What has the public ever done for us?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/untitlism/22800371 CC-BY
Cameron Neylon - BioGeeks Tech Meet - London - 18 June 2010
Disclaimer...
The opinions expressed in this talk are the personal views of the speaker given as a private citizen and should not under any circumstances be taken as indicative of STFC, RCUK, or UK government policy or of any current or past discussions of future policy....
Helen BermanLorie LeJeune
Iain Emsley
Neil Saunders
Brian Kelly
Harry Collins
Michael Nielsen
Jen Dodd
Greg Wilson
Timo Hannay
Maxine Clarke
Jenny RohnRicardo Vidal Paulo Nuin
Jenny HalePeter Murray-Rust
Deepak Singh
Jon Udell
Tim O’Reilly
David Crotty
Rafael Sidi
Richard Akerman
Jean-Claude Bradley
Mike Ellis
Liz Lyons
Andy Powell
Gavin Baker Peter Suber
Victor Henning
Sabine HossenfelderFlickr
Steve Wilson
Andrew Milsted
Frank Norman
Dave de RoureJeremy Frey
John Cumbers
Bill Flanagan
ISIS LSS Group
Lakshmi Shastry
Catherine Jones
ISIS Computing GroupSTFC
Plausible AccuracyJohn
Dupuis
Chad Orzel
Ken Shankland
Martyn Bull
Jonathan Gray
Rufus Pollock
Clay Shirky
Kevin Kelly
Gavin Bell
Shirley Wu
Euan Adie
Richard Curry Ian Mulvany
Jamie McQuay
Atilla Csordas
Pawel Szcsesny Gabriel Cavalli
Matt Wood
TIM HUBBARD
DUNCAN HULL
Richard Grant Branwen Hide
PLoS
Friendfeed
Bora Zivkovic
Peter Binfield
John Wilbanks
Kaitlin ThaneyThe BioGang
Tony WilliamsEgon Willighagen
Martin FennerYaroslav Nikolaev
Jon EisenMichael Eisen
Richard Akerman
Jeremiah FaithMichael Barton
Lee Smolin
Garret Lisi
Victoria Stodden
Simon ColesTony Hey
Noel Gorelick
Jon Tansley
Benjamin Good Dorothea Salo
Paul Walk
Mitch Waldrop
Björn Brembs
Rich Apodaca
Bill Hooker
Pedro Beltrao
Mat Todd
SciFoo 2008/9
campers
Stephen Brenner
Brian Matthews
Allyson Lister
Phil Lord
Steve Koch
Koch Lab
Carole Goble
Stephen FriendEva Amsen
JOHN WILLINSKY
TIM HUBBARDTIM HUBBARDTIM HUBBARD
Steph Hannon
Rebecca Goulding
Leigh Dodds
Paul Miller
Mark BorkumDan Hagon
Jim Downing
Nico Adams
@gnatFabiana Kubke
Hope LemanLisa Green
Ariel Waldmann
@tGrace Baynes
Simon Philips
Matt Johnson
Lee Dirks
Microsoft
NPG Ben Goldacre
Arfon Smith
Nicholas Cole
Chris Leonard
PIERRE LINDENBAUM
ALAN CANN
Jo Badge
Mummi Thorissson
Andrew Kasarskis
Glyn Moody
@communicating
PT Sefton
Andrew Farke
Josh Sommers
Gilles Friedmann
Ant Beck
Preface:
Why do we do science?
Why do they pay?
Why do they pay?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-SA
Why do they pay?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-SA
we
Cures...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59334544@N00/2322167178
http://www.flickr.com/photos/natematias/310642831 CC-BY-SA
Prestige...
...excitementhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/penmachine/2109311458/
Why do I do it?
Mortgage...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/2143212474 CC-BY
...curiosity...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliodelprado/225161313
Fun!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2908834853
This is a privilege.
Not a right.
My aim is to...
Maximise (positive) impact
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amardilo/3231427553 CC-BY
...through my work or through enabling others.
What is impact?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/2248744703
and how do you measure it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/3209939998
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattymatt/3017263513
I don’t have a good answer...
But at least focus on...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/3947254236
I work mainly on technique development and enabling
technologies
I aim to maximise the ability of people to (re-)use my work
http://flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/316200555/ CC-BY
Open data...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwyg/4528443760/ CC-BY-SA
Open process...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24801682@N08/2957964645 CC-BY
Open materials
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomarthur/3593729997
Optimise for....
....not this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vrogy/514733529
...at least that’s the aim...
http://flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/2756494307/ CC_BY
What about papers... or peer review?
“Publication in traditional journals represents the state
of the art for scientific communication...”
“...if you are using 17th century technology”
Michael Nielsen
£25B on publication?£2B on peer review?
http://www.rin.ac.uk
The web makes publishing easy
...data, documents, media...
Text
Publishing (broadcasting) is easy
...real engagement is harderhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/107787363
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tranchis/3708549622Less of this...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4637981216 CC-BY
...more of this...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavinsky/3410980137 CC-BY
...we are the public...http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810 CC-BY
...but...
21C rate of information...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanroscover/3450505729 CC-BY-SA
...with 19C filter systems
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveyll/332723930
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgifford/3558463424 CC-BY-SA
Find a balance...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/what_i_see/2790184219 CC-BY
...build the right tools
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/3408358703 CC-BY
Maximise the return on the public investment
Maximising impact
=
Maximising (real) engagement
Let’s assume...
we can communicate and engage...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3088582622
Will we want to?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/66164549@N00/2162663143
http://www.flickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2247299538 CC-BY-SA
Because every time a permanent job is advertised...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t3rmin4t0r/3947963283 CC-BY
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t3rmin4t0r/3947963283 CC-BY
The one with the most Nature papers
gets to mate...
None of this will get you a job or funding...at least not yet.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erix/27946743 CC-BY
and the consequences...
...so who’s going first then?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/divemasterking2000/3827673841
We need the right incentives...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/3238300837 CC-BY
http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozenchipmunk/197591546 CC-BY
Value use and re-use...
...rather than
http://www.flickr.com/photos/klausnahr/4437823757 CC-BY-SA
But that has to come from the top...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3033524024 CC-BY
If we get this right...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidcjones/1422043515
Hundreds of thousands...
...of champions and advocates...
...and contributors
And if we get it wrong...?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phobia/2308371224 CC-BY-SA
But this is the media’s fault!
Nothing to do with us right?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretlondon/3104523439 CC-BY-SA
Consider the following...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/3205277810/ CC-BY
“It’s too much work to make the information available”
“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”
“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”
“It’s too much work to make the information available”
“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”
“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”
From a scientist?
“It’s too much work to make the information available”
“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”
“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”
From a politician?
“It’s too much work to make the information available”
“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”
“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”
From the CEO of BP?
You expect government information to be free.
You expect public health information to be free.
You expect company information to be free.
What made you think your science was any different?
We need to maximise impact...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meesterdickey/2581274092 CC-BY
...and return on investmenthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/61056391 CC-BY-SA
Real public engagement can help with this...
Less of this...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ehnmark/463965443
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadmiller/2740551034
...more of this
...and a lot less of this
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tammra/283690669/
If we’re not willing to optimize our systems of communication....
...away from scoring points and towards being useful
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmrosenfeld/3336899689 CC-BY
If we’re not leveraging the web to get the widest
possible range of contributions...
...then we are headed for serious trouble
http://www.flickr.com/photos/misserion/2275742553 CC-BY
The argument won’t be whether science budgets go up or down...http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/2384490016 CC-BY
...but whether there is one
And to be honest...
...its not clear to me that we will deserve one
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