Slides from a talk given at the STM Innovation Seminar in London, on 3 December 2010. Similar material to "Discovery Deficit" talk given at RLUK but focussed more on STM publishers and with some new examples.

1. The Gatekeeper is dead!
Long live the Gatekeeper!
STM Innovation Seminar 3 December 2010, London

2. Thankyou Clay Shirkey.
Now where’s my **** filter?

3. Some of the people
who contributed to
this presentation...

4. @communicating Plausible Accuracy PIERRE LINDENBAUM Mummi Thorissson
John Fabiana Kubke Richard Grant Pedro Beltrao
Neil Saunders Steve Wilson @gnat Branwen Hide Simon Coles
Dupuis Simon Philips Pawel Szcsesny Paul Miller
Tony Hey Jeremy Frey Nico Adams Richard Akerman Cavalli Gabriel
JonMat Todd Stephen BrennerTim O’Reilly Noel Gorelick
Dave de Roure Rich Apodaca
Udell ISIS LSS Group Jeremiah Faith Jean-Claude Bradley
Nicholas Cole
Michael Barton JOHN WILLINSKY Phil Lord Victoria
Stodden Martyn Bull
Stephen Friend David CrottyClay Shirky @t John Cumbers
Bora Chris Leonard Grace BaynesEva Amsen Egon
Willighagen Mark Borkum
Brian Kelly Tony Williams Dan Hagon Maxine Clarke Andrew Milsted
Zivkovic Mitch Koch Lab Michael Nielsen
Martin Fenner Steph Hannon
WaldropGreg Wilson Brian Matthews Leigh Dodds Bill Hooker
Glyn Moody Yaroslav Nikolaev Jenny Rohn Rafael Sidi Lee Smolin
Frank NormanRicardo Vidal Iain Emsley Paulo Nuin Ariel Waldmann
Timo HannayKen Shankland Lorie LeJeune
Jonathan Gray PT Sefton
Microsoft STFC Deepak Singh Shirley Wu ISIS Computing Group Helen Berman
Andrew Peter Binfield Benjamin Good Dorothea Salo Liz Lyons PLoS
Kasarskis Jen Dodd Lee Dirks Peter Murray-Rust Richard Akerman
Carole Goble Jon Eisen Jenny Hale Lakshmi Shastry Steve Koch NPG Ben Goldacre
Chad OrzelBill Flanagan Jon Tansley Michael Eisen Matt Wood
SciFoo
2008/9
Friendfeed Hope Leman Rufus Pollock Victor HenningGoogle Björn Brembs
Jo BadgeAllyson Lister Lisa Green TIM HUBBARD Rebecca Goulding
campers Euan Adie John Andy Powell Harry Collins Gavin Bell Jim Downing
Matt Johnson Wilbanks Mike Ellis DUNCAN HULL Garret Lisi Jamie McQuay
ALAN CANN Catherine Jones Andrew Farke Gavin Baker Peter Suber
Sabine HossenfelderFlickr The BioGangKevin KellyPaul Walk
Arfon Smith
Kaitlin Thaney Richard Curry Atilla Csordas Ian Mulvany

7. Back to them later...

8. Me: A brief history

9. Finished highschool 1990...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elsie/105716382 CC-BY

10. Undergrad 1991-94

11. “You need to spend half a
day a week in the library
reading the new journals”
My project supervisor, 1994
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/486261295 CC-BY-SA

12. PhD 1995-99

14. http://web.archive.org/web/19990421174831/www.sciencemag.org/

15. http://web.archive.org/web/19990208214440/http://ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

17. Over the course of my PhD...

18. ...info retrieval went from...

19. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevecadman/486261295 CC-BY-SA

20. ...to...

22. The last generation to
remember “the library”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jhoweaa/436923541 CC-BY

23. ...to think of journals
as printed objects...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moria/212136629 CC-BY

24. http://www.flickr.com/photos/polaroidia/4301528813 CC-BY
...to physically search

25. Who are you?

26. “The mission of STM is to create a platform for
exchanging ideas and information and to
represent the interest of the STM publishing
community in the fields of copyright, technology
developments, and end user/library relations.”

