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The Web as a Tool
Rather Than a Threat

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidcjones/1422043515

About me.

I live in Bath
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andypowe11/3915450391

I work at RAL

I get up in the morning
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andypowe11/3251538402

...and catch a train
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbuck007/3710451826

...and a bus

I work on...
Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons
Succinate_Dehydrogenase_1YQ3_and_Membrane.png MGMT BDNA_1T38.png

...and get to do cool stuff

Mixture of small-lab work...

...and big facility experiments

Lots of reading...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/loty/326761635

...meetings...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/38961674

...too much travel...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22819720@N02/2306780847

...which leads to
too much of this

http://flickr.com/photos/cliche/120070310/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/38961674

http://www.flickr.com/photos/loty/326761635

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattbuck007/3710451826

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andypowe11/3251538402

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22819720@N02/2306780847

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidcjones/1422043515

The first step...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laprimadonna/3611292727/

...is to admit we have
http://www.flickr.com/photos/schnurrbart/43568532/ CC-BY-SA

Submissions to Genbank
100,000,000,000
75,000,000,000
50,000,000,000
25,000,000,000
0
1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006

Average Capacity of Human Scientist
5.00
3.75
2.50
1.25
0
1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006

The human scientist
(that’s us)
Does. Not. Scale.

The web scales

Those things you hate
about the web?

...these just show how
well the web scales

The web is full of pieces of
other people’s work

I iz ur band
hangin in
ur gel
...so why doesn’t
this work better
for science?

Partly the tools...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hinkelstone/1357630710

...size of the community...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/craigcloutier/3818784742

...and attitude
http://flickr.com/photos/zanotti/314391903/ CC-BY

Let’s start with the tools...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flattop341/1085739925

Are there any good web
tools for science...?

Literature management

...but this is just
aggregation

Where’s the network?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/2515255357

Question #1

Does it do something useful?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vrogy/514733529

If it doesn’t. It isn’t.

Question #2

Does it work for your group?

If it doesn’t work here...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/2476519142

...then it won’t work here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-SA

Question #3

Is there a community that
is useful to you there?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/3746501010

http://search.twitter.com/search?q=stephen_curry+cameronneylon

...and if not are you
prepared to build one?

The skill for the 21st
century scientist?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriapeckham/164175205

Network wiring and maintenance
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sneddon/2415792655

A lot of the noise...

...is maintaining connections

You have to build it...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/2515255357

Founder effects.

But does it work?

An assertion.

I am made aware of every
significant document released
and every funding opportunity in
Europe and North America
relating to web based social
tools for science, open access
publication, and data policies
within 48 hours of their release.

Without active searching.

http://friendfeed.com

http://tinyurl.com/dku869

Pulling items from external services via RSS

A shared social net

Sharing the load
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2941559903 CC-BY

http://tinyurl.com/friendfeed-mthk-request

27 January 2009
http://gowers.wordpress.com/

27 January 2009
February 1 2009
http://gowers.wordpress.com/

27 January 2009
February 1 2009
March 10 2009
http://gowers.wordpress.com/ Nature, 15 October 2009

Hundreds of thousands...

http://onschallenge.wikispaces.com/Exp026

http://tinyurl.com/ons-challenge-spreadsheet

http://oru.edu/cccda/sl/descriptorspace/ds.php

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Drexel/165/178/24

200 individual measurements
(plus 70 literature values)
20 researchers in four countries
One undergraduate chemistry class
$6000 funding (for prizes and chemicals)

Beautiful Data
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Rapid.

Efficient.

Superficial?

Lost in the stream...
http://flickr.com/photos/jason_burmeister/2053139930 CC-BY

http://flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/316200555/ CC-BY

But if your objects are not
open and available?

The more you publish, the more
embedded in the network

Small, specific, examples.
Relatively, few big wins

And limited to certain domains

100%
50%

100%
50%

100%
50%

100%
50%

100%
50%

100%
50%

100%
We are still around here...
50%

...but the network is growing

4
3
50%
2
1

100%
50%

4
3
50%
2
1

So what to do?

What is your problem?

Is there a good tool?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flattop341/1085739925

Does it suit you/your group?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/micha2305/2706588290/

Is there a community?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laffy4k/88836657

Are you willing to build one?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nihilenz/2545518545

Choose to publish more

This is not going away

Learn to cope.

Threat or opportunity?

Cameron.Neylon@stfc.ac.uk
http://blog.openwetware.org/scienceintheopen
http://slideshare.net/cameronneylon
Twitter: @cameronneylon
Friendfeed: cameronneylon
Thanks to:
Sciencetwists, Friendfeeders, and the wider online
community for ideas, criticism, and conversations.
Deepak Singh, Larry Lessig, Andy Powell, and
John Wilbanks for presentation inspiration.
Flickr (and in particular @andypowe11) for images