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Given on 1 July 2009 at the University of Barcelona for 8JPL.
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knowledge sharing in the sciences
kaitlin thaneyprogram manager, science commons
barcelona, spain - 1 july 2009
This presentation is licensed under the CreativeCommons-Attribution-3.0 license.
information sharing is at the root of scholarship and science
the system of print publishing is a system of sharing knowledge
then came the move to digital ...
the web revolutionized search, commerce, collaboration
sharing became cheaper, easier technically
costs of copying, moving, storing ... down to nearly zero
ability to link between nodes of information (dating back to 1980s)
yet ... most of the useful knowledge
is inaccessible.
most of the useful knowledge is in the wrong technology.
we don’t have enough people working on the problem(s).
(0) the “research web”
(1) step 1: opening access
(2) step 2: access to research tools
(3) step 3: access to data
(4) step 4: open cyberinfrastructure
(5) what’s next?
make sharing easy, legal and scalable
integrated approach
building part of the infrastructure for knowledge sharing
the “research web”
making the web work better for science
integrating disparate knowledge sources
make better use of existing information in the digital form
knowledge?
journal articlesdata
ontologiesannotations
plasmids and cell lines
have capability to drastically increase sharing at lower cost ...
... though, still roadblocks ...
silos of knowledge, walls of cost, secrecy, lagging incentive system for
collaboration and sharing
... it all starts with access to the scientific content and data ...
step one
scientific revolutions occur when a sufficient body of data accumulates to
overthrow the dominant theorieswe use to frame reality
a so-called paradigm shift
- from thomas kuhn
scholarship entrenched in idea of transmitting knowledge via paper
mentality reflected even in the way we describe “papers”
static, one-dimensional documents
in the digital world, “papers” can become living, breathing works
no longer static PDF documents
linking to data sets, other relevant papers, information, plasmids, genes
oldest scientific journal
published in english-
speaking world
1665
need to change the way we think of scholarly publishing,
of knowledge sharing
paradigm shift
begin thinking of “papers” as containers of knowledge
IGFBP-5 plays a role in the regulation of cellular senescence via a p53-dependent pathway and in aging-associated vascular diseases
“papers”
IGFBP-5 plays a role in the regulation of cellular senescence via a p53-dependent pathway and in aging-associated vascular diseases
“networked knowledge”
content needs to be legally and technically accessible
we’ll start with legal ...
thinking of “papers” more as containers of knowledge
copyright locks that container
traditional transfer of copyright agreement
Open Access (OA)
“ By open access to the literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting users to
read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any
other lawful purpose, without financial, legal or technical barriers other than those inseparable from
gaining access to the internet itself.”
Image from the Public Library of Science, licensed to the public, under CC-BY-3.0
“The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and
cited.”
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
legal implementation
access to research tools from funded research
step two
examples:lab mice, cell lines, DNA, stem cells
... the physical materials
office supplies for science
ideally ...
contact author, obtain material, recreate experiment
build on the existing work, publish
and repeat ...
the reality ... materials difficult to find, fulfill, lack
resources
reagents and assays often re-invented or reverse engineered
locked in contracts, bureaucracy, deliberate withholding, “club mentality”
no office superstores for science
no internet marketplacesfor science
another way to think of it ...
solves the access problem via contract
SLA
SCMTA
UBMTA (standardized material transfer agreements, or
MTAs)
standard icons, CC methodology, metadata
data and the public domain
step three
legal issues:
“it’s complicated”
copyright and databases
what’s protected? is it legal?
facts are free
to what extent is there creative expression?
database protections based on jurisdiction
sui generis, “sweat of the brow”
Crown copyright
the list goes on ....
social issues:
protection instinct / culture of control
PD relinquishes much of this control, even control in the service of freedom
“my data”, interpretation issues
fear, uncertainty, doubt (FUD)
issue of license proliferation
whatever you do to the least of the databases, you do to the integrated system
(the most restrictive wins)
need for a legally accurate and simple solution
reducing or eliminating the need to make the distinction of what’s protected
requires modular, standards based approach to licensing
our solution ...
reconstruction of the public domain
create legal zones of certainty for data
attribution through accompanying norms
3.1 The protocol must promote legal predictability and certainty.
3.2 The protocol must be easy to use and understand.
3.3 The protocol must impose the lowest possible transaction costs on users.
For the full text: http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/
CC Zero waiver + SC norms
waive rights public domain
attribution / citation through community norms, not a contract
a protocol, not a license
calls for data providers to waive all rights necessary for data extraction and re-use
requires provider place no additional obligations (like share-alike) to limit
downstream use
request behavior (like attribution) through norms and terms of use
public domain = license, cannot be made “more free” - only less free
PD = the original commons
at least make metadata open, if one can’t make data itself open
early adopters, committing to make their data open
using CC0
(1) Tranche - free, open source (2) Personal Genome Project
(3) Digg, Flickr, WhiteHouse.gov(4) EMBL SIDER, TDI Kernel
technical considerations:
persistent URLsopen, stable namespaces
standards, standards, standardsfacilitate integration, interoperability
and more ...
invest in open cyberinfrastructure
step four
data without structure and annotation is a lost opportunity.
data should flow in an open, public, and extensible infrastructure
support recombination and reconfiguration into computer models, queryable by search
engine
treated as public good
traits of legal protocols:
legally accuratesimple for scientists
low transaction costsfacilitate interoperability
business and user friendly
change requires a new legal infrastructure to encourage collaboration
what can you do?lead by example ...
design for maximum reuse
ensure the freedom to integrate
leverage existing open infrastructure
allows for snap together integration of the tools, data, research literature
what’s needed?
common standards, right softwareaccessible data and content
open infrastructurebuild for network effects
