Making the web work for science - University of Queensland

kaitlin thaney@kaythaney ; @mozillascience

UQ / 23 june 2014

making the web work for science

help researchers use the power of the open web to change science’s future.

(0)

science is still (largely) rooted in 17th c. practices.

(and not in that “retro is cool” sort of way.)

early forms of knowledge sharing

our current systems are designed to create

friction.despite original intentions.

What Des-Cartes did was a good step. You have added much several ways, &

especially in taking ye colours of thin plates into philosophical consideration.

If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.

- Isaac Newton, 1676

“

“

existing system is imperfect

traditions last not because they are excellent, but because influential people are averse to change and because of the sheer burdens of

transition to a better state ...

“

“Cass Sunstein

(1)

- access to content, data, code, materials.- emergence of “web-native” tools.- rewards for openness, interop, collaboration, sharing.- push for ROI, reuse, recomputability, transparency.

“web-enabled science”

research cycleidea

experiment

lit review

materials

publish

share resultsretest

analyze

collect data

types of informationhypothesis/query

protocolsparameters

content

non-digital “stuff”

articlesproceedings

negative results

analysiscode

datasetsmodels

(added complexity)

prof activitiesmentorship

teaching activities

blocking pointsidea

experiment

access

attaining materials

publish

share resultsretest

analyze

collect data

(to name a few ...)

“... up to 70% of research from academic labs cannot be reproduced, representing an enormous

waste of money and effort.”- Elizabeth Iorns, Science Exchange

Source: Michener, 2006 Ecoinformatics.

(2)

is open enough?what does it mean to “operate on/like the web”?

code(interop)

community(people)

code/data literacy(means to learn/engage)

our systems need to talk to one another.

“One worry I have is that, with reviews like this, scientists will be even more discouraged from publishing their code [...] We need to get more code out there, not improve how it looks.”

code as a research object

what’s needed to reuse ?

code as a research object

http://xkcd.com/285/

“There’s greater reward, and more temptation to

bend the rules.”- David Resnik, bioethicist

(3)

is open enough?what does it mean to “operate on/like the web”?

“web-enabled science”- access to content, data, code, materials.- emergence of “web-native” tools.- rewards for openness, interop, collaboration, sharing.- push for ROI, reuse, recomputability, transparency.

“web-enabled science”what’s missing?

- access to content, data, code, materials.- emergence of “web-native” tools.- rewards for openness, interop, collaboration, sharing.- push for ROI, reuse, recomputability, transparency.

we need to even (/ elevate) the playing field.

facing a digital skills gap

“Reliance on ad-hoc, self-

education about what’s

possible doesn’t scale.”

- Selena Decklemann

learn from open source(culture as well as technology)

current activity:130+ instructors

(60+, training)3700+ learners

we need to build capacity, not just more nodes.

instill best (digital,

reproducible) practice

“research hygiene”

in an increasingly digital, data-driven world, what core skills, tools

do the next-generation need?

education as a means of building community

... globally, as well as across disciplines.

(4)

shifting practice (and getting it to stick)

is challenging.... but not impossible.

disciplines as cultures

63 nations 10,000 scientists

50,000 participants

can we do the same for research on the web?

tools and technologycultural awareness, best practice

connections, open dialogueskills training

what are the necessary components?

(5)

operating in isolation doesn’t scale.

coordination and collaboration are key.

design for interoperability.

remember the non-technical challenges.

join us (and the conversation.)teach, contribute, learn.

http://software-carpentry.orghttp://mozillascience.org

questions?

kaitlin@mozillafoundation.org@kaythaney ; @mozillascience