The Origins and Future of Open Science

George Strawn, computing policy nestor, interviewed by, interviewed by host Trond Arne Undheim, futurist, investor, and author. 

In this conversation, we talk about the Origins and Future of Open Science. We investigate the decisions that turned ARPAnet into the global internet and the first ISP via educational institutions. We discuss the rise and fall and rise again of the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House, the role of the National Academies in the US and abroad, the path towards open science with open access, preprint servers, and why big science publishers resist it. George muses on the role of science and data in the next decade.

My takeaway is that the origins of open science and the internet were a combination of savvy futuristic planning, and surprising twists and turns. The magnitude of the changes have been felt by all. The future of open science still looks open ended, but the promise of bottom-up self-regulation is more alluring than the alternative, a regulatory grab to avoid damaging lock-in effects. Data is the new business model, but the holders of big data become the arbiters of human destiny. Can we achieve George's vision of one computer, one dataset? The implications would be world-changing.

Having listened to this episode, check out National Academies as well as George Strawn's online profile:

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If you like this topic, you may enjoy other episodes of Futurized, such as episode 84 The path towards Science 2.0, episode 48, The Future of AI in government or episode 29 Future of Computational Media.

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