The document summarizes a proposal for Tinnitusbook, an online community for tinnitus researchers. It describes similar existing communities like the Alzheimer Research Forum and Stembook.org. Tinnitusbook would connect researchers and patients to facilitate collaboration and rapid progress in tinnitus research. It would provide resources like publications, annotations, discussions, and links to genes/proteins. Existing software and experience creating other communities could help establish Tinnitusbook.

1. 3rd Tinnitus Research Initiative Meeting 24-26 June 2009, Stresa, Italy
Tinnitusbook: a proposal for an
advanced scientific web community
for tinnitus research
G. Attanasio (a,f), P. Ciccarese (b,c), E. Wu (e),
T. Clark (b,c,d), E. Pecis (f), R. Filipo(a)
a: Dept. Neurology and Otolaryngology, University La Sapienza, Rome, IT;
b: Massachusetts Gen. Hosp., Boston, MA;
c: Harvard Med. School, Boston, MA;
d: Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing, Cambridge, MA;
e: Alzheimer Res. Forum Found., Boston, MA;
f: Acufeni.net Association onlus

2. Acufeni.net forum
www.acufeni.net

3. OUR PROJECT
To create a new interdisciplinary online
resource connecting researchers with
researchers, to facilitate rapid progress in
Tinnitus research
COMMUNITY COMMUNITY
OF PATIENTS OF SCIENTISTS

4. 3rd Tinnitus Research Initiative Meeting 24-26 June 2009, Stresa, Italy
Building Online Communities for Scientists
Tinnitusbook: a proposal for an advanced
scientific web community for tinnitus research
Paolo Ciccarese, PhD
Mass General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
In collaboration with
paolo.ciccarese@gmail.com Alzheimer Research Forum

5. Alzheimer Research Forum
• Created in 1996 www.alzforum.org
• 58,000 Alzheimer Disease (AD) Related
Papers
• 1800 AD Related News Articles
• Curated 14,700 Antibodies
• 5000 Members (AD Scientists)
• 6300 Scientists’ Comments
• Over 80 live discussions
> The CNN of Alzheimer

6. Alzheimer Research Forum
www.alzforum.org

7. 58,000 AD Related Papers

8. 6300 Scientists’ Comments

9. Over 80 Live Discussions

10. ARF - People
• Executive Editor (June Kinoshita)
• 2 Managing Editors
• 3 Science Writers
• 3 Consultants (Elizabeth Wu for Knowledge Managment)
• 1 Drug Database Curator (Gwen Wong, PhD)
• 1 Event Coordinator
• 1 Web Developer
• 1 Production Assistant
• 10 Advisory Board
…and 5000 Scientists!!!

11. SWAN - Semantic Web
Applications in Neuromedicine
• Define Hypotheses, Claims, Research
Questions, Comments, Experiments
– To relate them in between each others
– To relate them to Gene, Protein, Antibodies,
Organisms
• Annotate Publications (manual and semi-
automatic)
• Efficient browsing of the knowledge base
• Knowledge sharing across communities

12. SWAN Model

13. http://hypothesis.alzforum.org
SWAN Homepage

14. SWAN Hypotheses

15. SWAN Hypothesis

16. SWAN Claim
Qualifiers
Supportive
Evidence
Relationships
with other
statements in
the KB
Lses

17. SWAN Graph [1]

18. SWAN Graph [2]

19. SWAN Graph [3]

20. Schizophrenia Research Forum

21. High Number of Resources
• PubMed • Reagents
• Mash Terminology • Experiments
• Entrez Gene • Neuro Imaging
• UniProt • Models
• Gene Ontology • Annotations
• Alzforum Gene • Discussions
• Alzforum Antibodies • Commentaries
• Experimental Data • …

22. Science Collaboration Framework
• Reusable software that can be used to
develop web-based, collaborative, scientific
communities
• Support interdisciplinary scientists in
publishing, annotating, sharing and
discussing content such as articles,
perspectives, interviews and news items, as
well as assert personal biographies and
research interests

23. stembook.org

24. stembook.org
• It is an open access collection of invited,
original, peer-reviewed chapters (46 a few
days ago) covering a range of topics related
to stem cell biology written by top
researchers in the field at the Harvard Stem
Cell Institute and worldwide.
• ISSN 1940-3429

25. Table of Contents

26. Example: Link to genes

27. Other Stem Book features
• eAlert
• Commenting and discussion forums
• Semiautomatic annotation of Genes in new
articles
• Access to the under-development clouds of
resources for life science (genes, proteins,
antibodies, organisms…)

28. PDonline.org

29. What we can offer
• Experience in creating and maintain online
communities
• Reusable software that can speed up the
process of creation of a new community
• Access to biomedical knowledge bases
• Access to new methods and technologies
as result of our research
• Be part of a community of communities

30. Thank you
• Tim Clark • Sudeshna Das
• Gwen Wong • Benjamin Melançon
• June Kinoshita
• Marco Ocana
• Elizabeth Wu
Paolo Ciccarese, PhD
paolo.ciccarese@gmail.com