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Author Archives: vcs
Open Data Dead on Arrival
In 1984 Karl Popper wrote a private letter to an inquirer he didn’t know, responding to enclosed interview questions. The response was subsequently published and in it he wrote, among other things, that: “Every intellectual has a very special responsibility. … Continue reading
Ars technica article on reproducibility in science
John Timmer wrote an excellent article called “Keeping computers from ending science’s reproducibility.” I’m quoted in it. Here’s an excellent follow up blog post by Grant Jacobs, “Reproducible Research and computational biology.”
Code Repository for Machine Learning: mloss.org
The folks at mloss.org — Machine Leaning Open Source Software — invited a blog post on my roundtable on data and code sharing, held at Yale Law School last November. mloss.org’s philosophy is stated as: “Open source tools have recently … Continue reading
Posted in Conferences, Open Science, Reproducible Research, Software
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Video from "The Great Climategate Debate" held at MIT December 10, 2009
This is an excellent panel discussion regarding the leaked East Anglia docs as well as standards in science and the meaning of the scientific method. It was recorded on Dec 10, 2009, and here’s the description from the MIT World … Continue reading
My answer to the Edge Annual Question 2010: How is the Internet Changing the Way You Think?
At the end of every year editors at my favorite website The Edge ask intellectuals to answer a thought-provoking question. This year it was “How is the internet changing the way you think?†My answer is posted here: http://www.edge.org/q2010/q10_15.html#stodden
Post 3: The OSTP’s call for comments regarding Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies Across the Federal Government
The following comments were posted in response to the OSTP’s call as posted here: http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/default-file/RFI%20Final%20for%20FR.pdf. The first wave, comments posted here, asked for feedback on implementation issues. The second wave requested input on Features and Technology (our post is here). … Continue reading
Post 2: The OSTP’s call for comments regarding Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies Across the Federal Government
The following comments were posted in response to the second wave of the OSTP’s call as posted here: http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/default-file/RFI%20Final%20for%20FR.pdf. The first wave, comments posted here and on the OSTP site here (scroll to the second last comment), asked for feedback … Continue reading
Nathan Myhrvold advocates for Reproducible Research on CNN
On yesterday’s edition of Fareed Zakaria’s GPS on CNN former Microsoft CTO and current CEO of Intellectual Ventures Nathan Myhrvold said reproducible research is an important response for climate science in the wake of Climategate, the recent file leak from … Continue reading
The OSTP's call for comments regarding Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies Across the Federal Government
The following comments were posted in response to the OSTP’s call as posted here: http://www.ostp.gov/galleries/default-file/RFI%20Final%20for%20FR.pdf: Open access to our body of federally funded research, including not only published papers but also any supporting data and code, is imperative, not just … Continue reading
The Climate Modeling Leak: Code and Data Generating Published Results Must be Open and Facilitate Reproducibility
On November 20 documents including email and code spanning more than a decade were leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at East Anglia University in the UK. The Leak Reveals a Failure of Reproducibility of Computational Results It appears … Continue reading
Software and Intellectual Lock-in in Science
In a recent discussion with a friend, a hypothesis occurred to me: that increased levels of computation in scientific research could cause greater intellectual lock-in to particular ideas. Examining how ideas change in scientific thinking isn’t new. Thomas Kuhn for … Continue reading
My Interview with ITConversations on Reproducible Research
On September 30, I was interviewed by Jon Udell from ITConversations.org in his Interviews with Innovators series, on Reproducibility of Computational Science. Here’s the blurb: “If you’re a writer, a musician, or an artist, you can use Creative Commons licenses … Continue reading
Optimal Information Disclosure Levels: Data.gov and "Taleb's Criticism"
I was listening to the audio recording of last Friday’s :Scientific Data for Evidence Based Policy and Decision Making symposium at the National Academies, and was struck by the earnest effort on the part of members of the Whitehouse to … Continue reading
What's New at Science Foo Camp 2009
SciFoo is a wonderful annual gathering of thinkers about science. It’s an unconference and people who choose to speak do so. Here’s my reaction to a couple of these talks. In Pete Worden’s discussion of modeling future climate change, I … Continue reading
Science 2.0: How Tools are Changing Computational Scientific Research
Technology has a history of sweeping scientific enterprise: from Vannevar Bush’s first analog PDE calculators at MIT in the 30’s through the differential analyzers of the 50’s and 60’s to today’s unfinished transition that will end with computation as absolutely … Continue reading
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Bill Gates to Development Researchers: Create and Share Statistics
I was recently in Doha, Qatar, presenting my research on global communication technology use and democratic tendency at ICTD09. I spoke right before the keynote, Bill Gates, whose main point was that when you engage in a goal-oriented activity, such … Continue reading
Wolfram|Alpha Demoed at Harvard: Limits on Human Understanding?
