Re: NYT Rare Sharing of Data Leads to Progress on Alzheimer’s Published: August 12, 2010

HI Matt,

I hear ya, however, it may be time for a change.  Data are already out  
there, being shared and reused, and the trend is increasing. So, we  
either figure out ways to recognize and reward "sharing" or suffer the  
ultimate consequences...  In the end, it will become clear (I believe)  
that it is unethical to not share data in order to advance research.  
It will also be impractical. Thus, the academic model will have to  
change. I say that having just taken joined the faculty at the  
Tetherless World Constellation.  Jim Hendler leads the data.gov  
collaboration that makes US gov't data available in RDF.  Check it out  
and let us know what you think.   http://www.data.gov/

Just a few things come to mind.  In grad school (cognitive and neural  
systems dept at Boston University - which grew out of the Center for  
Adaptive Systems and the Math dept. We said a lot "Adapt or die."

"The times they are a changing"
	--  Dylan
Nothing endures but change.
	-- Heraclitus

"It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most  
intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change."
	-- Darwin

Cheers,

Joanne



On Aug 14, 2010, at 12:10 PM, Matt Vagnoni wrote:

> Well it seems like a utopian model, but  at the same time in  
> academics you are judged on your papers and grants.  So without some  
> exclusivity it is difficult for academics to cope.
>
> Obviously with a study that couldn't be done without a great deal of  
> cash, collaborations are vital...but as much as I cringe saying  
> it...some sort of exclusivity is needed at least for a brief time.   
> Or the academic model needs to change.
>
>
>> On Aug 14, 2010 3:47 AM, "M. Scott Marshall" <mscottmarshall@gmail.com 
>> > wrote:
>>
>> I read this article with great pleasure yesterday and immediately  
>> planned to blog about it on http://www.w3.org/blog/hcls. It is  
>> actually shocking that such an article comes as a revelation but  
>> good news nonetheless. How can we discover new (or old) knowledge  
>> from data integration if we have no access to the data?
>>
>> The goals of knowledge sharing are inherently essential to the  
>> goals of translational medicine, especially when you use  
>> translational medicine to refer to data integration across  
>> disciplines. You can get much more out of your data if you share  
>> it. Once you decide to share it, you will find that Semantic Web  
>> practices will make it much more accessible and 'shareable'. Please  
>> spread the word so that we can get on with the science!
>>
>> -Scott
>>
>> -- 
>> M. Scott Marshall, W3C HCLS IG co-chair
>> http://staff.science.uva.nl/~marshall
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 13, 2010 at 8:02 AM, Joanne Luciano (gmail) <jluciano@gmail.com 
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > I thought many of you would enjoy seeing this article from the  
>> NYT.  Here's the link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/13/health/research/13alzheimer.html 
>>  ...
>>

Joanne S. Luciano, PhD
Research Associate Professor
Tetherless World Constellation
Department of Computer Science
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
110 8th Street
Troy, NY 12180, USA