[sc-announce] Voices from the future of science -- Science Commons blog

Donna Wentworth dwentworth at creativecommons.org
Wed Apr 2 14:51:52 EDT 2008


Voices from the future of science

April 2nd, 2008<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/04/02/voices-from-the-future-of-science/>by
dwentworth

Over the past few months, you may have noticed that some of the posts here
have been attributed to a mysterious "dwentworth." That's me — Donna
Wentworth <http://sciencecommons.org/about/whoweare/wentworth/> — and I'm
here to start bringing more of your voices to the Science Commons blog.

The introduction may seem a little late, but it's for good reason: I've had
a lot learn. I've been writing about innovation and the net for ten years
now — first at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet &
Society<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/>and
Corante <http://copyfight.corante.com/donna.shtml>, and then at the Electronic
Frontier Foundation <http://www.eff.org/> and Google<http://www.google.com/>.
I've been a supporter of Creative Commons from the very
beginning<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/286>,
as well as a fan of the
eloquent<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/39166e30-5a7f-11dc-9bcd-0000779fd2ac.html>
James
Boyle <http://www.law.duke.edu/boylesite/>. Back in the fall, when I
stumbled on a video of Jamie's presentation at Google on Science
Commons<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3iUhXBDi88>,
I was riveted. Here, I thought, is where Creative Commons can make a
difference on a whole new level — where innovative ways of licensing and
sharing knowledge could actually end up saving
lives<http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/03/third-world-bio.html>
.

A talk with my old friend from the Berkman Center, John
Wilbanks<http://creativecommons.org/about/people#34>,
who now leads Science Commons, got me even more excited. Always full of
infectious enthusiasm, John made it easy for me to see the possibilities for
the "open science <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_science>" movement —
where a series of small but important changes could set in motion a profound
transformation in the way research is carried out. I decided to join the SC
staff to see what I could do to help, including bringing more people into a
common discussion about what the next steps should be. But before jumping
in, I needed to take a look around, see where the conversations were already
happening and figure out how these conversations are being translated to
action.

Here's where you come in. If you're reading this blog, chances are you're
passionate <http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/?cat=4> about the future of
science <http://www.nature.com/scifoo/>. You may even be a part of the vast,
incredibly diverse community of people that actually make science happen:
scientists <http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/>,
publishers<http://www.nature.com/index.html>,
research company <http://www.mlnm.com/> representatives, research
foundation<http://www.alsa.org/>officers, computer
scientists <http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/shieber/>,
entrepreneurs<http://mndoci.com/blog/>,
librarians <http://cavlec.yarinareth.net/> and more. Some of you may be
bloggers <http://www.plausibleaccuracy.com/blog/> yourselves, who track
developments in your area of science and ended up at Science Commons once or
twice.

My hope is that you'll join me in turning up the volume on the conversation
surrounding open science. As part of this effort, I'm going to start
profiling individuals and organizations working to open new frontiers for
innovation and discovery in science. I am also building a community blog
roll — or a public aggregator, if that works better — for open science. The
goal isn't to endorse particular viewpoints or blogs, but instead to
showcase the work that's already being done to midwife a new way of sharing
and building scientific knowledge, as well as to start identifying ways we
can all work together.

With more open research coming
online<http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/01/public-science/>,
the freedom to integrate<http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2007/12/20/ensuring-the-freedom-to-integrate/>information
from disparate sources, and the ability to use computers to sort
through and make sense of it, scientists will be more empowered than ever to
find the answers they're looking for. Let's figure out how we can get there
faster.

Please take a few minutes to send me an
email<http://dwentworth@creativecommons.org/>or add a comment to this
post with your choices for people and organizations
to profile here at Science Commons, as well as your favorite blogs and other
resources on open science. I look forward to hearing from you.

................
Donna Wentworth
Communications Specialist
Science Commons
http://sciencecommons.org
dwentworth at creativecommons.org <kaitlin at creativecommons.org>
................
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