Data
There is a distinct set of problems emerging around the issues posed by scientific data online. These three problems exist in disciplines as apparently disparate as anthropology, geography,and marine biology.
First, current expansions in intellectual property law could generate an entirely new set of obstacles to sharing data among scientists or with the public. Extending copyright to databases seems likely to result in basic data being locked up, made more expensive, or more easily subjected to restrictive licensing agreements. We've created a resource for database providers on this issue.
Second, the congruence of Web-enabled database access with the widespread availability of rapid, low-cost gene sequencing and abstract, engineerable biological parts has had an unforeseen effect: there is growing uncertainty of how to store, distribute, license, and provide functional information to specify genetic function under the law. We are working with the leaders of groups such as the BioBricks Foundation and others on this issue.
Third, there is a wasteful data economy evolving in which raw data are not made accessible; scientists are either leery of the risks of losing control over their data or subject to institutional requirements that mandate a closed approach. Implicit in data sets are answers to questions the researcher perhaps did not specify - answers that are a consequence of the throughput of the experiment. Nature's editorial board recently endorsed this approach to data, and we are building the "NeuroCommons" as a proving ground for many of the concepts of the SC-Data project.
The SC-Data project will:- Convene working meetings of stakeholders, players and experts in the numerous engaged fields to learn, build community and develop strategies.
- Develop and implement technical and legal approaches to the commons in focused areas of science, as a testbed for the work of the overall SC-Data project.
- Evaluate and draft open, voluntary and interoperable legal resources and solutions for databases and genomes in the sciences, based on the "some rights reserved" philosophy of Creative Commons.
- Make explicit the benefits of enhanced research opportunities in a digitally networked environment and describe conditions to maximize them for the public good (e.g., developing network standards for researchers, or describing changes in the legal environment, to facilitate research collaboration).
- Document markets underserved by scientific research on account of obstacles to flow and use of data.
- Describe pressures on the traditional "research commons" and examine ways to reduce them.