Yesterday Stephen Wolfram gave the first demo of Wolfram|Alpha, coming in May, what he modestly describes as a system to make our stock of human knowledge computable. It includes not just facts, but also our algorithmic knowledge. He says, “Given … Continue reading
Posted in Open Science, Reproducible Research, Statistics, Talks, Technology
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Stuart Shieber and the Future of Open Access Publishing
Back in February Harvard adopted a mandate requiring its faculty member to make their research papers available within a year of publication. Stuart Shieber is a computer science professor at Harvard and responsible for proposing the policy. He has since … Continue reading
Craig Newmark: "no vision, but I know how to keep things simple, and I can listen some"
Craig Newmark was visiting the Berkman Center today and he explained how founding Craiglist brought him to his current role as community organizer. But these are really the same, he says. In 1994, Craig was working at Charles Schwab where … Continue reading
Posted in Berkman, Internet and Democracy, Media, Technology
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Sunstein speaks on extremism
Cass Sunstein, Professor at Harvard Law School, is speaking today on Extremism: Politics and Law. Related to this topic, he is the author of Nudge, Republic.com 2.0, and Infotopia. He discussed Republic 2.0 with Henry Farrell on this bloggingheads.tv diavlog, … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Law, Media, Statistics, Technology
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Benkler: We are collaborators, not knaves
Yochai Benkler gave a talk today in reception of his appointment as the Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. Jack Berkman (now deceased) is the father of Myles Berkman, whose family … Continue reading
Posted in Berkman, Economics, Law, Talks
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Justice Scalia: Populist
Justice Scalia (HLS 1960) is speaking at the inaugural Herbert W. Vaughan Lecture today at Harvard Law School. It’s packed – I arrived at 4pm for the 4:30 talk and joined the end of a long line…. then was immediately … Continue reading
Posted in Law, Open Science, Talks
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A2K3: Connectivity and Democratic Ideals
Also in the final A2K3 panel, The Global Public Sphere: Media and Communication Rights, Natasha Primo, National ICT policy advocacy coordinator for the Association for Progressive Communications, discusses three questions that happen to be related to my current research. 1) … Continue reading
Posted in A2K3, Conferences, Developing world, Internet and Democracy
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A2K3: Communication Rights as a Framework for Global Connectivity
In the last A2K3 panel, entitled The Global Public Sphere: Media and Communication Rights, Seán Ó Siochrú made some striking statements based on his experience building local communication networks in undeveloped areas of LCDs. He states that the global public … Continue reading
Posted in A2K3, Conferences, Developing world, Human Rights, Internet and Democracy, Technology
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A2K3: Opening Scientific Research Requires Societal Change
In the A2K3 panel on Open Access to Science and Research, Eve Gray, from the Centre for Educational Technology, University of Cape Town, sees the Open Access movement as a real societal change. Accordingly she shows us a picture of … Continue reading
Legal Barriers to Open Science: my SciFoo talk
I had an amazing time participating at Science Foo Camp this year. This is a unique conference: there are 200 invitees comprising some of the most innovative thinkers about science today. Most are scientists but not all – there are … Continue reading
A2K3 Kaltura Award
I am honored and humbled to win the A2K3 Kaltura prize for best paper. Peter Suber posts about it here and gives the abstract. His post also includes a link to a draft of the paper, which can also be … Continue reading
A2K3: Technological Standards are Public Policy
Laura DeNardis, executive director of Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, spoke during the A2K3 panel on Technologies for Access. She makes the point that many of our technological standards are being made behind closed doors and by private, largely … Continue reading
Posted in A2K3, Conferences, Developing world, Internet and Democracy, Technology
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A2K3: A World Trade Agreement for Knowledge?
