u k o l n feb 08
DESCRIPTION
Talk given at UKOLN, University of Bath on 26 Febrary 2008TRANSCRIPT
A Beginner’s Guide to Open Science:
Not for beginners but by beginners
Cameron NeylonSTFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and
School of Chemistry, University of Southampton
Open [oh-puhn ] (adjective) not closed…having no means of closing or barring…relatively free of obstruction…without restrictions as to who may participate…undecided; unsettled… (from Dictionary.com)
‘Malaria kills 3000 children a day’
‘33 million people are living with HIV’
Image from WikiMedia Commons
90% of publicly funded research is unavailable[?]
For commercial drug research this figures is…
Image from WikiMedia Commons
Can we use the resources we have in both knowledge and expertise more effectively to make people’s lives better?
Image from WikiMedia Commons
Funding bodies telling us to Finding your own data
Access and communication
Pragmatic Reasons
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
What am I
thinking?
What am I
reading?
What am I doing?
What does it mean?
What have I done?
How do I justify it?
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
Decide to go out on
Saturday
Where is the best place to
go?
Email parents for more
cash
Photos, video, Twitter
Blog, YouTube, Facebook
Discuss and tag photos
and video
What am I
thinking?
What am I
reading?
What am I doing?
What does it mean?
What have I done?
How do I justify it?
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
Blogs
Wikis
Connotea, Citeulike, Zotero
GoogleDocs, ThinkFree
What am I
thinking?
What am I
reading?
What am I doing?
What does it mean?
What have I done?
How do I justify it?
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
What am I thinking?
What does the
data mean?
http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~redfieldindex.html
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
What am I
reading?
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
What am I
reading?
http://openwetware.org/wiki/Nxsib:community/papers
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
What am I doing?
http://usefulchem.wikispaces.com
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
What am I doing?
http://chemtools.chem.soton.ac.uk/projects/blogs/blogs.php/blog_id/10
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
• Open call for participants on Blog
• Collaborative writing on GoogleDocs.
• Concept to submitted proposal in five dayshttp://blog.openwetware.org/scienceintheopen/
2007/12/12/the-open-research-network-proposal-update-and-reflections/
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
Blogs
Wikis
Connotea, Citeulike, Zotero
GoogleDocs, ThinkFree
IdeaResearch
areaGet
fundingRecordwork
Processdata
Publish
Blogs
Wikis
Connotea, Citeulike, Zotero
GoogleDocs, ThinkFree
Lab notebook
Lab notebook
Descriptive Blog
RSS Feed
Search
RSS FeedSearch
Lab notebook
Blog
Lab notebook
Blog
Lab notebook
Lab notebook
Technology• Pieces are (mostly) in place• Easy to use glueware is not available• Agreement on semantics and tags required
But• Much of this can be done with RSS, search, and filters
Data portability and standards on tagging and ID are critical
Open ID, RSS, XML, microformats, and flexible metadata can solve many of these problems
Graphical filtering and mashup tools
Benefits• Enhanced communication• Better record keeping• Better data archival
Risks• Looking stupid• Being ‘scooped’• Publication?• IP?
The potential is there to do better and more efficient research
The tools need more work but the culture needs more work again
Prospects for Open Science?
DevelopmentJeremy Frey, Andrew Milsted, Steve Wilson, Jenny Hale, Wendy Smith
IdeasJean-Claude Bradley, Jeremiah Faith, Michael Barton, Deepak Singh, Bill Hooker, Pedro Beltrao, Shirley Wu, Ricardo Vidal, Mat Todd, Antony Williams, Peter Murray-Rust… ‘The Open Science Collective’
Acknowledgements
Courtesy XKCD online comic xkcd.com