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Science 2.0

2011 July 25
by douellet

Unlike a few other topics discussed this week, Science 2.0 is a fairly well developed concept. It generally refers to the more open data sharing made possible by social media technologies.  The term is often associated with the open data movement.  Social networking sites have allowed scientists to share research data allowing other scientists to very quickly replicate the experiment and compare their results to the original data and verify the original results.  Social media, has in general allowed greater collaboration and sharing between scientists and researchers around the world.

And yet that isn’t the full story here. The 2.0 is also not entirely helpful because collaboration and data sharing/verification has always been important in scientific research. What was 1.0?  If we know the stories of data sharing (albeit much slower) through letters and visits from Aristotle to Darwin to today.  If collaboration and data sharing have always existed among researchers, how is 2.0 any different than what came before it?

The answer is it isn’t very different. There are 2 main differences.  Science 2.o does allow for faster collaboration, but really that isn’t much difference. Secondly, since social media broadcasts to a large audience (as opposed to a letter addressed to one scientists) it does creates greater transparency within the scientific community.

Yet even with a well defined concept such as Science 2.0, the 2.0 suffix is not helpful.  It is more a hinderance because it is not descriptive enough. science 2.0 is not different enough from what came before it.   Terms such as “open data movement” or other terms describing sharing and collaboration would be far more helpful than adding a suffix which needs to be explained.

One Response leave one →
  1. Dean permalink
    August 6, 2011

    For me, Science 2.0 is the use of social media to do the work of science. There’s some openness of data but the key for me is the use of social media for communication and collaborative work.

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