The power of the scholarly individual in the Internet Age

Typed on a slightly dodgy keyboard into Arcturus

I don’t get huge numbers of comments (people shouldn’t feel reluctant) but sometimes you get a post that makes it all worthwhile. I’ve had a mixed day, spilling tea on my laptop keyboard (which is why the previous post is almost infantile), having people help to sort it out, fighting a build on Hudson that took hours rather than minutes, having a colleague find a workaround, and so on…

1. Andrew Zolnai says:

   May 12, 2010 at 12:33 pm  (Edit)

   Thanks for this post, found via GeoEnable. I’m not a scientist tho I’ve been in touch with research institutions all my life, as a geologist now working the web. Check my recent blog psoting on what OpenData has allowed me to do after-hours on Cambs. history data. We just went through an audit of our workplace website and had Creative Commons posted as made sense, same as in my GIScloud maps linked in my blog. Thanks for your indefatigable efforts, to quote a friend also in data mgmt., “… an interesting day in the mine… why do I feel like I am the only one with the flashlight, and everyone else is in the dark when it comes to processes, procedure and planning?” Cheers, Andrew
   

Even a message as short as this creates an immediate bond. Looking briefly at Andrew’s blog he has clearly done a careful and attractive analysis of maps in the Cambridge region.

[I will now briefly make a fool of myself – what the hell , it’s only the web. Andrew has a *.ca extension, which is Canada. Identi.ca has a *.ca extension. Are either anything to do with Canada?]

Andrew’s blog shows how anyone can do works of scholarship without having to be employed by a University. As long as you are prepared to pay for your torch batteries, take the criticism sometimes, then there is no reason why anyone cannot become an Internet scholar. An excellent example of this is GalaxyZoo where “amateurs” (and I use that in a complimentary sense) were invited to help classify galaxies. This is primarily a matter of being able to operate rules for classification based on shape, size, texture, etc. It turns out that many “amateur” classifiers were as good as the “experts”. There are now hundreds of thousands of GalaxyZooites and it even got onto The Archers (a UK BBC farming soap of great popularity and duration).

The key thing is that it’s possible to make scientific discoveries or contributions without being a formal practitioner. I understand that there are nearly 20 peer-reviewed publications from GalaxyZoo which include non-astronomers.

There’s therefore no reason why Andrew should not become an expert on geographical history (assuming he already isn’t). There’s a long tradition of amateur scholarship in this country (my great-aunt, Alice Hibbert-Ware who lived in Girton) did a seminal study of the stomach contents and pellets of the Little Owl (Athene noctua) which had a major influence in persuading people that it was beneficial to agriculture and should be protected. The F/OSS software movement has many contributors who have no formal software training.

There are many opportunities. In the Open Knowledge Foundation we are strating to collate materials and practices relating to climate change. Canada has just exposed a large amount of data and invited contributions. I expect we shall soon have enough linked Open data on the web that we shall be able to create many new data-driven insights. There’s every reason why schools should be involved in such projects – the collection and analysis of data is a key skill.

So yes, Andrew, when it looks bleak (I call it “blood on the floor at midnight”) keep going.