Beyond Open Access Michael Nielsen OAI9, June 2015 @michael_nielsen.

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Beyond Open AccessMichael NielsenOAI9, June 2015http://michaelnielsen.org/ @michael_nielsenThankyou all very much for coming along this morning.

My talk today is about open science and how it can be used to accelerate scientific discovery.

To explain what I mean by open science, let me start with an example.1Open Access to what,exactly?2digital versions of traditionaljournal articles3(maybe updated with hyperlinks and DOIs and a few other elements)4Open Access to traditional journal articles would be a tremendous achievement 5fall far short of what is possible6opportunity isnt just to digitize paper

7new media forms8radically different to9going far beyond10traditional journal articles11amplify our individual andcollective intelligence12What would such media forms look like?13

look further afield14

experiments that scientists are doing15

most creative designers in other fields16Some of the examples Ishow will likely be familiar17the point is to look at even familiarexamples through an unusual lens,that of media theorist and designer18to identify powerful design patternsthat lets us do things traditionalmedia cant do19What I wont do: look at a lot of the usual suspects:open data, online collaboration,reproducibility, open peer review,etc20

example from Peter Norvig (Google)21

interactive essay about economics22

explore how the distribution of wealthchanges over time23

challenge preconceptions about economics24

iPython notebook25

essay format which mixes exposition with (live, editable) Python code26

you dont need to understand details of Python or economics!27

point is the media form28

probably many of you have seeniPython notebooks before29

often touted for reproducibility or open code30

focus on something different:31

iPython notebooks as a powerfulnew media form32

enables the reader to easily perform formerly difficult cognitive tasks33

taking a close up look at the essay34

code to execute transactions between two members of the population35

Norvig considers several possibilities36

deciding which members of the population have transactions37

expositionexpositionexpositionexpositioncodecodecode38once Norvig gets the code running,he performs simulations, runningtransactions over and over again,looking at the long-term distribution of wealth39

Richest 1%Poorest 1%(-> 1 unit)40

370 units(down from 460)12 units(up from 1)41not going to get into why this happens42instead: what makes iPythonnotebooks interesting asa media form?43imagine we used a traditionaljournal format for this set of results44itd contain an abstract mathematicalmodel, and describe the results45a reader would need a sophisticatedknowledge of mathematics to figure out the consequences of eventiny changes to the model46Norvigs essay doesnt just containan abstract version of the model47It contains an executable, liveversion of the model48Anyone who knows a tiny bit ofprogramming can edit the code, and actually change the model49You could, for example, change thesplit and see how this affects thefinal distribution of wealth50This can be done live, simplyby editing the notebook51And you can also change theassumptions in other ways52notebook format dramatically expands the range of peoplewho can understand and comparethese different models53makes this knowledge both moreexplorable and more extensible54

interactive visual essaylove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.

Whatsmore, he issued an open invitation, inviting anyone in the world who thought they had an idea to contribute to post it in the comments section of the blog.

His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.55

part of a book on neural networks & deep learninglove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



dont worry if you dont know anything about neural networkslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



examine this as a mediumlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



weightbiassimple artificial neural network (on left)love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



ask reader to experiment with changing weights and biaseslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



take the reader through several exerciseslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



asking them to vary weights and biases to get desired output signallove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



wont go through detailslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



by going through this, readers can build upintuition for whats going on in the networklove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



essay proceeds back and forthexpositionneural networkexpositionslightly more complex neural networkand so ongradually learn more and morecomplex things we can do witha neural networklove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



eventually, I ask readers to change parameters of network to compute some desired functionlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.66abstracting away, theres a dialogueback and forth betweendiscussions of an abstractmathematical model, and concrete,explorable versions of the model,which the reader can play withto achieve some goal

67

early models are very simplelove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



little the reader can dolove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.69as the reader builds up knowledge,the models get more complex,and the readers get more optionsto explore70those options add complexity andmake the readers life more difficult71

love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.72but the readers understanding has grown, and so they are able to deal with the added complexity73media form: building this dialogue betweenabstract discussion and concrete,explorable models74this media form looks superficially similar to a journal article,but is actually essentiallydifferent75also looks similar to the media formof Norvigs article: a dialogue between abstract discussion and code76actually quite different77

each model is complete in itselfeach code snippet ismerely part of an overall modelbuild up to complexitythrough a series of models,each complete in itselfbuild up to complexityby looking closely at allthe constituent partslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.78the media forms do different things79both are valuable80neither can be done in aconventional journal format81

Maybe the lesson is that we shouldbe adding interactivity?



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.82That analysis is too shallowlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.83Interactivity by itself is irrelevantlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.84easy to create terrible interactive explanationslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.85what matters is the details ofthe media formlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



expositionlive modelexpositionmore complex live modeldialogue back and forthlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



doesnt require that the reader be aprogrammerneed to know just a littlemathematicsbecause it usesvisual, concreterepresentations,rather than PythonprogramsOTOH the representationsare fixedlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



you are not limited bywhat Norvig has doneyou can arbitrarily modifyand extend the codea platform for open-ended explorationyou could, for instance, introduce your own model of a transaction, & playwith that, to develop insightlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



Norvigs notebook is somethingof a toyimagine you developed it furtherin the same veinintroduce more complex models,explore the assumptions behindthem, eventually, your models wouldreach the edge of human thoughton economicslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



someone playing with the notebookcould make modifications that wouldlet them explore questions no-onehad ever asked previouslyand they might make newdiscoverieslove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



such a notebook would be apowerful cognitive mediuma medium for people to thinkand explore and make newdiscoveries infor millenia, paper and pencil hasbeen the most common cognitive mediuma sufficiently good digital notebookcould reify in an active form muchof the knowledge we have aboutthe world love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



that knowledge would then becomposable in a way that paperand pencil is notthat would make it far, far easierfor people to explore than ina conventional, static formlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.93another cognitive medium,from designer Bret Victor



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.94this isnt a journal article



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.95no reason such a medium shouldntbe integrated with iPython notebook



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.96both are media for exploration and creation



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.97both are media for exploration and creation



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.98suggest a publishing platformwhich evolves toward being acognitive medium, integratingall our best tools in anenvironment for exploration and discovery love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.99consider more closely someof the user interface ideas



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.100the joining trick



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.101searching over an expression



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.102these are fundamental new operationsto do with difference equations



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.103they actually expand the rangeof our thinking



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.104theyre new atoms of cognition



His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.105maybe cognitive media will stimulatethe invention of many newatoms of cognitionlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.





His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.107all these ideas had to beinventedlove to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.108What new primitivesfor thought can we invent?love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.109Whats all this got to do with open access?Open access to what?Do repositories like the arXiv and PubMed provide a platform for experimentation withmore powerful media forms?How should open access policies be craftedto ensure we don't inhibit innovation byconstraining experimentation?How can we ensure wild experimentation withnew media forms?love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.


His hope was that by combining the ideas of many minds he could make easy work of this difficult mathematical problem.110Thankyouhttp://michaelnielsen.org/@michael_nielsen111love to solve, completely in the open, using his blog to post ideas and partial progress.



Beyond Open Access Michael Nielsen OAI9, June 2015 @michael_nielsen.

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Transcript of Beyond Open Access Michael Nielsen OAI9, June 2015 @michael_nielsen.