Life Scientists go online - collaboration,

communication and credit

Lucy Power Oxford Internet Institute

University of Oxford UKSG, 13 April 2010

Outline

1.  Background 2.  What is Friendfeed? 3.  How it’s being used 4.  Outcomes 5.  Impact

http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/exhibits/herbal/26.jpg

Marginalia

http://www.christies.com/lotfinderimages/d48412/d4841200x.jpg

Like, Comment, Share

Like, Comment, Share

Outcomes

Discussing science

Solving scientific problems Publishing

Conference reporting

Collaborating

Searching and finding

Writing grant applications

Securing funding

Outcomes - funding

Outcomes - funding

Open Notebook Science

Outcomes - publishing

“I'd also be remiss if I didn't also note the critical role online collaboration played in this effort. Of the seven coauthors on this paper, two I've met only once in real life, and two I've never met in person. We are spread over four cities, five organizations, and nine time zones. Initiating and executing this collaboration happened virtually entirely online, aided by the FriendFeed Life Scientists room and Molecular and Cellular Biology WikiProject at Wikipedia. It was an eye-opener in terms of how effective online collaboration can be done.” – Andrew Su http://biogps.blogspot.com/2009/09/gene-wiki-update-paper.html

Outcomes - publishing

Saunders, N., Beltrao, P., Jensen, L., Jurczak, D., Krause, R., Kuhn, M. et al. (2009). Microblogging the ISMB: A New Approach to Conference Reporting. PLoS Comput Biol, 5(1).

From marginalia to Friendfeed… -  Speed (obviously) – answers at the speed of

the Internet -  Network effects – connecting with people you

didn’t know in your field, other fields and disciplines, and their connections (strength of weak ties)

-  Informality – lower barriers to entry -  Openness – ideas are traceable from genesis

to publication -  Global distribution of discussion

From marginalia to Friendfeed II…

-  Field/Disciplinary differences

-  Work habits – managing time

-  Information selection – filtering the volume (the disadvantages of scale)

-  Ephemeral – no formal archiving strategies

If you’re using online tools for research or to assist researchers, please feel free to come and

chat to me today and tomorrow!

Lucy Power DPhil Candidate

Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford Supervised by Dr Ralph Schroeder and Dr Eric M. Meyer

lucy.power@oii.ox.ac.uk