Given at the ALPSP 2011 conference.

1. the “social” side
of digital science
kaitlin thaney
@kaythaney
ALSPS, 16 sept 2011

2. about Digital Science
our view of “social”
changing behavior

3. our story

5. technology company
publisher link
london, nyc, tokyo

6. investment arm
incubator role
in-house dev

7. tiered approach
build to scale
researcher-focused

8. what we think of as
“social” in research
(from 33,000 feet)

9. (not in the social
networking business)

10. social has been worked into
(almost) every aspect of our
online interaction

11. science is changing
(and the research workflow)

12. communicate
collaborate
conduct

13. research
idea
publish lit review
share results materials
retest
analyze experiment
collect data

14. blocking points
(to name a few ... )
idea
publish lit review
share results materials
retest
analyze experiment
collect data

15. digital research
(will revisit later)
idea
articles
proceedings content
prof activities
(metadata) mentorship
patents
share results the non-digital “stuff”
retest
analysis protocols
synthesis parameters
datasets

16. science =
inherently social
(with a few bugs)
(think knowledge exchange)

17. social in terms of
knowledge discovery

18. still the starting point

19. patents are no better
(in many cases, worse)

21. can streamline

23. in labs, this is social

24. CC-BY-2.0 - Plaxco Lab - http://www.flickr.com/photos/34857812@N04/

25. CC-BY-2.0 - Plaxco Lab - http://www.flickr.com/photos/34857812@N04/

26. protocols
parameters
calibration
misc. lit

27. sharing information
different types of “data”

28. “i invented a folder based
system ...”

29. “i invented a folder based
system ...”
“yeah, we had a LIMS. it only
ever got used to store photos
from lab nights out.”

31. social for data
feedback, visibility, etc.

32. sharing information
still hits most’s mental block

34. how we measure,
incentivise

35. data capture
(of a different sort)

36. the “social issue”
best practices
behaviour roadblocks
discipline / researcher specific
change in what we measure

37. paper’s still the currency

38. “scientific contribution”
has moved beyond just the
paper

39. our metrics need to
reflect that

40. digital research
(some new outputs to consider)
idea
articles
proceedings content
prof activities
(metadata) mentorship
patents
conversations the non-digital “stuff”
results protocols
queries lab notebooks
datasets

41. tools for decision makers
(research admin / funders)
using technology to spur
cultural shift

42. “ what do we want
on the back of our
(science) baseball
Top Trumps cards? “
- paul groth (et al.)

43. technology can help
perception issue
change the way we
view/value social

44. work towards reproducibility
encourage new content uses
keep in mind social barriers

45. thank you.
k.thaney@digital-science.com
www.digital-science.com
@kaythaney