Research 2.0 - from scientists to citizens

Bill St. Arnaud from CANARIE gave a presentation about "Participative Science", quite an exciting idea of using the participative web to go from traditional closed science grid networks to providing citizens the ability to access and analyse datasets themselves.

Earlier in the day, in response to a question about "what is the participative web beyond social networking" we had heard from Cyrus Beagley about the NetFlix Prize, in which the DVD-by-mail service is offering up some of its data for analysis, with a US $1 million prize for the best DVD recommender algorithm.

In his presentation, Bill pointed to Intel® Mash Maker: Mashups for the Masses, as an example of how tools for working with online data are becoming easier to use and more widely available.

In "ICT for Science - experiencing the future Internet", Mario Campolargo of GÉANT talked about the empowerment of users, the need to think about the interface between formal e-science grids and more informal networks for citizen access ("citizen grids").

It is clear that the rapid pace of change is pushing those involved with science infrastructure to think about ways to interact with a broader public, to take advantage of the energy and creativity of the general population, promoting greater understanding of and participation in science.  The rapid progress of these technologies has opened new horizons of research, making powerful research tools available.  As Diana Rhoten from the US NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure said in her presentation, "we are living in exponential times", which is enabling more computing power and data to be distributed more widely and used by more people than ever before.