What has the public ever done for us?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/untitlism/22800371 CC-BY

Cameron Neylon - BioGeeks Tech Meet - London - 18 June 2010

Disclaimer...

The opinions expressed in this talk are the personal views of the speaker given as a private citizen and should not under any circumstances be taken as indicative of STFC, RCUK, or UK government policy or of any current or past discussions of future policy....

Helen BermanLorie LeJeune

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Ant Beck

Preface:

http://bit.ly/cJCDi0

Why do we do science?

Why do they pay?

Why do they pay?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-SA

Why do they pay?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mararie/3313582639/ CC-BY-SA

we

Cures...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59334544@N00/2322167178

http://www.flickr.com/photos/natematias/310642831 CC-BY-SA

Prestige...

...excitementhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/penmachine/2109311458/

Why do I do it?

Mortgage...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/2143212474 CC-BY

...curiosity...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/emiliodelprado/225161313

Fun!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/2908834853

This is a privilege.

Not a right.

My aim is to...

Maximise (positive) impact

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amardilo/3231427553 CC-BY

...through my work or through enabling others.

What is impact?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/valeriebb/2248744703

and how do you measure it?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/3209939998

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattymatt/3017263513

I don’t have a good answer...

But at least focus on...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/3947254236

I work mainly on technique development and enabling

technologies

I aim to maximise the ability of people to (re-)use my work

http://flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/316200555/ CC-BY

Open data...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwyg/4528443760/ CC-BY-SA

Open process...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24801682@N08/2957964645 CC-BY

Open materials

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomarthur/3593729997

Optimise for....

....not this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vrogy/514733529

...at least that’s the aim...

http://flickr.com/photos/nicmcphee/2756494307/ CC_BY

What about papers... or peer review?

“Publication in traditional journals represents the state

of the art for scientific communication...”

“...if you are using 17th century technology”

Michael Nielsen

£25B on publication?£2B on peer review?

http://www.rin.ac.uk

The web makes publishing easy

...data, documents, media...

Text

Publishing (broadcasting) is easy

...real engagement is harderhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/107787363

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tranchis/3708549622Less of this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/4637981216 CC-BY

...more of this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flavinsky/3410980137 CC-BY

...we are the public...http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810 CC-BY

...but...

21C rate of information...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dylanroscover/3450505729 CC-BY-SA

...with 19C filter systems

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveyll/332723930

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgifford/3558463424 CC-BY-SA

Find a balance...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/what_i_see/2790184219 CC-BY

...build the right tools

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/3408358703 CC-BY

Maximise the return on the public investment

Maximising impact

=

Maximising (real) engagement

Let’s assume...

we can communicate and engage...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3088582622

Will we want to?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/66164549@N00/2162663143

http://www.flickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2247299538 CC-BY-SA

Because every time a permanent job is advertised...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/t3rmin4t0r/3947963283 CC-BY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/t3rmin4t0r/3947963283 CC-BY

The one with the most Nature papers

gets to mate...

None of this will get you a job or funding...at least not yet.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erix/27946743 CC-BY

and the consequences...

...so who’s going first then?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/divemasterking2000/3827673841

We need the right incentives...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/3238300837 CC-BY

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frozenchipmunk/197591546 CC-BY

Value use and re-use...

...rather than

http://www.flickr.com/photos/klausnahr/4437823757 CC-BY-SA

But that has to come from the top...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonythemisfit/3033524024 CC-BY

If we get this right...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidcjones/1422043515

Hundreds of thousands...

...of champions and advocates...

...and contributors

And if we get it wrong...?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phobia/2308371224 CC-BY-SA

But this is the media’s fault!

Nothing to do with us right?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/secretlondon/3104523439 CC-BY-SA

Consider the following...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakecaptive/3205277810/ CC-BY

“It’s too much work to make the information available”

“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”

“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”

“It’s too much work to make the information available”

“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”

“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”

From a scientist?

“It’s too much work to make the information available”

“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”

“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”

From a politician?

“It’s too much work to make the information available”

“I don’t want it to get into the hands of people who might misuse or misunderstand it”

“Properly qualified experts need to look over it first.”

From the CEO of BP?

You expect government information to be free.

You expect public health information to be free.

You expect company information to be free.

What made you think your science was any different?

We need to maximise impact...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/meesterdickey/2581274092 CC-BY

...and return on investmenthttp://www.flickr.com/photos/tracy_olson/61056391 CC-BY-SA

Real public engagement can help with this...

Less of this...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ehnmark/463965443

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chadmiller/2740551034

...more of this

...and a lot less of this

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tammra/283690669/

If we’re not willing to optimize our systems of communication....

...away from scoring points and towards being useful

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmrosenfeld/3336899689 CC-BY

If we’re not leveraging the web to get the widest

possible range of contributions...

...then we are headed for serious trouble

http://www.flickr.com/photos/misserion/2275742553 CC-BY

The argument won’t be whether science budgets go up or down...http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/2384490016 CC-BY

...but whether there is one

And to be honest...

...its not clear to me that we will deserve one

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