Science & Technology Assessment Using Open Data and Open Code

Facing the Data Deluge The number of active researchers exceeds the number of all previous researchers. Researchers either publish or perish. Some areas of science produce more than 40,000 papers a month. Not only library buildings and storage facilities, but also databases are filling up more quickly than they can be built. In addition, there are scientific datasets, algorithms, and tools that need to be mastered in order to advance science. No single man or machine can process and make sense of this enormous stream of data, information, knowledge, and expertise. The tools we use to access, manage, and utilize our collective knowledge are primitive. Our main means of accessing everything we collectively know is search engines. While this seems to work well for fact-finding, it keeps us scrounging on the floor among confirmed and unconfirmed records. There is no “zoom out” button that provides us with a global view of what we collectively know – how everything is interlinked, what patterns, trends or outliers exist, or in what context a specific piece of knowledge was created or can be used. Without context, intelligent data selection, prioritization, and quality judgments become extremely difficult to make. This reality leads to increasing specialization of researchers, practitioners, and other knowledge workers, a disconcerting fragmentation of science, a world of missed opportunities for collaboration, and a nightmarish feeling that we are doomed to reinvent the wheel forever. This is a major concern. Scientific results are needed to enable all human beings to live healthy, productive, and fulfilling lives.