DFN science-to-science: Peer-to-peer scientific research

Extended Abstract: The DFN [1]-the german research network-is a non-profit association providing the computer-based communication infrastructure for science, research and education in Germany. The project Science-To-Science is an attempt to harness peer-to-peer (p2p) technology to serve the needs of scientific research in order to promote the exchange of knowledge and information. The pilot phase of the project caters to interested scientific institutions connected to the G-WiN, the scientific Gigabit network run by the DFN. The project is being managed and implemented by neofonie GmbH [2] a company based in Berlin and specializing in search and content management in distributed environments. neofonie has been developing search engines since 1998. It also developed the distributed content management system in use by AOL Germany. neofonie enjoys close ties with the research community and continues to be active in this field. The main aim of the project is to unlock the wealth of knowledge hidden on machines connected to the G-WiN but not accessible to search engines. This information may come in the form of web pages, database contents, regular document files (sound, audio, video) on ftp or mail servers. The information is indexed as structured or unstructured full-text depending on the source. The indexes may be searched by anyone in the DFN S2S network. On the one hand, the motor driving this heightened accessibility will be researchers and scientific institutions themselves. The p2p paradigm means autonomous control of one's own resources: scientists will choose which resource to make available and in which manner. The main reasons we have identified why researchers will want to make use of such an alternative publishing source are: the ultimate goal of research in an abstract sense is to make the results publicly known; until now the publication source has seldom if ever been under control of the publishing scientist; the limited amount of publication space available to researchers in traditional science and peer reviewed publications means that papers published often represent only a fraction of the material the scientist wishes to publish.[3] On the other hand, the innovative fusion of neofonie's high speed, flexible XML-based software together with the XML-based p2p platform of the JXTA project [4] will provide the technology required to realise these aims. The project software will require no expert knowledge to be installed and operated. It will allow the user to select what sort of peer they wish to install: searching (termed "consumer") …