Open Science

Before we get to the conclusions, the results, the statements, there is the data. Open science refers to the public sharing of data. This also requires a new approach to existing structures. As long as reward structures create advantages

OER, OA, and Open Science all fall into the larger category of Open Publication. Henry Chesbrough notes the advantage when he writes: “Open publication promotes the vigorous exchange of ideas and creates a powerful stimulus to apply the ideas before someone else applies them instead.” Applying this to an educational environment, open publication should increase the speed at which ideas develop in the public discourse as well as lead to application in the form of course development (see CROWD ACCELERATED INNOVATION). When new ideas develop and new disciplines and topics evolve, those institutions able to apply this work fastest will be at advantage.

This concept is similar to the same one which Vannevar Bush proposed for American science following World War II (as well as a new information architecture which inevitably manifested itself as hypertext). Once this hit the political process, however, science went from cooperative to competitive, and peer review went from being supportive and growth fostering to be controlling and evaluative. An open university fosters a sense of support and shared information to benefit all.

In Open Publication in general, the new possibilities are significant with current technologies, and it behooves open universities to model this practice. Hirsch (1982) notes that the new possibilities include not only across departments, but across campuses, geography and even sectors as data and information are shared readily between higher education and industry, government, etc. Perhaps the greatest example of this is Google co-founder Sergei Brinn’s research project focused on Parkinson’s disease (Goetz 2010). This project has made data available and increased the size of available subject pools to create possibilities for research and discovery previously unknown. Such a practice should be a norm rather than an exception. These are also all examples of crowd sourcing where individuals come together to solve a common problem or to fill a common need (with Linux being another clear example).