Science 2.0 - Is Open Access Science the Future? Is posting raw results online, for all to see, a great tool or a great risk? By M. Mitchell Waldrop: "Science 2.0 generally refers to new practices of scientists who post raw experimental results, nascent theories, claims of discovery and draft papers on the Web for others to see and comment on. Proponents say these "open access" practices make scientific progress more collaborative and therefore more productive. Critics say scientists who put preliminary findings online risk having others copy or exploit the work to gain credit or even patents. Despite pros and cons, Science 2.0 sites are beginning to proliferate; one notable example is the OpenWetWare project started by biological engi­neers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

• Public Library of Science On-Line Edition
  
• 3 Quarks Daily, "where a group of bloggers write about science and culture"
  
• OpenWetWare project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  
• UsefulChem - "This is an open source science project wiki in chemistry led by the Bradley Laboratory at Drexel University."

Scientific American: Wikis, blogs and other collaborative web technologies could usher in a new era of science. Or not. By M. Mitchell Waldrop: "The explosively growing World Wide Web has rapidly transformed retailing, publishing, personal communication and much more. Innovations such as e-commerce, blogging, downloading and open-source software have forced old-line institutions to adopt whole new ways of thinking, working and doing business. Science could be next. A small but growing number of researchers--and not just the younger ones--have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open blogs, wikis and social networks of Web 2.0. And although their efforts are still too scattered to be called a movement--yet--their experiences to date suggest that this kind of Web-based "Science 2.0" is not only more collegial than the traditional variety, but considerably more productive."

Press release: "World Economic Forum today announced 39 visionary companies selected as Technology Pioneers 2008. The companies’ products and services include identity management on the Internet, understanding of individuals’ genetic information, robotic radiosurgery, pollution control materials, low-cost remote diagnosis solutions, virtual interface technologies, wiki-based projects and next generation business intelligence solutions. Twenty-three of the Technology Pioneers 2008 are US-based companies. Israel and the United Kingdom each boast three; Sweden and Switzerland two each; Canada, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands and Russia, one each. Technology Pioneers are nominated in three main categories: Energy/Environment, Biotechnology/Health and Information Technology.

"This spectacular 2,000 page US military leak consists of the names, group structure and equipment registers of all units in Iraq with US army equipment. It exposes secretive document exploitation centers, detainee operations, elements of the State Department, Air Force, Navy and Marines units, the Iraqi police and coalition forces from Poland, Denmark, Ukraine, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Armenia, Kazakhstan and El Salvador. The material represents nearly the entire order of battle for US forces in Iraq and is the first public revelation of many of the military units described."

"The Internet is becoming increasingly embedded in everyday life. Drawing on an expanding array of intelligent web services and applications, a growing number of people are creating, distributing and exploiting user-created content (UCC) and being part of the wider participative web. This study describes the rapid growth of UCC and its increasing role in worldwide communication, and draws out implications for policy. Questions addressed include: What is user-created content? What are its key drivers, its scope and different forms? What are the new value chains and business models? What are the extent and form of social, cultural and economic opportunities and impacts? What are the associated challenges? Is there a government role, and what form could it take?"

ICANN: "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will launch an evaluation of Internationalized Domain Names next week that will allow Internet users to test top-level domains in 11 languages... The evaluation is made possible by today’s insertion into the root of the 11 versions of .test, which means they are alongside other top-level domains like .net, .com, .info, .uk, and .de at the core of the Internet. Next Monday, 15 October 2007, Internet users around the globe will be able to access wiki pages with the domain name example.test in 11 test languages — Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil...More information on the IDN program is available here."

"On Tuesday, the Center for Media and Democracy and the Sunlight Foundation launched a new collaborative, citizen-driven project on Congresspedia to build profiles on the hundreds of challengers for congressional seats, which will compliment the existing profiles on every member of Congress. The project is non-partisan and, in true open-source fashion, is free for anyone to participate - even the candidates themselves...We've started with nearly 300 basic profiles of candidates that 2008RaceTracker has identified as definitely running. We've also created a series of state-based portals that list all the candidates from each state and all the local blogs we could find that cover Congress at least occasionally - while Congresspedia is limited to confirmed facts, we're a big believer in the blogosphere and want to direct as many citizens as possible to the blogs written by the folks that know the candidates best - the locals."

Wiki becomes textbook in Boston College classroom - "IT prof says Web 2.0 technology boosts collaboration among students."

From Wired: "Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of Cal Tech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses."

Related news:

Donald Tapscott's White Paper: Winning With The Enterprise 2.0, "addresses the advantages and challenges of implementing E2 technologies." (62 pages, PDF)

Press release: "LexisNexis, a leading provider of information and services solutions, today announced the results of a nationwide survey to provide insights into how Information Professionals (IPs) are adding value to their organizations through technology and knowledge management...The survey revealed an interesting breakdown and frequency of information sources accessed...nearly four in ten access Weblogs at least weekly (39%), and more than a third access wikis (34%)...More than nine in ten surveyed access news Web sites (92%), and company Web sites (93%) at least weekly (or more often). Video or audio podcasts were rarely accessed. Less than two in ten access video podcasts (16%), or audio podcasts (15%)."

