We hosted a lively talk this week from William (Bill) Anderson, formerly a researcher at Xerox, now chief of Praxis 101, on the potential of the ‘Net to advance scientific discourse and data sharing through peer production and commentary. He raised fascinating questions about the potential for ‘citizen scientists’ to engage in the process of research, the roadblocks to participation, and the general reaction of scientific communities to open access and engagement. His talk sparked one of the liveliest discussions among the audience that we’ve seen this year at our iForum series and it’s clear that many of us have very strong views on the problems and prospects. The local Daily Texan covered the talk in advance and this attracted a diverse group of attendees, many of them surely first-timers at a School of Information talk. We encourage this, as the issues we deal with are impacting everyone.
A couple of issues that dominated discussion revolved around the apparent elitism of science which is seen as discouraging participation from ‘amateurs’. I am less convinced of this. I believe most scientists and scholars encourage discussion and are quick to engage, but lack the time to deal with people who themselves lack sufficient knowledge to talk appropriately about certain topics. Discussion forums that treat opinion as equivalent to data push intelligent discourse aside quickly, resulting in the setting up of more controlled groups where membership is limited to those who can discriminate. This is necessary, not elitist, in most cases for reasons of effort and sanity.
A further issue related to the ability, given big science’s reliance of massive technological investment, of citizens to engage in any process. That is true enough if we anticipate a return to Victorian-era innovators working out the secrets of medicine in their studies, but there are examples of shared computing resources being put to targeted use or the ability of large numbers of people to play with huge data sets generated by some of these technologically-driven experiments. I would add that the process of discovery should not be limited to the individual level so literally, and that distributed discourse on research might enable a culture or society to play with ideas in a manner that yields insights which would not emerge were a scientific team working in relative isolation in their labs.
All told, a lively session and lots of food for thought. Bill blogs through his company site.