27. ...publishing industry...?

28. So where can
you add value?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/picsbycam/3564466980 CC-BY

29. We share a problem
http://www.flickr.com/photos/schnurrbart/43568532 CC-BY-SA

30. Too much stuff...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/miczanin/4726970804 CC-BY-SA

31. Too little resource

32. For me the resource is...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robbie73/3387189144 CC-BY-SA

33. ...for you it is...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mukumbura/4052671706 CC-BY-SA

34. Information overload...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanroscover/3450505729 CC-BY-SA

35. Filter failure?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveyll/332723930

36. http://www.flickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2247299538 CC-BY

37. Filters block.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperley3/4705354106 CC-BY-SA

38. You think this is
a good thing...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robmcm/1671702203 CC-BY-SA

39. ...you’re “protecting your
community from a deluge”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrehan00/3700858676 CC-BY-SA

40. ...keeping us on the
straight and narrow...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/quinnanya/4813974125 CC-BY

41. Or are we just limiting
our ability to explore...?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/2174000357 CC-BY

42. Filters block.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperley3/4705354106 CC-BY-SA

43. The right filter for me?
Right filter for now?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lotzman/3595748169 CC-BY

44. In the last year...?
http://flickr.com/photos/stewart/461099066/

45. ...in the past 24 hours?

46. On Google I set the filter...
...in your journal it’s hidden

47. An example.

49. http://totallysynthetic.com/blog/?p=1903

50. “Retracted for scientific reasons...”

51. ...even though its a useful reaction

52. ...even if I am interested in
oxidation by contaminants

53. To get the whole picture...

55. ...and its getting worse

56. Retractions per 100k papers
30
Retractions per 100k publications
25
20
15
10
5
0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
https://github.com/neilfws/PubMed/blob/master/data/retractions.txt

57. Your filter has failed me...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/richardmoross/3947406286 CC-BY

58. Crude. Binary. Inappropriate.

59. A gatekeeper is needed
in a broadcast world...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m0dlx/506786451 CC-BY-SA

60. Someone had to choose...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/baccharus/4473818003 CC-BY

61. Today is different...

62. ...we can’t reduce the flow...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bladeflyer/442496389 CC-BY

63. We need to recognise the
world looks like this...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fraz5356/4754482759 CC-BY

64. Floods of information...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/4289349768 CC-BY

65. ...content from all directions
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/4418399902 CC-BY

66. http://www.flickr.com/photos/62337512@N00/3958637561 CC-BY
...and embrace that
as a good thing...

67. http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavinsky/3410980137 CC-BY

68. Every book its reader...
Ranganathan’s third
law of libraries

69. Every book its reader...
Ranganathan’s third
law of libraries

70. And today it is
technically feasible

71. All we need to do
is connect them...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrian_s/8271860 CC-BY

72. It’s not filter failure
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperley3/4705354106 CC-BY-SA

73. A discovery deficit...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationallibrarynz_commons/4078337883 Public Domain

74. Is search the answer?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezioman/2095747903 CC-BY

75. A blunt instrument...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kylemay/1430449350 CC-BY

76. ...not every problem is a nail
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bb_matt/207102083 CC-BY

77. So is there an answer?

78. Remember this graph?
30
Retractions per 100k publications
25
20
15
10
5
0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
https://github.com/neilfws/PubMed/blob/master/data/retractions.txt

79. Remember this graph?
30
Retractions per 100k publications
25
20
15
10
5
0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
Year
https://github.com/neilfws/PubMed/blob/master/data/retractions.txt
Where did it come from...?

