ENTRIES TAGGED "crowdsourcing"

Open source software as a model for health care

A doctor looks to software communities as inspiration for her own research

(The following article sprang from a collaboration between Andy Oram and Brigitte Piniewski to cover open source concepts in an upcoming book on health care. This book, titled “Wireless Health: Remaking of Medicine by Pervasive Technologies,” is edited by Professor Mehran Mehregany of Case Western Reserve University. and has an expected release date of February 2013. It is designed to provide the reader with the fundamental and practical knowledge necessary for an overall grasp of the field of wireless health. The approach is an integrated, multidisciplinary treatment of the subject by a team of leading topic experts. The selection here is part of a larger chapter by Brigitte Piniewski about personalized medicine and public health.)

Medical research and open source software have much to learn from each other. As software transforms the practice and delivery of medicine, the communities and development methods that have grown up around software–particularly free and open source software–also provide models that doctors and researchers can apply to their own work. Some of the principles that software communities can offer for spreading health throughout the population include these:

  • Like a living species, software evolves as code is updated and functionality is improved.

  • Software of low utility is dropped as users select better tools and drive forward functionality to meet new use cases.

  • Open source culture demonstrates how a transparent approach to sharing software practices enables problem areas to be identified and corrected accurately, cost-effectively, and at the pace of change.

Read more…

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Recombinant Research: Breaking open rewards and incentives

Can open data dominate biological science as open source has in software?

To move from a hothouse environment of experimentation to the mainstream of one of the world's most lucrative and tradition-bound industries, Sage Bionetworks must aim for its nucleus: rewards and incentives. Comparisons to open source software and a summary of tasks for Sage Congress.

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Recombinant Research: Sage Congress plans for patient engagement

The Vioxx problem is just one instance of the wider malaise afflicting the drug industry. Managers from major pharma companies expressed confidence that they could expand public or "pre-competitive" research in the direction Sage Congress proposed. The sector left to engage is the one that's central to all this work–the public.

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Recombinant Research: Sage Congress promotes data sharing in genetics

Report from a movement that believes in open source and open data in science

Through two days of demos, keynotes, panels, and breakout sessions, Sage Congress brought its vision to a high-level cohort of 230 attendees from universities, pharmaceutical companies, government health agencies, and others who can make change in the field.

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Practical applications of data in publishing

Practical applications of data in publishing

The second in a series looking at the major themes of this year's TOC conference.

Several overriding themes permeated this year’s Tools of Change for Publishing conference. The second in a series looking at five of the major themes, here we take a look at data in publishing — how publishers can benefit, practical applications, and innovative ways it can be used.

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When good feedback leaves a bad impression

When good feedback leaves a bad impression

Panagiotis Ipeirotis on the vagaries of semantic analysis and Mechanical Turk's quirks.

In a recent interview, NYU Professor Panagiotis Ipeirotis explained why a "good" online review is often perceived negatively. He also discussed Mechanical Turk's growing pains.

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Strata Week: Crowdsourcing and gaming spur a scientific breakthrough

Strata Week: Crowdsourcing and gaming spur a scientific breakthrough

Fold.it users make a scientific breakthrough, Twitter open sources real-time processing tool, Google faces a senate hearing.

In this week's data news: Fold.it gamers help with HIV research, Twitter eyes data analytics, and Google testifies before the Senate.

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Strata Week: MapReduce gets its arms around a million songs

Strata Week: MapReduce gets its arms around a million songs

MapReduce crunches a million-song dataset, GPS and accident reconstruction, and WWI crowdsourcing.

This week's data stories include a guide to using MapReduce to process the Million Song Dataset, a story about how GPS data can help reconstruct lost memories (and accidents), and evidence that emergency crowdsourcing goes back further than many realize.

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Strata Week: What happens when 200,000 hard drives work together?

Strata Week: What happens when 200,000 hard drives work together?

IBM is building a massive 120-petabyte array and Infochimps releases a unified geo schema.

IBM takes data storage to a whole new level (120 petabytes, to be exact), Infochimps' new API tries to make life easier for geo developers, and the "Internet of people" keeps an eye on Hurricane Irene.

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Data News: Week in Review

Data News: Week in Review

Tracking data found in iOS 4, crowdsourcing is questioned, and the Senate doesn't get "open data"

In the latest Data News: The tracking data saved in a hidden iOS 4 file causes a stir, the value of crowdsourcing during crisis response is questioned, and the Senate finally releases its financial data … in PDF.

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