Category Archives: “virtual communities”

Open Source and the Tragedy of the Lurkers

Posted on October 1, 2006 by pm286

In my last post ( Science Commons and Pasteur’s Quadrant) I pointed readers to the collection of vision papers for next week’s meeting on the Science Commons. I ended it with an implied challenge to the pharmceutical industry thats they … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", chemistry, open issues | 5 Comments

Wikipedia: Getting started

Posted on September 29, 2006 by pm286

Sometime last year I made my first edit to Wikipedia. I was extremely nervous despite many years on the web and having built and run virtualo communities. What if I said something stupid? Or broke one of the rules? Since … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", open issues | 3 Comments

Let's write a Wikipedia article

Posted on September 26, 2006 by pm286

I have always been entralled by the idea of a worldwide knowledgebase and a decade ago Lesley West, Alan Mills and I developed a technology to create a worldwide terminology. The Virtual Hyperglossary (TM) [probably the earliest use of this … Continue reading →

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"Open"

Posted on September 26, 2006 by pm286

As I mentioned earlier I am about to start a Wikipedia entry on “Open Data”. Lorcan Dempsey noted that this was quite a common way of approaching a communal subject. So I shall take readers through the process of creating … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", open issues | 2 Comments

Linus' Law and community peer-review

Posted on September 17, 2006 by pm286

Linus Torvalds of Linux fame is creand dited with the law “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow” In a communal Open Source project every developer and every tester (or user when the code is released) can contribute bugs to … Continue reading →

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Useful Chemistry: Publish and be…?

Posted on September 16, 2006 by pm286

It was great to meet Jean-Claude Bradley, the guru of the Useful Chemistry blog at the Am. Chem. Soc meeting. The Useful chemistry blog has a remarkable and valuale feature – J-C publishes chemistry as it is being done. To … Continue reading →

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The Blue Obelisk: A volunteer!

Posted on September 16, 2006 by pm286

I flew back from SF to Heathrow yesterday and, as usual, was hacking on the laptop (with difficulty as Virgin doesn’t seem to give enough space to open a laptop). After a while my neighbour (S) asked: S: “do you … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", programming for scientists | 2 Comments

Blue Obelisk Award – Geoff Hutchison of OpenBabel

Posted on September 14, 2006 by pm286

A major problem in chemistry is that there is a plethora of file formats and it continues to get worse. Each manufacturer thinks they are the centre of the world and everyone else will use their approach. So they make … Continue reading →

Posted in "virtual communities", chemistry | 2 Comments

Blue Obelisk Award – Christoph Steinbeck of CDK

Posted on September 14, 2006 by pm286

Last night we met at the Thirsty Bear pub in San Francisco. This was the second anniversary of the first BO meeting (in San Diego). There were nine of us, and the membership and programs are growing. People are taking … Continue reading →

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ACS Presentation III

Posted on September 11, 2006 by pm286

The presentation – which was in the Cyberinfrastructure session – went well except for one tiny problem – no Internet though I asked for it the day before. Conference Centre in San Francisco – you might think it had default … Continue reading →

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