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.

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
“
“

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

- 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 cycle
idea
experiment
lit review
materials
publish
share results
retest
analyze
collect data

types of information
hypothesis/query
protocols
parameters
content
non-digital “stuff”
articles
proceedings
negative results
analysis
code
datasets
models
(added complexity)
prof activities
mentorship
teaching activities

blocking points
idea
experiment
access
attaining
materials
publish
share results
retest
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.

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

what’s missing?

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

“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.

shifting practice
(and getting it to stick)
is challenging.
... but not impossible.

63 nations
10,000 scientists
50,000 participants
can we do the same
for research on the web?

tools and technology
cultural awareness, best practice
connections, open dialogue
skills training
what are the necessary components?

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.org
http://mozillascience.org

questions?
kaitlin@mozillafoundation.org
@kaythaney ; @mozillascience

Making the web work for science - University of Queensland

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