Scientists slowly adopting new web tools to promote rapid innovation
The NY Times had an article Monday 16 January 2012 discussing how new technologies are challenging the role of traditional journals in science. Having free and open access to scientific results is one way to accelerate technological change . The old model of closed Journals for which people and institutions pay to access will eventually give way to the “Open Access” model (where authors pay a fee to publish but the article is then freely available to everyone), and that’s a good thing for anyone who thinks we need more rapid technical innovation to help fix the problems humanity faces (I also believe we need innovation in our values, behaviors, and institutional arrangements, not just in science and technology, but that’s a separate discussion).
The article also talks about new ways to use collaborative web technologies to accelerate innovative scientific thinking, and we’re just at the beginning of learning how to tap these new technologies for this purpose. More, please!
The article refers to a recent book by Michael Nielsen that discusses these trends more thoroughly, titled Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science.