WSJ free feature, At Some Schools, Facebook Evolves From Time Waster to Academic Study: "After years of worrying about how much time freshmen spend on Facebook, schools are incorporating the study of social networking, online communities and user-contributed content into new curricula on social computing. The moves, like other academic expansions into fields like videogame design, are part of an effort to keep technology studies relevant to students' lives – and to tap subjects with entrepreneurial momentum. Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are among the tech companies that have invested in schools' social computing programs."

The Wiki of The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit provides Electronic Access to Seventh Circuit Case Information, Rules, Procedures and Opinions. This is the first public wiki launched by the federal judiciary. According to Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook, who spearheaded the wiki project, and reported by the National Law Journal, "The wiki will welcome comments from lawyers across the nation because issues of federal practice, especially in the appellate courts, are common ones..."

Forbes.com Corporate Org Chart Wiki: "It's a new way to tap the collective knowledge of our community about the internal network of any company--so new that we are introducing it not only in beta form but in early beta. We know it's a work in progress, and we want your help to make it better. Wiki away and let us know how we're doing...The wiki already contains all of the publicly listed U.S. companies, their boards of directors and senior executives. To find a company, the search tries to find matches as you begin typing. When you see the company you're looking for, you can select it. If you don't find a company, you can add it from the wiki home page."

From First Monday this month, What open access research can do for Wikipedia, by John Willinsky: "This study examines the degree to which Wikipedia entries cite or reference research and scholarship, and whether that research and scholarship is generally available to readers. Working on the assumption that where Wikipedia provides links to research and scholarship that readers can readily consult, it increases the authority, reliability, and educational quality of this popular encyclopedia, this study examines Wikipedia’s use of open access research and scholarship, that is, peer-reviewed journal articles that have been made freely available online."

From Vicenç Feliú: "Civil Law Dictionary Wiki project based on an article previously published in the Louisiana Law Review, Volume 54, Number 5, May 1994, for the use of Common Law practitioners unfamiliar with Civil Law terminology."

"OpenStreetMap is an free and open collaborative map of the entire world. We gather GPS tracks and draw maps over them, in an editable wiki style database. And recently we added aerial imagery to our toolbox, thanks to Yahoo!, so dense urban areas and remote locations can be mapped just by tracing streets in the web browser. This means that OpenStreetMap has the most comprehensive map of Baghdad among any of the web mapping services."

Related resources:

Inside Higher Education: A Stand Against Wikipedia: "As Wikipedia has become more and more popular with students, some professors have become increasingly concerned about the online, reader-produced encyclopedia. While plenty of professors have complained about the lack of accuracy or completeness of entries, and some have from using it, the history department at Middlebury College is trying to take a stronger, collective stand. It voted this month to bar students from citing the Web site as a source in papers or other academic work...the objection of the department to Wikipedia wasn’t its online nature, but its unedited nature...and [that] students need to be taught to go for quality information, not just convenience..."

Federal Chief Information Officer Council Strategic Plan FY 2007-2009 (28 pages, PDF), January 17, 2007.

Table of Contents for LLRX.com - January 15, 2007 issue:

"Search Wikia serves as a platform for the development of a new open source search engine with user-editable search results. This wiki accompanies the development therefore, and is used as a sounding board for ideas, organization and technical stuff. It is a place for the search community to discuss the project and search related issues."

Open to registered users, Zillow's Real Estate Wiki "is devoted to all aspects of real estate" and allows "everyone to share their knowledge and experience, whether they are professionals, sellers, buyers, or just plain people who are passionate about real estate."

"...for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you." [Link]

Wikimedia Foundation Releases Financial Audit

U.S. News reports on a range of new programs sponsored by DHS that leverage innovative technology applications (wikis and blogs) and educational programs to expand and improve the effectiveness of homeland security goals and objectives.

Announcement: "The Citizendium, a "citizens' compendium of everything," will be an experimental new wiki project that combines public participation with gentle expert guidance. It will begin life as a "progressive fork" of Wikipedia. But we expect it to take on a life of its own and, perhaps, to become the flagship of a new set of responsibly-managed free knowledge projects. We will avoid calling it an "encyclopedia," because there will probably always be articles in the resource that have not been vouched for in any sense. We believe a fork is necessary, and justified, both to allow regular people a place to work under the direction of experts, and in which personal accountability--including the use of real names--is expected. In short, we want to create a responsible community and a good global citizen.

Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation, Public DRAFT September 21, 2006, R. David Lankes, Joanne Silverstein. Produced for the American Library Association's Office for Information Technology Policy. Information Institute of Syracuse. Syracuse University’s school of Information Studies.

"This is a directory of Fortune 500 companies that have business blogs, defined as: active public blogs by company employees about the company and/or its products." [Simone Yu]

WikiMatrix: "A tool to compare the features of various popular wiki engines in comfortable side-by-side tables."

What Is a Wiki (and How to Use One for Your Projects), by Tom Stafford, Matt Webb, July 7, 2006.