P2P Foundation

Remi Sussan, who guest edited Issue 137 of P2P News, which was dedicated to P2P developments in the scientific field, mentions this article as a good review of Open Research practices.

A quote:

“The Open Source revolution is not limited to operating systems, file sharing and web servers. It is flourishing in other areas as well. This paper introduces the reader to a quiet revolution occurring in the research community, where open source research includes not only algorithms and shared techniques. It also includes hardware design and open community collaboration as well. One research community in particular, the complex adaptive systems researchers, is introduced here in detail.

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Imagine a world wide project to land on an asteroid. Imagine this done with no barriers and total participation by interested parties. All information about the “rocket science” is freely available with no proprietary or secret technologies. The details of the pilot’s console are online, and have even been turned into this year’s hottest game. Every fastener used within the system is standard, many available at high end hobbyist supply stores or at Silicon Valley’s famous Fry’s Electronics. The “buckyball,” nanotube straps used for securing pairs of asteroids in mining operations were created by Cal Tech’s undergraduate advanced studies group and are available in kit form. The entire project has been made the topic of MIT’s graduate engineering school, and all course materials are freely available on their website.

As odd and unapproachable as this may appear to us today, it is slowly becoming fact. Researchers world wide are lowering the barriers to collaboration and communication. Not only is software being “open sourced” but so is hardware and scientific research itself. Many researchers are going beyond passively being open; they are actively seeking participation and creating communities to refine the researchâ€?.