e-Research 2.0Taking the measure of Web 2.0 in e-Research

Eric T. Meyer, Lucy Power, Ralph Schroeder

discussing work of theOxford e-Social Science (OeSS) Node of NCeSS

Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

Oxford e-Social Science Project

Overview

• Science 2.0/Open Science• GeoVue• JOVE• Science Blogging• The Pynchon Wiki• Science 2.0 and e-Research

Open Science / Science 2.0

Open Science / Science 2.0

GeoVUE

Virtual London

Image Source: Hudson-Smith, Digital Urban Blog at http://digitalurban.blogspot.com/2007/08/ordnance-survey-and-google-statements.html

GeoVUE

MapTube

JOVE Characteristics

Length of Video Articles, JOVE (n=172)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

>30 20-30 15-20 10-15 5-10 <5

Time in Minutes

Nu

mb

er o

f A

rtic

les

Views of JOVE Articles (n=172)

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

Vie

ws

Geographic Distribution

Geographic Distribution

Science Blogging

Science Blogging

Coding ScienceBlogs Postgenomic Researchblogging Totals

News 24 24% 66 49% 46 46% 136 41%

Academic 26 26% 31 23% 16 16% 73 22%

Academia 5 5% 7 5% 11 11% 23 7%

Own work 5 5% 2 1% 10 10% 17 5%

Blog response 14 14% 24 18% 8 8% 46 14%

Other 2 2% 4 3% 3 3% 9 3%

Photo-Multimedia 24 24% 1 1% 6 6% 31 9%

# of posts 100 135 100 335 100%

Scienceblogs.com Researchblogging.orgPostgenomic.org

The Pynchon Wiki

• A Wiki for annotating a contemporary American novel• A 1085 page novel is annotated between November

2006 and early 2007• The equivalent single author annotation in book form

takes longer than a decade• A flexible, highly motivating, distributed collaborative

effort – a model for other forms of online collaboration?

The Pynchon Wiki

• A notoriously reclusive novelist;

• Author of– Gravity’s Rainbow,

annotated in book form– Against the Day,

annotated in Wiki form– Arcana integral to story-

lines

The Pynchon Wiki:Charting Pynchon Online Activity

Community Acitivity

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Jan-

06

Feb-

06

Mar

-06

Apr-0

6

May

-06

J un-

06

J ul-0

6

Aug-0

6

Sep-0

6

Oct-0

6

Nov-0

6

Dec-0

6

J an-

07

Feb-

07

Mar

-07

Apr-0

7

May

-07

J un-

07

Pynchon- l mailinglist messages Against the day Wiki edits

Anticipation

Annotation

And what’s next?

Weisenburger vs. the Wiki on Pynchon

Comparison of book and wiki annotation efforts

Annotation Size

(no. of words)

Entries (topical

+ alphabetical+ page-by-page) Contibutors

Book Form Annotation: Weisenburger’s

Gravity’s Rainbow162000 904 1 (22)

Wiki: Against the Day

455057 120 + 1358 + 4067

235

The Pynchon Wiki:Wiki Edits over Time

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

Oct-0

6

Nov-0

6

Dec-0

6

Jan-

07

Feb-

07

Mar

-07

Apr-0

7

May

-07

Jun-

07

Jul-0

7

page-by-page

alphabetical

topical

The Pynchon Wiki

• A race to finish the ‘detective work’• Encouraging amateur contribution and learning from

other contributors• A model for self-organized collaboration?• ‘Finalization’ of reference work or endless discussion?• Reshaping how scholarly resources are distributed,

and how we collaborate

Science 2.0 and e-Research

• Technology affordances for generativity– Generativity in this context includes content creation, flexible

use, accessibility, ability to distribute• Institutional ties are generally weakened• Enhancing existing information and behavioural patterns

or building analogues is much easier than expecting profound changes in outlook and behaviour– Easier to hook into existing communities in ways they

understand to make their work easier, better, faster, cooler, more accessible, more widely distributed, more measurable, more sharable, more collaborative, more community-oriented

• Ability to generate research materials towards a shared resource on the side of input

• Output is online, accessible and open to revision or more input

• Off-the-shelf technology is used and only informal ‘institutions’ are generated or involved

• Contributions, technology and dissemination are thus bottom-up and ‘open’, including outside academia

Science 2.0 and e-Research

Science 2.0 and e-Research Outlook:

Benefits and Challenges• Bottom-up driven e-

Research generated by user needs

• Large-scale involvement by research communities, including non-academics

• ‘Open’ research, harnessing the ‘wealth of networks’ (user-generated content)

• Lack of recognition for tool development and contributions to resources

• Blurring boundaries between science and non-science and lack of quality control

• Diffuseness of ‘research’, visibility in the midst of attention deluge

Oxford e-Social Science (OeSS) Node of NCeSS

@ Oxford Internet InstituteUniversity of Oxford

Eric T. MeyerResearch Fellow

eric.meyer@oii.ox.ac.ukhttp://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/meyer

Lucy PowerDPhil Student

lucy.power@oii.ox.ac.ukhttp://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/power/

Ralph SchroederJames Martin Research Fellowralph.schroeder@oii.ox.ac.uk

http://people.oii.ox.ac.uk/schroeder

Oxford e-Social Science Project