Research stadium

Research tends to be something you do on your own. Lots of shuffling around libraries, looking up big card files, slow and boring. Well, it used to be slow and boring. Now you can pop on the internet and do the same thing in about ten minutes. It's a skill every researcher has developed, individually, over the last few years.

I have almost no idea how other people do it. I have my own favourite indicies, my own ways of chosing keywords, and so on.

Okay then, here's the idea (cue music): Research Stadium! Watch virtuoso acts of information retrieval! Watch people juggle multiple parallel search queries! Gasp in awe at a well chosen keyword! Who's skills shall rein supreme?

Rules:

Contestants all submit a research question as a wiki page before the event (no peeking!).

Each contestant is randomly allocated one of these questions (not their own).

Each contestant has 10 minutes to find web-sites and papers that answer the question, and put links to these pages on the question wiki page.

Contest performed in a seminar room or lecture theater, with computer screen projected on the wall so the audience can see how contestants do their thing in real time.

Audience/other contestants vote on most virtuoso performance, best answer. Prizes awarded.

A bit of fun, and a way for everyone to learn new tricks. For better viral skill propogation, make sure to have cross-over contests between disparate social groups, eg Campus vs Campus, academics vs postgrads, Arts vs Science.