Open Data, Open Visualization and a new blog
August 30, 2008
Image via Wikipedia I discovered a new blog today, FlowingData, at least I don’t recall having seen it before. The blog is all about the meaning of data. How did I find it? One of my Google alerts took me to a post on How Open Should Open Source Data Visualization Be. The part that I went straight to was the part on the three aspects of open source data visualization; Open Tools, Open Code, Open Data.
I don’t necessarily agree with some of the discussion in the post, at least from a scientific perspective, where data visualization is a key to data interpretation, although it’s possible I am misinterpreting the author who seems to be favorable of openness. Again, it’s not always possible to satisfy all three. While R does achieve that, but you can’t always use R (it has it’s performance limitations).
In science, code, data, and data interpretation all go together. The value lies in the interpretation of the data, the hypotheses underlying the interpretation and the presentation of the interpretation. The openness is important, not because it is our duty to give back, but because it is good science. Andrea, in the comments, makes some interesting points. By the way, if you include links to your MyExperiment Workflows, you get super extra brownie points. In particular
However, I believe there’s more potential benefit than risk in sharing my so-called intellectual property. Open science ideals (as exemplified by sharing data, analysis, and results) are highly congruent with the values of the open source communities that I study, and I can’t help but conclude that the institutionalized incentive systems for academics that make us hesitate to share knowledge are overdue for revision.
and
I share my work on principle; science is supposed to be about truth and knowledge, not hoarding data and hiding tools from others for our own personal benefit, to the potential detriment of the greater community.
What we need to spend time figuring out as a field is to take this discussion beyond academia. How can we allow people to make money from good ideas, on top of an open science backbone. Too much of the discussion centers around publishing, peer review, etc, but perhaps that’s where the initial discussion should take place.
The good news, I think most scientists are pre-disposed to open science, it’s just a case of the system that discourages them to go in that direction.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=31762204-2f42-47ae-b247-8edea383450d)
Posted by Deepak Singh | Filed Under Blogspotting, Open Science, Software & Internet, Visualization
Amazon Recommends
On FriendFeed, this post was liked by 10 people and commented on 3 times show
Add New Comment
Viewing 1 Comment
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks
(Trackback URL)