Are these the heroes we need?

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First rule of criticism: balance it with something positive.

Technical societies — AAPG, SEG, SPE, EAGE, and the many others — do important work in our discipline. They publish some quality content, they organize a lot of meetings, and they help attract talent to work in subsurface science and engineering.

The door is wide open for them to play a central role in the change that’s coming to our lives as subsurface professionals.

Second rule of criticism: stick to the facts.

In spite of their central role in many scientists’ professional lives, and the magnitude of the changes that are underway, technical societies have struggled to maintain relevance and therefore members. It’s hard to know the extent of the problem, as AAPG doesn’t report how many members it has (it’s been “approximately 30,000” for years) and SEG stopped reporting numbers in 2017. Make of that what you will.

Anecdotally, many of my friends have let their memberships lapse. I have too.

Third rule of criticism: avoid negative language.

AAPG came up with a couple of cool superheroes. They commissioned some artwork: two fit, handsome geologists, ready for anything. Their names? Trap Mitchell and Alluvia Hunt.

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The laudable appearance of a woman — a non-white woman! — in this context rightly prompted praise:

How appalling is it that a geoscientist had to wait 23 years to see a female geoscientist take centre stage like this? I’m embarrassed by that. Kudos to AAPG for that decision.

Kudos which we have to partially revoke, unfortunately. Because the decision, if it was a decision, to change Alluvia’s skin colour in different situations is… well, it doesn’t look good. At best, it’s weird.

Fourth rule of criticism: be honest.

When I saw this dynamic duo, I rolled my eyes. Of course I did: I’m predisposed to criticize the technical societies and I’m a well-known marketing whiner. And as a scientist in Software Underground pointed out, it’s not targeted at me; she also found it uplifting. (Obvious in hindsight, but the whole point of my various privileges is that everything seems to be about me — it’s good to be reminded of our blindspots.)

But I’m trying to be positive here. I rolled my eyes because I think AAPG and the other societies can have a far-reaching and positive impact on our community, and on society. There is hard work to be done finding enough energy and raw materials for people to prosper.

The door is wide open

If AAPG wants to be part of the future, they have to figure out what ‘relevant’ means. Being relevant does not mean:

  • Promoting oil & gas exploration with dysmorphic Barbie & Ken super-hero cartoon characters.

  • Paywalled everything, especially journals and conference papers.

  • Awards named after men and given to mostly men. And don’t get me started on ‘Distinguished’ people.

  • Doing all the other things you’ve always done which have led you to feel ‘not relevant’ today.

I would urge AAPG and all technical societies to consider becoming more relevant in some new ways:

  • Understand that oil & gas, while certainly important to society today, needs to end. The sooner the better.

  • Realize that subsurface professionals can contribute to society, and industry, in hundreds of other ways.

  • See that this change is going to require a massive educational effort, both for us, and for society.

  • Believe that we need to massively broaden our community if we are to have the impact we can have.

  • Remove barriers to knowledge by committing to open access content and open data.

  • Remove barriers to participation by welcoming and representing everyone with equity and compassion.

The days of the hero explorer — tanned and lean, chiselled and serious, whacking stuff with hammers — are gone. Really, they never existed, or at least they were accompanied by a masculine monoculture and a total neglect for the environment.

The future can be different. Ms Hunt and Trap can be part of it. I believe we all can. But it’s going to require hard work, uncomfortable decisions, and abrupt, profound change. The door is wide open for AAPG, SEG, EAGE, and the other technical societies, if they would only notice.

What do you think? Are Trap & Alluvia just a bit of fun that might attract a new generation? Or do our technical societies need a lot more than cartoon heros and heroines? Let us know in the comments.

The hacks are back

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We ran the first geoscience hackathon over 7 years ago in Houston. Since then we’ve hosted another 26 subsurface hackathons — that’s 175 projects, and over 900 hackers. Last year, 10 of the 11 hackathons that Agile* facilitated were in-house.

This is exciting. It means that grass-roots, creative, high-speed collaboration and technology development is possible inside large corporations. But it came at the cost of reducing our public events… and we want to bring the hackathon experience to everyone!

So this year, as well as helping execute a dozen or so in-house hackathons, we’ll be running and supporting more public hackathons too. So if you’ve been waiting for a chance to learn to code or try a social coding event, or just hang out with a lot of nerdy geoscientists and engineers — here’s your chance!

May: Geothermal Hackathon

The first event of the year is a new one for us. We’ll be at the World Geothermal Congress in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the last week of April. The second weekend, 2 and 3 May, we’ll be running a hackathon on machine learning for geothermal subsurface applications. Iceland is only a short flight from the rest of Europe and many places in North America, so if you fancy something completely different, this is for you! Find out more and sign up.

[An earlier version of this post had the event on the previous weekend.]

June: Subsurface Hackathon (USA)

We’re back in Houston in June! The AAPG ACE is there — clashing with EAGE unfortunately — and we’ll be holding a (completely unrelated) hackathon on the weekend before: 5 to 7 June. Enthought is hosting the event in their beautiful new Houston digs, and Dell EMC is there too as a major sponsor. The theme is Tools… It’s going to be a big one! Find out more and sign up.

We are running two public Python classes before this event. Check them out.

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June: Amstel Hack (Europe)

The brilliant Filippo Broggini (ETHZ) is running a European hackathon again this year, again right before EAGE — and therefore the same weekend as the Houston event: 6 and 7 June. The event is being hosted at Shell’s Technology Centre in Amsterdam, and is guaranteed to be awesome. If you’re going to EAGE, it’s a no-brainer. Find out more and sign up.

We are also running a public Python class before this event. Check it out.

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That’s it for now… I hope you can come to one of these events. If you’re just starting out on your technology journey, have no fear — these events are friendly and welcoming. If you can’t make any of them, don’t worry: there will be more in the autumn, so stay tuned. Or, if you want help making one happen at your company, get in touch.

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