Resurrecting the blog

This blog has been out of commission for quite some time. There are various reasons for that, but now I find I have time and motivation to get it up and going again. However, it will look a bit different, at least that is the plan.

I'd like to blog about things I'm enthusiastic about. What does that mean? Well, as far as research goes, it's Open Access, but more than that open research (aka networked research). Most published science is behind closed doors, but so also is most active science. Why? This is a question I have been thinking about for some time now and here are the principal reasons that I see:

1. Inertia in the system. The changing nature of information availability has not been matched by a change in attitude to how information is shared. Scientists are very innovative in how they think about their work, but on the whole much less innovative in how they approach a project. In addition, those currently at the top are those who have thrived in the current system - why change?

2. Credit. Every culture has its currency. In research, it is the publication and the impact of that publication. This means that each piece of research is inexorably tied to a few people and most principally the first author on the resulting paper. This means two things. Firstly, the first author must do most of the work as they are the ones to get the most credit. Secondly, collaborations where two or more people contribute to a significant degree are not in anyone's interest because only one will get the credit.

3. Funding. What drives the above two is, of course, where the money comes from. Projects are funded, not people, and the basis of allocating the money is based on publications (ok, a few other things, but that's the main factor at play). Publish more, get more money.

Not all research should be out in the open. Some of it is commercially sensitive, but most is not. In fact, sharing resources and pooling skills should lead to much more rapid progress.

One of the aims of this rejuvenated blog will be to find out who is doing open science and see how successful are being with it. I also have one or two projects myself that I will put updates of on here. Let's see if the future can be a lot more open than the past.