User:Daniel Mietchen/Talks/DiWi10/Abstract

Large-scale collaboration via web-based platforms is the key for making science sustainable in the long run

Science is a collaborative endeavour to expand knowledge systematically. This entails two basic ingredients: a robust framework for retrieving existing knowledge, and the means to restructure it in light of new findings. For centuries, paper-based media have served these purposes, yet internet-based means of communication - and interactive web-based platforms in particular - provide a range of opportunities to accelerate and enhance both functionalities, particularly by stressing the collaborative component and broadening it in scale.

Collaborative platforms now exist that cover every aspect of the research cycle other than funding decisions, but this potential to improve the research process has not been tapped systematically so far. Wikis are a subset of these platforms, and in the following, their potential to serve science communication will be reviewed for each of the major steps of the research cycle, highlighting the differences to the traditional paper-based procedures and, if relevant, to other digital environments. Special attention will be paid to the following four points: (1) adaptations of the peer review process to wiki environments, including for funding decisions, (2) approaches for contextualization, (3) the reduction of unnecessary duplicate efforts that result in a waste of research funds, natural resources and expert attention, and (4) the sociocultural barriers that stand in the way of large-scale collaborative platforms being used more widely for scientific and related purposes.

As a practical demonstration of this collaborative approach, every reader of these lines is invited to join the drafting of this "paper", which will take place via this wiki page until October 15, 2010.