Startup weekends

Michael Nielsen finds yet another cool idea on the World Wide Web. Pawel Szczesny at Freelancing Science proposes that scientists try a "startup weekend." These gatherings typically take one of two forms. One is parallel working, where everyone is working on their own thing, but they feed on everyone else's energy. I've heard of places where you can rent a cubicle or desk to work alongside other people. Pawel is talking about the other type where you form a group and do a collaborative project. I'm not sure this idea would actually work. You can't do science in one weekend, so once the group splits up to go home, what's to keep the project from falling apart? Long-distance collaborations are very difficult.