gasexchange Podcast Interview now up

Our recent interview with Drs Nahel Saied and Raj Gupta from the 'World of Anesthesiology' podcast is now up. Either listen on-line or download in iTunes. Many thanks to both Nahel and Raj for an enjoyable discussion!

New FAQ up and podcast interview on the way

Just a quick post to let you know our new FAQ is up and on the web. It's much easier to read than the old one and covers the basics very clearly. If there is anything that anyone thinks needs explaining more clearly or that we haven't covered, please let us know via our contact page and we'll work on improving things.

Also, Daniel and I were both interviewed today by Dr Nahel Saied and Dr Raj Gupta who produce the World of Anesthesiology podcast. Look out for this on their website or on iTunes.

New simplified login for gasexchange

At gasexchange we have long been fans of the OpenID login system that is slowly gaining traction as a unified way of logging into multiple internet sites using only the one login and password. In theory it's great, and it has a wide breadth of support: Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Orange, WordPress to name a few. The open-nature of OpenID along with the focus on providing the user with control over his or her online identity is a noble goal and has great appeal.

These are the reasons that we were happy to initially use OpenID as the (only) method for managing user accounts on gasexchange.

But... for most internet users OpenID is still conceptually hard to understand at first glance. In response to several helpful suggestions from gasexchange users, we are now adding the option of a Plain Old Login™ that will co-exist alongside OpenID. Just as has been used before on many sites across the internet, you can now create a gasexchange account using only your email address, display name and password. While OpenID logins still exist, they are no longer the only way of logging in to gasexchange.

For registered users who currently use OpenID there is naturally no change. On the gasexchange login page simply click on the OpenID tab and enter your OpenID as before. If you somehow manage to create two logins or choose to use an OpenID login in the future, we can easily merge your accounts into one linked to both login methods.

Let's not get too caught up in the mechanics of logins and OpenID — at the end of the day our goal is to facilitate the growth and learning of an open and inclusive online anaesthesia community. Any change we make to gasexchange will always be focused on that singular goal!

Welcome new gasexchange users!

Wow! We have been blown away by the positive reception and great response from the many visitors and new users to gasexchange.

In only a short time we have had visitors from over 50 different countries, ranging from prominent anaesthesia communities in the US, UK, Asia and the European Union, to many other countries where anaesthetists and anesthesiologists practice: Turkey, Morocco, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Martinique, Israel, Russia, Argentina and many, many more.

There have now been visitors to gasexchange from every continent, sans Antarctica (and we're still hoping, given that continent's prominent place in anaesthesia folklore!).

Once again — thank you from the gasexchange team for your support, interest and energy!

Our next 2 screencasts are up

Just a quick update to let you all know that our next 2 screencasts are up. This completes our series of introductory screencasts. You can find them at gasexchange.com/screencasts.

The first of these covers asking and answering questions. This is a pretty basic topic, but as it is the core of what gasexchange is about, we thought it was worth a few minutes.

The second covers voting and reputation. This is a really important topic and will give you a good understanding of the role reputation plays on gasexchange. After watching it you'll understand the importance of voting for good questions and answers when you see them. It also touches briefly on the topic of badges.

Anyway, you'll get much more out of watching the screencasts than you will out of reading about them so go to our screencast page and start watching them!

Our first 2 screencasts are up

Firstly, a big welcome to our new users.

This is just a quick note to let you know that our first 2 screencasts are finished and available on gasexchange now. You can find them at gasexchange.com/screencasts.

The first screencast is an introduction to gasexchange. In this screencast we cover the basics of gasexchange including how to navigate the site, and the basics of reputation and tags. It's essential viewing for any new visitors to gasexchange!

The second screencast is arguably the more important. Here we show you how to register and create an account on gasexchange. Our system for doing this is a bit different to the usual website registration and that's why we've devoted an entire screencast to it. We use a system called OpenID. This gives you a generic login that you can use securely on thousands of websites all over the internet. If you already have an account with one of the big online email providers (like gmail or yahoo, but not hotmail) then you already have an OpenID that you can use on gasexchange. If you don't then don't worry, we show you how to get your own OpenID in this screencast.

If this all seems too complicated then don't worry. In the near future we plan on expanding our login system so you can create an account within gasexchange without using OpenID.

Anyway, there's much more information in the screencasts so I suggest you stop reading this and start watching our screencasts straight away!

Which audience?

Toiling away in secret as we slowly prepared gasexchange, Brad and I repeatedly asked ourselves "who is this actually for?"

We first answered by saying:

“ us ! ”

Our main motivation for creating gasexchange is to better maintain our own knowledge of our craft; to better continue our own medical education — and so that instead of further isolating us from our peers we build a community around a nidus of collected knowledge and opinion.

The trap of sharing knowledge and techniques only with those you work with — or even just those anaesthetists and intensivists with whom you share a country — is missing out on the most diverse, different and challenging aspects of our practice. Even today there exists fundamental aspects of our work that we each take for granted (cricoid pressure, reversal of muscle relaxants, cuffed paediatric tubes...) yet are practiced very differently across national borders.

When we work in isolation, evidence-free dogma clothes itself in the gown of accepted practice.

So we have built gasexchange to collect knowledge and establish a dialogue between like-minded anaesthetists, and most notably with those who are not like of mind. Courteous dissent is not tolerated, it is encouraged.

The first target tribe for gasexchange is consultant medical anaesthetists and anaesthesiologists — not because other groups are less important, but rather to establish a broad foundation of knowledge and domain experts who share the same interest and enthusiasm for the project. With time we hope there will be equal involvement from trainees, perfusionists, anaesthetic technicians, nurse anaesthetists, and other non-medical anaesthetists fostering the diversity that fuels our specialty.

For now, jump in, sign up and have some fun.