific work. Concerning the grant agencies in Germany, it’s probably the same everywhere – that’s why I opt so strongly for non-academic funding, where these things like degree and such doesn’t matter that much.
BTW, I realized that I’m typing this only 250km from your location (I’m doing my PhD in Germany, remotely of course, and till the end of the week I’m writing a paper with my supervisor in here ).

Ntino, I think it really depends on the area and one’s interests. While in general being a big shot means not enough time for coding stuff by yourself, I know few cases where a head of department/institute hides for few hours a week to play with his old fortran code…