Comments on: Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/ A synthesis of ideas about open science and social technology. Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:53:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Freddy Arisa http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-15635 Freddy Arisa Wed, 01 Sep 2010 12:53:48 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-15635 Very good article. Coherent and informative just like a good article should be. I'll definitively be back for more. Very good article. Coherent and informative just like a good article should be. I’ll definitively be back for more.

]]> By: [keywords deleted] http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-15460 [keywords deleted] Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:27:40 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-15460 This doesn't surprise me at all. There are social networks for everybody, not just ones that cater for the 'general' but also specific niches like this. They do not need to be tweaked too much in order to achieve the correct functionality. This doesn’t surprise me at all. There are social networks for everybody, not just ones that cater for the ‘general’ but also specific niches like this. They do not need to be tweaked too much in order to achieve the correct functionality.

]]> By: Ms. Lehti http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-15333 Ms. Lehti Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:19:58 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-15333 This could indeed help scientists to get relevant data faster that is ranked with algorithm and with user input. I whish I could speak out my thoughts more clearly because of the language barrier I have but this post opened my eyes a bit. How bout that new scientific search engine Wolfram Alpha? Would that be any good source or platform with this kind of experiment? This could indeed help scientists to get relevant data faster that is ranked with algorithm and with user input. I whish I could speak out my thoughts more clearly because of the language barrier I have but this post opened my eyes a bit. How bout that new scientific search engine Wolfram Alpha? Would that be any good source or platform with this kind of experiment?

]]> By: Mr. Gunn http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-15174 Mr. Gunn Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:55:29 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-15174 Thanks, Ed. I remains skeptical about the value of Facebook, as it's a walled community. That's antithetical to collaboration and sharing. In fact, I don't even think it would be appropriate to use research that's publicly funded to add value to a commercial enterprise that has shown such a low regard for privacy and whose whole business model is based on selling user information. Friendfeed served this role much better, which is probably why Facebook bought&buried them. Thanks, Ed. I remains skeptical about the value of Facebook, as it’s a walled community. That’s antithetical to collaboration and sharing. In fact, I don’t even think it would be appropriate to use research that’s publicly funded to add value to a commercial enterprise that has shown such a low regard for privacy and whose whole business model is based on selling user information. Friendfeed served this role much better, which is probably why Facebook bought&buried them.

]]> By: Ed http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-15173 Ed Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:39:11 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-15173 Mr Gunn, awesome analysis! I just wanna add that Facebook have recently been widely used as a form of collaboration tool in various communities and I do forsee its value within the science crowd. The social aspect aside, I think Facebook's grouping functions gives an element of fun, not to mention the hundreds of apps that can be used to enhance collaboration and communication. Mr Gunn, awesome analysis! I just wanna add that Facebook have recently been widely used as a form of collaboration tool in various communities and I do forsee its value within the science crowd. The social aspect aside, I think Facebook’s grouping functions gives an element of fun, not to mention the hundreds of apps that can be used to enhance collaboration and communication.

]]> By: Network6 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-15132 Network6 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:22:24 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-15132 The entire concpet of decision engines is amazing! The entire concpet of decision engines is amazing!

]]> By: Webster http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14976 Webster Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:38:41 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14976 Other applications that would help a great deal are: - Simply rating the relationship between two documents. Most systems rate individual pieces of content, but I have yet to see anything that offers the ability to rate a relationship. - When it comes to tagging, Calais looks promising (http://www.opencalais.com/). They can crawl your content and programatically tag it based off relationships found in the Calias RDF database. Drupal currently offers some plug and play modules that make this a lot easier. (http://drupal.org/project/opencalais). Other good modules for this: - http://drupal.org/project/calais_marmoset - http://drupal.org/project/morelikethis - http://drupal.org/project/topichubs Other applications that would help a great deal are:

- Simply rating the relationship between two documents. Most systems rate individual pieces of content, but I have yet to see anything that offers the ability to rate a relationship.

