Interview
Relaunching the academic seminar
Andrew Preston and Ben Kaube tell us about their new venture Cassyni, which is aimed at shaking up the world of academic seminars
Tell us a little about your background and qualifications... Andrew Preston: We both have backgrounds in academic research. Coincidentally we spent several years working on the same niche piece of software in the same niche of physics (seminar) without ever meeting. It was only after we had moved on and been working together in the business world for some time that we made the connection. Our time doing research gave us first-hand insight into the problems faced by the research community and the potential for technology to make a positive impact. This experience is what gave us the insights to found our previous startups Publons (Andrew) and Newsflo and Kopernio (Ben).
Ben Kaube: Andrew and I met at Clarivate after Publons and Kopernio (now EndNote Click) were acquired in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Working closely with the Web of Science and EndNote teams, we had the privilege of scaling our products into platforms that make a positive impact on the professional lives of millions of researchers. Between us we are lucky to have experienced the research world from just about every angle, from researcher roles like completing PhDs and working as a practicing researcher, through to building startups in this space, and then to working at leading companies like Clarivate and Elsevier.
What have you been up to since we last spoke? AP: Ben and I both left Clarivate at different points in 2020. I took some time off for the birth of my daughter in November before travelling back to New
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Zealand for several months to spend time with family. As Covid continued to progress we began thinking about new problems faced by researchers. It is quite clear that it has provided a shock to the system that has changed the way researchers and their institutions view travel around the world. Even in New Zealand, which has escaped the pandemic relatively unscathed, I saw a lot of discussion about how to remove geographic barriers and remain connected with the global research community, now that Covid and concerns about climate change have made regular travel more challenging.
‘There is no record of any of this happening, resulting in lost knowledge and limited reach and impact’
BK: One area that got us excited was the academic seminar. More than a million academic research seminars are held each year. They are a critical part of research culture, with a heritage spanning hundreds of years. Seminars are a place where ideas are discussed, developed and disseminated, and yet there is no record of any of this happening, resulting in lost knowledge and limited reach and impact.
When Covid struck, many of these
seminars went online and on to a patchwork of Zoom, YouTube and Google Drive, causing all sorts of challenges for
AP: We are just getting started, and have been validating our idea with key partners, but already seeing a great response from
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organisers and participants. One upshot of going virtual has been the removal of a lot of the geographic barriers that have historically existed around seminars. We got interested in this space and began to work with researchers at Imperial College London and Texas A&M to learn more about what goes into organising and running a successful seminar series, and to think about what we could do to empower more researchers to spin up their own seminar series.
Tell us about Cassyni. How will it benefit the research community? AP: The idea is to ‘relaunch’ the academic seminar. We’ve built a tool that removes the pain and back and forth of seminar organisation. Researchers can kick off a series in minutes and never have to worry about scheduling or collecting bio and abstract details from speakers. We integrate directly with Zoom and provide a great online experience, and once the seminar is over we make it possible to edit and publish it on Cassyni with a DOI, so that seminars become a formal part of the sphere of human knowledge – a complement to the published literature.
BK: The idea is to build a vibrant and connected ecosystem that enables millions of online (and hybrid) seminars. We aim to remove the geographic barriers to seminars, allowing existing and entirely new discussions to happen online, without the need for additional travel and to ultimately build something along the lines of a Web of Science for seminars.
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