Tag Archives: distributed network

Uberisation of Science

With an increased reliance on geographically-distributed teams, tomorrow's researchers are going to be able to reach unprecedented scales of collaborations, not just limited to cooperation between well-funded labs. Researchers from wider afield, including from territories with lowe level of research funding, will finally be able to more systematically contribute to the great scientific endeavour of the future. This issue is not limited to the mere technicalities of working across self-organised, distributed teams. It also looks at how, for such scenario to take place, it is essential; that we change our outlook on what we mean by collaborating. This may require examining the values driving our future investigations. Read more [...]

One cultural shift away, towards fairer science

Technology-mediated interaction between geographically-distributed teams of scientists is about to happen on a much wider scale than before. And this trend is no longer limited to scientists from well-funded labs. It is now time for researchers to prepare for yet another shift in attitude when interacting with each other. They need to show greater willingness to give and share, encouraged by a new credit and reward system recognising the smallest contributions to science. Read more [...]

From Uber to OpenStreetCab: how data shifts the power back to users

Services like Uber are challenging traditional sectors such as the taxi industry. However, they may charge more than traditional taxis at time of high-demand. To counter this phenomenon, data analysis could bring full transparency in relation to taxi pricing by delivering a head-to-head comparison of all available taxis types. In this opinion piece, Anastasios Noulas, lecturer at the Data Science Institute at Lancaster University, UK, and OpenStreetCab co-founder, shares his experience of how data-driven solutions can increase transparency in tech-disrupted industries and ultimately provide better value for policy makers from publicly available data. Read more [...]

Biological mechanisms discovery by globally-distributed research force

Not every scientist has the comfort of a well-equipped lab. However, newly available open platforms for biomedical in silico discovery could soon spark the brains of millions of researchers forming a geographically-distributed work force across the globe. This no longer requires working in a high-tech lab to contribute to the discovery of new mechanisms in health and diseases. Meanwhile, new opportunities for trainees, scientists and patients to practice annotation of genetic databases, could push the boundaries of open science towards countries where it has not yet been possible to work on such projects. In the second part of a two-part series, Barend Mons from the Leiden University Medical Centre, The Netherlands, explains how it could work in practice, and how close we are to realising this initiative. Read more [...]

The Linux approach to human and ecosystem well-being

Our democracies have bugs, lack user-friendly features and under-perform. Above all, they are in need of major upgrades. Political and economic systems are failing us because they are structured vertically through top-down hierarchies. Instead we need to adopt a new economic system, driven by principles related to “act local, think global" philosophy. In this stimulating opinion piece, Lorenzo Fioramonti, director of the Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation, in South Africa, shares his vision about creating a highly integrated horizontal economic system. Read more [...]