Thiru Balasubramanian, Geneva Representative for Knowledge Ecology International presents a proposal (from a forthcoming paper by James Love and Manon Ress) for a WTO treaty on knowledge (so far all WTO agreements extend to private goods only). Since information is … Continue reading
Posted in A2K3, Conferences, Intellectual Property, Open Science
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A2K3: Access to Knowledge as a Human Right
Building on the opening remarks, the second panel addresses Human right and Access to Knowledge. Caroline Dommen, director of 3D, an advocacy group promoting human rights consideration in trade agreements, emphasizes the need for metrics: how can we tell how … Continue reading
Posted in A2K3, Conferences, Developing world, Human Rights, Intellectual Property
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A2K3: Tim Hubbard on Open Science
In the first panel at A2K3 on the history, impact, and future of the global A2K movement, Tim Hubbard, a genetics researcher, laments that scientists tend to carry out their work in a closed way and thus very little data … Continue reading
Access to Knowledge 3: Opening Remarks
I’m at my first Access to Knowledge conference in Geneva and I’ve never felt so important. Walking to the Centre International de Conférences in Geneva I passed the UN High Commission for Refugees and I’m sitting in an enormous tiered … Continue reading
Posted in A2K3, Conferences, Developing world, Intellectual Property
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Book Review: The Cathedral and the Bazaar by Eric Raymond
I can’t believe I haven’t read this book until now since it intersects two areas of deep interest to me: technology (specifically programming) and freedom. Essentially the book celebrates liberty as a natural mode for creativity and productivity, with open … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Economics, Technology
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Vacations or "Vacations" :)
I’m here at the Global Voices Summit in Budapest and I just listened to a panel on Rising Voices, a group within Global Voices dedicated to supporting the efforts of people traditionally underrepresented in citizen media. (See their trailer here). … Continue reading
Posted in Conferences, Developing world, Media, Technology
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Internet and Cell Phone Use in the Middle East
When people talk about the Internet and Democracy, especially in the context of the Middle East, I wonder just how pervasive the Internet really is in these countries. I made a quick plot of data for Middle Eastern countries from … Continue reading
Posted in Middle East, Statistics, Technology
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Lessig stars at the Stanford FCC hearing
After Comcast admitted to stuffing seats at the FCC hearing at Harvard Law School February 24th, the FCC decided another hearing was necessary. They chose to hold it at Stanford April 17 and I’m watching the FCC’s videocast of the … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Internet and Democracy, Media, Technology
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Cass Sunstein and Yochai Benkler at MIT – Our Digitized World: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly.
Last Thursday April 10 MIT hosted a debate/discussion between Yochai Benkler and Cass Sunstein (audio can be found here). Both are Harvard Law Professors (Sunstein coming here from Chicago in the fall) and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the discussion became very philosophical. … Continue reading
Posted in Internet and Democracy, Media, Talks
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Amartya Sen at the Aurora Forum at Stanford University: Global Solidarity, Human Rights, and the End of Poverty
This is a one day conference to commemorate Martin Luther King’s “The Other America” in his 1967 speech at Stanford, and heed that speech’s call to create a more just world. Mark Gonnerman, director of the Aurora Forum introduces the … Continue reading
Posted in Conferences, Developing world, Economics, Human Rights, Talks
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The Internet Drives Election Results in Malaysia
On March 8, elections were held to the Malaysian parliament. The incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, who lost its two-third majority in parliament, had held power since independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. In the months leading up to … Continue reading
Posted in Developing world, Internet and Democracy, Media
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Do you Know Where Your News Is? Predictions for 2013 by Media Experts:
Jonathan Zittrain, co-founder of the Berkman Center, is moderating a panel on the future of news at Berkman’s Media Re:public Forum. The panelists were given two minutes and gave us some soundbites. Paul Steiger is Editor-in-Chief of ProPublica, a non … Continue reading
Posted in Berkman, Conferences, Internet and Democracy, Media, Talks
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