data sharing

[Hugh Wilson]

I think the central - and essentially *new* element of data access
and sharing on the network involves neither commerical nor academic
use but rather *public* access and usage on a global scale.  This
unique attribute of web-based info and services is now in the process
of redefining 'hardcopy' notions of value and credit, as evidenced by
how the commercial sector is using the network and devising
procedures - especially 'gift' downloads - that function to enhance
business operations.  Shareholders of Netscape are not complaining
about offering a primary product free of charge.

I would guess that a similar dynamic will evolve in the academic
arena and its not the sort of enterprise that will allow full
development by a small, self-proclaimed 'center'.  Those involved
with stewardship of base data - specimens - will, I think, increase
the value of both specimens and support for curation/collection IF
data associated with collections is made available to anyone with an
interest.

On  6 Nov 98 at 12:50, Doug Yanega <dyanega at MONO.ICB.UFMG.BR> wrote:

> Date:          Fri, 6 Nov 1998 12:50:07 -0300
> Reply-to:      Doug Yanega <dyanega at MONO.ICB.UFMG.BR>
> From:          Doug Yanega <dyanega at MONO.ICB.UFMG.BR>
> Subject:       Re: data sharing
> To:            Multiple recipients of list TAXACOM

> Hugh Wilson wrote (among other things):
>
> >However, systematic data - regardless of
> >source - are constantly changing.  Thus, any effort to 'grab' data
> >from an unknowing but active source will only produce an outdated
> >resource in that updates will always be generated the folks that are
> >really doing the work.
>
> Richard Zander followed up on this aspect, as well. Note that this is a
> different matter than I was concerned with originally, as here you're now
> talking about *academic* use of the online data rather than commercial,
> which is a different form of possible exploitation, depending on how you
> view things. If the scientific community was more willing to give credit
> for people who create databases (i.e., that it is the kind of thing that
> would be considered during tenure reviews, etc.), then the idea of being
> "exploited" by having one's database used by others for their own
> publications would be a non-issue, the same way no one blinks when one of
> their papers is cited by someone else. The matter of intellectual property
> rights is an old one, we're just working up new wrinkles.
>         For example, the aspect of this that is most complex, in the
> context of collections databases, is who really deserves the credit for
> work based on the data in the database? If, for example, there is an
> institution which has a prominent worker's entire collection of a certain
> taxon, and someone else puts this all in an online database, and someone
> else then uses this database to produce a publication on, say, descriptive
> biogeography and phenology (little more than a graphic presentation of the
> data), then the bulk of the work was done by the collector, followed by the
> person who worked up the database, followed by the actual author of the
> paper - all of whom may be folks with a vested interest (career-wise) in
> having their efforts recognized. Is it really fair that only the person who
> *publishes* gets credit for the end product? A database is, in many ways, a
> novel type of resource, and it isn't clear to me that objective standards
> have been worked out as to how they, and works based upon them, should be
> treated - though I have confidence that people *will* eventually work this
> out to everyone's satisfaction.
>
> Peace,
>
> Doug Yanega    Depto. de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciencias Biologicas,
> Univ. Fed. de Minas Gerais, Cx.P. 486, 30.161-970 Belo Horizonte, MG   BRAZIL
> phone: 31-499-2579, fax: 31-499-2567  (from U.S., prefix 011-55)
>                   http://www.icb.ufmg.br/~dyanega/
>   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
>         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
>

Hugh D. Wilson
Texas A&M University - Biology
h-wilson at tamu.edu (409-845-3354)
http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/Wilson/homepage.html