Research 2.0 – Be the next Jimmy Wales

Some people do not know what to write about and come up with the most amazing ideas. Bret Taylor is sure one of them. Maybe he has not been the first to suggest a Wikipedia for data, yet his webpage is the first place where I came across this brilliant concept.

How often did you have to want do a research project on a bigger scale, but due to time and financial constraints were not able to do so? What if you could just go to a reliable (peer reviewed) source and download the specific data set you need for your paper? The data set would have to be accompanied by a detailed description of the research method applied as well as provide information about the setting in which the data had been collected, of course.

Once this has been accomplished, the next revolution in research history is about to come. Sharing data sets in an open community would enable researchers to draw different conclusions from the same data – because they could be addressing different questions that they particularly want to answer. It is actually about time that the web opens up for science, especially since that is where it originates from.

You can already find open access journals, which are a great way of exchanging information and opinions. Christopher Surridge from the Public Library of Science On-Line Edition thinks that “science happens not just because of people doing experiments but because they’re discussing those experiments.” (Scientific American) To my mind open access journals are paving the way for how research will be carried out and accessed in the future.

Although, it still may take some time and effort before this new way of sharing research results and study insights is going to be adopted by the scientific community. According to the Scientific American, scientists are only slowly turning to these new and open tools that are readily available on the web, such as blogs.

Maybe they fear losing reputation or not being able to further build it up. Evidently, getting an article published in a renown scientific magazine is an outstanding accomplishment, not (yet) comparable to publishing it online. Furthermore, some scientists might think that they will be more occupied responding to the scrutinizing comments of the readers than with doing research.

Yet, isn’t open access to a database full of research data and scientific articles the dream of every scientist? Open access would encourage more interaction, because it decreases the barriers of accessing scientific journals and allows to reach a greater audience.

I don’t suggest every researcher to open a blog now, and besides, some have already done so: Nicolas Carr’s (IT doesn't matter) is one of the few I can really recommend. I do suggest however to create a scientific news aggregation site, which can basically act as the main link connecting the widespread scientific community.

With open access data comes the downside of sharing it publicly – abuse and misuse. Thus, security mechanisms will have to be implemented in order to not falsify data and prevent people from submitting false data. However, I will leave solving this issue to you, dear future entrepreneur.

So, hands up if you want to be the next Jimmy Wales.