- When it comes to tagging, Calais looks promising (http://www.opencalais.com/). They can crawl your content and programatically tag it based off relationships found in the Calias RDF database. Drupal currently offers some plug and play modules that make this a lot easier. (http://drupal.org/project/opencalais). Other good modules for this:

- http://drupal.org/project/calais_marmoset
- http://drupal.org/project/morelikethis
- http://drupal.org/project/topichubs

]]> By: Webster Jorgensen http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14863 Webster Jorgensen Thu, 14 May 2009 01:16:42 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14863 I bet Google is currently working on something like this. They aren't far off right now. They have Google Scholar, and clicking the Related Articles link seems to produce fairly relevant results to the initial document. They don't seem to serve ads in Google Scholar. I wonder why they just don't serve documents on the right side of the page based of a user's interaction with their results. They have a lot of patents related to refining results based off of a series of searches. I bet Google is currently working on something like this. They aren’t far off right now. They have Google Scholar, and clicking the Related Articles link seems to produce fairly relevant results to the initial document. They don’t seem to serve ads in Google Scholar. I wonder why they just don’t serve documents on the right side of the page based of a user’s interaction with their results. They have a lot of patents related to refining results based off of a series of searches.

]]> By: The problem of linking and referencing | Israeli Software http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14859 The problem of linking and referencing | Israeli Software Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:32:35 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14859 [...] I started with google. and found out about science social networking, heard about a science social networking killer app, moved on to discover Synthese Recommender - tried it out on Tamiful effectiveness (Swine flu is in [...] [...] I started with google. and found out about science social networking, heard about a science social networking killer app, moved on to discover Synthese Recommender – tried it out on Tamiful effectiveness (Swine flu is in [...]

]]> By: Social Networking, Semantic Searching and Science « Dennis’ Blog http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14842 Social Networking, Semantic Searching and Science « Dennis’ Blog Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:46:49 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14842 [...] to bridge disciplines, etc). Conventional online social networks may offer some relief there, but as this commentary notes, social networking does not seem to be making rapid inroads into scientific communities, because [...] [...] to bridge disciplines, etc). Conventional online social networks may offer some relief there, but as this commentary notes, social networking does not seem to be making rapid inroads into scientific communities, because [...]

]]> By: William Gunn joins Mendeley as Community Liaison | Mendeley Blog http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14764 William Gunn joins Mendeley as Community Liaison | Mendeley Blog Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:24:39 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14764 [...] Victor and Jan get it, and I asked them, subsequent to the discussion around my last post on a killer app to drive adoption of social networking among scientists, how I could help drive the adoption of their approach. I see this as taking market share away from [...] [...] Victor and Jan get it, and I asked them, subsequent to the discussion around my last post on a killer app to drive adoption of social networking among scientists, how I could help drive the adoption of their approach. I see this as taking market share away from [...]

]]> By: Mr. Gunn http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14747 Mr. Gunn Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:55:17 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14747 Funny you say that, Gary, because <a href="http://mendeley.com" rel="nofollow">Mendeley </a>proposes to be exactly that, and <a href="http://network.nature.com/people/mfenner/blog/2008/09/05/interview-with-victor-henning-from-mendeley" rel="nofollow">the lead investor in last.fm is doing the same for Mendeley</a>. They just released a new version, so you may want to give them a try. Funny you say that, Gary, because Mendeley proposes to be exactly that, and the lead investor in last.fm is doing the same for Mendeley.

They just released a new version, so you may want to give them a try.

]]> By: Gary J http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14738 Gary J Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:42:32 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14738 I believe the development in this software would be a breakthrough to the scientific community, with professors students and researches alike taking full use of this medium for their own specific reasons. I think Andres beta searcher is a step in the right direction, as is Faculty of 1000 and GoPubMed.com There needs to be a collaboration and compromise to create an engine that is as powerful as Pandora or Last.fm for the scientific community. I believe the development in this software would be a breakthrough to the scientific community, with professors students and researches alike taking full use of this medium for their own specific reasons. I think Andres beta searcher is a step in the right direction, as is Faculty of 1000 and GoPubMed.com There needs to be a collaboration and compromise to create an engine that is as powerful as Pandora or Last.fm for the scientific community.

]]> By: Not such a killer, perhaps http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14701 Not such a killer, perhaps Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:08:30 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14701 [...] tagging doesn’t work: [Via Bench Marks] Reading William Gunn’s recent blog posting, Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? got me thinking more about the many online scientific reference list repositories like Connotea, [...] [...] tagging doesn’t work: [Via Bench Marks] Reading William Gunn’s recent blog posting, Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? got me thinking more about the many online scientific reference list repositories like Connotea, [...]

