Open Source Science

Ahmed SaeedResearch Assistant

Egypt-Japan University for Science and Technology (E-JUST)

What if science was closed ...

Scientific Openness History

● Disputations

● Anagrams"The mother of love imitates shapes of Cynthia" Galileo Galilei

● The mother of love -> Venus● Cynthia (goddess of the moon) -> Moon

● Journals (1600's)Peer Reviews and Citations

Scientific Endeavor

● Have an idea ● Collect data ● Develop the idea and get results● Publish your work

400 YEARS LATER ...

Scientific Endeavor

● Have an idea ● Collect data ● Develop the idea and get results● Publish your work

Open Scientific Endeavors

● Open Innovation● Citizen Science

○ Using Your Brain(Gaming)○ Using Your Computer (e.g. SETI@Home)○ Online Collaboration Sites

● Open Source Scientific Software● Open Access, Open Data, ...

Open Innovation

● InnoCentive (http://www.innocentive.com/)○ Challenges the public to solve problems provided by

large organizations for a reward

Open Innovation

● InnoCentive (http://www.innocentive.com/)○ Challenges the public to solve problems provided by

large organizations for a reward○ A Simple detection of DNA sequences in unconventional

field was thought impossibleSolved after 4 weeks of being published at InnoCentive

Open Innovation

● PolyMath Project (http://polymathprojects.org/)○ "Is Massively Collaborative Math Possible ?" Tim Gowers

Open Innovation

● PolyMath Project (http://polymathprojects.org/)○ "Is Massively Collaborative Math Possible ?" Tim Gowers○ 40 people collaborated in the course of 7 weeks and

found a new proof for a mathematical problem and calculated bounds for the same problem

Citizen Science

A term used for projects or ongoing program of scientific work in which individual volunteers or networks of volunteers, many of whom may have no specific scientific training, perform or manage research-related tasks such as observation, measurement, or computation.

Citizen ScienceUsing Your Brain (Gaming)

● FoldIt, Solve Puzzles for Science (http://fold.it/portal/)○ A computer game enabling you to contribute to important

scientific research○ It attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking

advantage of humans' puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins.

Citizen ScienceUsing Your Computer

● SETI@Home, Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/)

○ Internet-based public volunteer computing project that is used to analyze radio signals, searching for signs of extra terrestrial intelligence.

Citizen ScienceOnline Collaboration Sites

● Science for Citizens (http://scienceforcitizens.net/)○ Enable and encourage people to learn about, participate

in, and contribute to science.○ Inspire greater appreciation and promote a better

understanding of science and technology among the general public.

○ Create a shared space where scientists can talk with citizens interested in working on or learning about their research projects.

Open Source Scientific Software

A lot of communities and research centers are producing such software including

(NASA, MIT, Bell Labs, Ubuntu Science, SciPy, ....)

Open Access, Open Data, ...

● Open Access refers to unrestricted online access to articles published in scholarly journals, and also increasingly to book chapters or monographs.

● Open Data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.

● Other initiatives and movements are growing

Conclusion

● The current popular scientific methodology is OLD !● Different initiatives are suggested to change that including

○ Open Innovation○ Citizen Science○ Open Source Scientific Software○ Open Data○ Open Access

● And most importantly there are ways for non-scientists to participate in advancing human knowledge thanks to openness concepts

References

● Wikipedia, 2011.● Michael Nielsen's Blog.● A Short History of Science Writing, http://www.scitext.com/history.php● Open Source Science: A New Model for Innovation, http:

//hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5544.html● The Future of Science is Open, http://3quarksdaily.blogs.

com/3quarksdaily/2006/10/the_future_of_s_1.html