By Peter Cochrane, 13 June 2007 09:30
COMMENT
Written in Austin, Texas during a short stopover and dispatched to silicon.com the same day via free wi-fi at my hotel
Throughout my professional career I have relied on professional journals and publications as my primary sources of refereed information for the reporting of scientific and engineering results. But this old world of open corroboration and reference seems to be retreating real fast.
Everywhere I look, I see so-called 'new' ideas and results reported and displayed that were first published prior to the web's arrival. It is as if the young have adopted the mantra, 'if it ain't on the web it doesn't exist'.
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I have to confess I have largely gone that way too and tend to increasingly look upon most professional journals as the irrelevant preserve of the academic and technologically introverted communities.
How did this happen? The professional institutions have been the laggards in a world where they preached change. They have stuck with and protected the old paper publications and refereed system. They have also promoted closed and exclusive websites. But the world has moved on with everything biased toward the open and fast moving.
The only way these professional groups can reclaim the high ground is to digitise their extensive libraries from the past, provide open access to everyone and migrate to a faster publishing and review regime. Will they do it? I hope so but I don't see it happening! They are mostly made up of old minds with a vested interest in preserving the past.
So what will happen? I think the bifurcation of the old and new will accelerate. And for sure the old doesn't have much time. The good news is that repeating some of the work from the past using the latest technology and techniques might just reveal things that were missed or misunderstood the first time around.
Comments
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1. Fizzisyst
You're far too optimistic Peter. What we appear to have lost is the understanding of the basics, and technology will turn into magic and superstition without at least some people knowing the science behind it.
F'r instance, how on earth can this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6725955.stm
be new? Tesla was at it 80 years ago, I have a electric toothbrush that uses it now. Apparently it's a great new invention, picked up by both the beeb AND silicon.com and El Reg
2. Richard
A more sinister possibility?
Youngsters emerge from school with only a hazy understanding even of recent current events and recent history;
They have little understanding of science or technology, and are even hostile to scientific or technological developments – apart from mass-marketed consumer products;
(Recently, when the UK's Environment minister was questioned about his latest pronouncements, he boasted that he'd 'failed' Physics at school so relied wholly on 'experts.')
They have little knowledge of finance or business – wages, subsidies & benefits are “good”: investments, shareholdings & profits are “bad”;
Most can communicate only in English, so even with the Internet they can communicate only with very few people in other countries;
The few who still have curiosity, soon discover that the web is pretty blank before about 1995 and that few public libraries now have proper reference books;
The daily diet from the media serves only to reinforce this situation; even to “re-interpret” factual events and topics;
- Could this all be pure coincidence?
- Could the enforced ignorance be deliberate?
- Who does it benefit?
- Is “knowledge” really “power”?
(Now, I'll return to the medieval Latin documents obtained yesterday from Kew.)
3. David Bowler
Dear Peter,
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (founded 1780) has placed the entire run of its Proceedings (except for the last 5 years) on the web, free of charge. Go to http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/library/psas.
We also produce a free-access web publication called SAIR. Go to http://www.sair.org.uk/
Is that the sort of thing you have in mind?
4. Peter Cochrane
Fizzisyst = Guilty: I am, and always have been, very optimistic. Even before the www our media was doing all this...but I have to say they have got louder, more numerouse, and wilder of late. Peter
5. Peter Cochrane
Richard = This has always been true of a % of the population for sure. The real point is that they seem to be growing in number! Peter
6. Peter Cochrane
David = Absolutely! If only all professional bodies were so enlightened. Peter
7. Leccie
The University of Bristol have established an open repository at rose.bris.ac.uk, currently with lots of communications and engineering maths research.