]]> By: Science Spotlight - February 24th, 2009 | Next Generation Science http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14698 Science Spotlight - February 24th, 2009 | Next Generation Science Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:50:22 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14698 [...] Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? | Synthesis [...] [...] Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? | Synthesis [...]

]]> By: Bench Marks » Blog Archive » Why article tagging doesn’t work http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14695 Bench Marks » Blog Archive » Why article tagging doesn’t work Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:16:28 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14695 [...] William Gunn’s recent blog posting, Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? got me thinking more about the many online scientific reference list repositories like Connotea, [...] [...] William Gunn’s recent blog posting, Could this be the Science Social Networking killer app? got me thinking more about the many online scientific reference list repositories like Connotea, [...]

]]> By: David Crotty http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14689 David Crotty Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:41:35 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14689 I always wonder if annotations are worth the time required, at least when compared with a good search engine. I know in my experience with Connotea and CiteULike and such things, that tagging is a major pain. Each paper takes time to tag, then you add another paper with a new tag, and you realize some of the older papers could use that tag as well, so you have to go back, etc., etc. And then even if you tag a paper for something, it might not be relevant to what you're later looking for that's in that paper. I think that's the big reason you see so much effort from Google, Microsoft and Apple on desktop searching, with the idea that it's easier to search than it is to organize. Although I would say that social networking approaches can make searching vastly easier, with GoPubMed (http://www.gopubmed.org) as an example, with their curated hierarchy. I always wonder if annotations are worth the time required, at least when compared with a good search engine. I know in my experience with Connotea and CiteULike and such things, that tagging is a major pain. Each paper takes time to tag, then you add another paper with a new tag, and you realize some of the older papers could use that tag as well, so you have to go back, etc., etc. And then even if you tag a paper for something, it might not be relevant to what you’re later looking for that’s in that paper. I think that’s the big reason you see so much effort from Google, Microsoft and Apple on desktop searching, with the idea that it’s easier to search than it is to organize.
Although I would say that social networking approaches can make searching vastly easier, with GoPubMed (http://www.gopubmed.org) as an example, with their curated hierarchy.

]]> By: Mr. Gunn http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14688 Mr. Gunn Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:03:47 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14688 You're right, David that expert participation and attention is a difficult thing to get, and the real experts tend to be the busiest ones. I wasn't thinking about reviews, though. I was thinking of something more along the lines of annotation. You don't necessarily need the big dog in the field to score a paper along the lines of techniques used, studied under, is a response to, etc. I was really thinking more along the lines of putting the supposed PhD excess to use. Maybe one of the science social networking companies could use analysts like Pandora uses music analysts? You’re right, David that expert participation and attention is a difficult thing to get, and the real experts tend to be the busiest ones. I wasn’t thinking about reviews, though. I was thinking of something more along the lines of annotation. You don’t necessarily need the big dog in the field to score a paper along the lines of techniques used, studied under, is a response to, etc. I was really thinking more along the lines of putting the supposed PhD excess to use. Maybe one of the science social networking companies could use analysts like Pandora uses music analysts?

]]> By: David Crotty http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14687 David Crotty Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:08:56 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14687 Doesn't Faculty of 1,000 already fill this role in some ways? http://www.facultyof1000.com/ It never really achieved much traction as far as I know. I would think that getting the "expert" reviewers that people are really willing to listen to may be the biggest non-technical stumbling block here. Those whose opinions would be most useful are the least likely to participate. Doesn’t Faculty of 1,000 already fill this role in some ways?
http://www.facultyof1000.com/
It never really achieved much traction as far as I know.

I would think that getting the “expert” reviewers that people are really willing to listen to may be the biggest non-technical stumbling block here. Those whose opinions would be most useful are the least likely to participate.

]]> By: Mendeley Blog » Blog Archive » A human-scored research paper recommendation engine? http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/2009/02/13/could-this-be-the-science-social-networking-killer-app/comment-page-1/#comment-14684 Mendeley Blog » Blog Archive » A human-scored research paper recommendation engine? Mon, 16 Feb 2009 13:58:41 +0000 http://synthesis.williamgunn.org/?p=224#comment-14684 [...] few days ago, William Gunn blogged about a fascinating idea for a paper recommendation engine and also described Mendeley’s role in it. His post then [...] [...] few days ago, William Gunn blogged about a fascinating idea for a paper recommendation engine and also described Mendeley’s role in it. His post then [...]

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