TRB Annual Meeting 2010

The first TRB annual meeting of the decade started out with a bang (lots of construction noise at our committee meeting) and went out with a bang (two of our sponsored sessions were recorded as e-sessions). Co-chair Larry Orcutt and I are working to firm up the notes from the committee meeting (mainly due to the aforementioned construction noise) and will get those out soon. In the meantime, I have updated the calendar on the committee wiki. You'll notice that the deadlines related to program planning for the 2011 annual meeting are highlighted. Once, one annual meeting is over, it's time to start planning the next.

Check out Transportation Research Collaboration

What Is It?

Transportation Research Collaboration (TRC) is a Microsoft Sharepoint site which allows the transportation research community (researchers and research managers) to share information and to connect and collaborate on shared issues. Over time, we envision this as a repository of documents and work products that will become a collective set of best practices for planning, conducting, managing, and implementing transportation research projects.

Site Overview

This site is organized around the following concepts:

• Setting the Research Agenda – Share information about your research needs, priorities, selection processes and timelines, and learn about those of other organizations.
• Collaborating in Research Activities – Share and learn about tools for collaborative partnership, and ways to connect with others who share your research goals.
• Carrying Out Research – How you can manage your projects and programs to maximize your research investment.
• Delivering Results/Communicating Value – Ways you can ensure research lives beyond the project, and makes a difference in transportation practice.
• Team Collaboration -- The vision for this section is to create a space for research committees and teams to have a place to collaborate and share products for the broader research community to use.

The Audience

The target audience of this site includes transportation researchers, research mangers, and transportation committee members.

Site Functions

This site’s functionality is similar to a regular website but with the added capability to collaborate and share information with professionals within the transportation research community.

• Add a link or announcement, participate in a group discussion, download a document- Any site visitors are given this permission.
• Post a document – A user account is required in order to add documents in existing lists and libraries in the areas of interest.
• Create a collaboration area - A unique sub-site for collaboration can be created by us for team collaboration.

If you would like to get a user account so that you can contribute content, please contact Frank Law (Frank.law@dot.ca.gov) at Caltrans.

Related Sites

• Professional Networking for Transportation Research Collaboration: www.transportationresearch.ning.com
• Transportation Collaboration, USDOT NTL and RITA: www.transportationresearch.gov
• Transportation Research Collaboration” Group on LinkedIn
  

If you or your organization would like to become involved and help set the direction of this effort, please contact Linda Preisen (lpreisen@umn.edu), Co-Chair, AASHTO RAC-TRB Conduct of Research Web Collaboration and Coordination Subcommittee.

The buzz from TRB

Having experienced several committee meetings for the Research and Education Section, I keep hearing the same words over again, like:

• Cooperation
• International
• Collaboration
• Interactivity
• New technologies
• Limited resources
• Unable to travel.

We had as productive a committee meeting as we possibly could have with loud construction going on. Thanks to the committee members and friends who soldiered on with all the distractions. Co-chair Larry Orcutt and I will be following through with notes from the meetings and an update of our strategic plan.

Our last session is tomorrow. Check out New Media Communications in Transportation from 8 to 9:45 a.m. in the Hilton, Lincoln East.

Missed Everything You Need to Know about Web 2.0?

This will be available as a TRB “e-Session” for the 2010 Annual Meeting. The e-Session recording will include a video of the presenter at the podium, and audio synchronized with the visual aid (i.e. .ppt, .pdf, etc). The recordings will be available to rent as on-demand video (view-only) starting on Monday, January 25, 2010.

Sunday at TRB off to a great start

Sunday at TRB was chock full of great T2 events. My day started off at the Everything You Need to Know about Web 2.0: Using Communication and Collaboration to Improve Transportation” workshop. I caught Andrew Krzmarzick from GovLoop.com. GovLoop is a social network for government (all kinds). Check out the Transportation 2.0 group. They’ve got discussions as well as information from TRB.

Georgene Geary from GeorgiaDOT related some very practical information about implementing Web 2.0 in a state DOT. Kendra Levine shared her www.MashTrans.org site with us. Check it out for some really fascinating uses of Web 2.0 technology.

Then it was off to the Shoreham for Communicating the Value of Research and Accelerating Innovation for Transportation Professionals. T2 Committee Larry Orcutt organized this session and brought together the experts in communications and innovation. The workshop was centered around two new efforts – NCHRP Project 20-78 “Communicating the Value of Research Training” and the National Highway Institute course, “Leap not Creep: Accelerating Innovation Implementation.” Speakers included committee members Ann Overton and Rukhsana Kahn Lindsey.

Unfortunately I had to leave right when the discussion was getting lively to attend the new and young attendees welcome session. If you want to get energized about transportation and TRB, just spend a few minutes with these folks. The crowd was mostly young and international and they were eager to learn about TRB. As you go about your day at TRB, be sure to say hi to attendees with a while new attendee badge and welcome them yourself.

My day ended with an overview of what’s happening in the exhibit hall. It seems like every year there are more and more exhibits. After hitting the highlights and seeing old friends, I’ll have to get back.

I hope to see all the T2 fans at the committee meeting on Tuesday. --- lisa