80. http://friendfeed.com/gbilder/711e6278/so-how-many-retractions-are-there-every-year

82. Remember these people?

83. @communicating Plausible Accuracy PIERRE LINDENBAUM Mummi Thorissson
John Fabiana Kubke Richard Grant Pedro Beltrao
Neil Saunders Steve Wilson @gnat Branwen Hide Simon Coles
Dupuis Simon Philips Pawel Szcsesny Paul Miller
Tony Hey Jeremy Frey Nico Adams Richard Akerman Cavalli Gabriel
JonMat Todd Stephen BrennerTim O’Reilly Noel Gorelick
Dave de Roure Rich Apodaca
Udell ISIS LSS Group Jeremiah Faith Jean-Claude Bradley
Nicholas Cole
Michael Barton JOHN WILLINSKY Phil Lord Victoria
Stodden Martyn Bull
Stephen Friend David CrottyClay Shirky @t John Cumbers
Bora Chris Leonard Grace BaynesEva Amsen Egon
Willighagen Mark Borkum
Brian Kelly Tony Williams Dan Hagon Maxine Clarke Andrew Milsted
Zivkovic Mitch Koch Lab Michael Nielsen
Martin Fenner Steph Hannon
WaldropGreg Wilson Brian Matthews Leigh Dodds Bill Hooker
Glyn Moody Yaroslav Nikolaev Jenny Rohn Rafael Sidi Lee Smolin
Frank NormanRicardo Vidal Iain Emsley Paulo Nuin Ariel Waldmann
Timo HannayKen Shankland Lorie LeJeune
Jonathan Gray PT Sefton
Microsoft STFC Deepak Singh Shirley Wu ISIS Computing Group Helen Berman
Andrew Peter Binfield Benjamin Good Dorothea Salo Liz Lyons PLoS
Kasarskis Jen Dodd Lee Dirks Peter Murray-Rust Richard Akerman
Carole Goble Jon Eisen Jenny Hale Lakshmi Shastry Steve Koch NPG Ben Goldacre
Chad OrzelBill Flanagan Jon Tansley Michael Eisen Matt Wood
SciFoo
2008/9
Friendfeed Hope Leman Rufus Pollock Victor HenningGoogle Björn Brembs
Jo BadgeAllyson Lister Lisa Green TIM HUBBARD Rebecca Goulding
campers Euan Adie John Andy Powell Harry Collins Gavin Bell Jim Downing
Matt Johnson Wilbanks Mike Ellis DUNCAN HULL Garret Lisi Jamie McQuay
ALAN CANN Catherine Jones Andrew Farke Gavin Baker Peter Suber
Sabine HossenfelderFlickr The BioGangKevin KellyPaul Walk
Arfon Smith
Kaitlin Thaney Richard Curry Atilla Csordas Ian Mulvany

88. Social aggregation...

89. ...but also...

90. http://friendfeed.com/gbilder/711e6278/so-how-many-retractions-are-there-every-year

92. Social annotation

93. ...but also...

94. http://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/analysis-of-retractions-in-pubmed/

95. http://nsaunders.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/analysis-of-retractions-in-pubmed/

96. A network of linked objects...

97. Primed for discovery...

98. http://www.flickr.com/photos/qnr/1263648697 CC-BY-SA
Each interaction adds value...

99. ...and each
interaction
measures
value...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/3209939998 CC-BY

100. ...adding pieces to my collection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klmircea/3210506796 CC-BY-SA

101. ...indexing and curating
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koalazymonkey/3650487959 CC-BY

102. My collection.

103. My collection.
Not your collection.

104. My filters.
Not your filters.

105. ?

106. Simply connect.

107. People with content...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrosimoes7/2382514343 CC-BY

108. ...content with content...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nufkin/243437309 CC-BY

109. ...but above all...

110. Connect people with people
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3088582622

111. The gatekeeper is dead...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/461251265 CC-BY-SA

112. We are the gatekeeper...
...all of us

113. Enable. Don’t block.

114. Build platforms.
Not destinations.

115. Sell services.
Not content.

116. Don’t think about filtering.
Don’t think about control.

117. Enable discovery.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joiseyshowaa/2374526016 CC-BY

118. cn@cameronneylon.net
http://cameronneylon.net
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.