Matt Wood

Surely easy deposition has to come first though? - Cameron Neylon

Perhaps. Ideally all reads and writes would be created equal, but in reality a reasonable amount of heavy lifting is required at one end or the other. Given that data is usually written once and retrieved many times, I wonder if it's easier for those already generating and working with the information to jump through some deposition hoops once, rather than everyone being forced to do it at retrieval, time after time. - Matt Wood

Agreed that access needs to be easy for users but put barriers in front of depositors and you will only get specific types of data (mostly big and well funded). But I don't know how to square the circle from easy to deposit blob to usefully described blob on a service. - Cameron Neylon

Cameron, the barriers in front of depositors are cultural or systemic. The barriers in front of retrievers are often technical. But yes, we need to address both problems, but technical challenges of retrieval are real, since we aren't retrieving small data sets any more - Deepak Singh

The most enthusiastic depositors are those whose peer-reviewed publication is tied to deposition. Get key journals to require deposition of data + metadata prior to publication, under a Public Domain or Attribution-required license, and the rest will follow. - Andrew Perry

Deepak, absolutely agree - just was uncomfortable with "above all else". Tell you what, I'll let you and @mza get on with the technical challenges while I worry about the social ones. Division of labour and all that. @Andrew - this is absolutely true, but journals will not do this (and I agree with the logic on this) until they get a very strong steer from the community that this is... more... - Cameron Neylon

@cameronneylon it's ridiculous to think you can separate the technical challenges from the social ones, one cannot be understood (and solved!) without the other. Trying to tackle the technical challenges without solving the social ones is like building a car without having the blue print. Trying to tackle the social challenges without the technical ones is like building a rocket ship for the year 2150 and hoping someone will somehow magically solve the technical issues tomorrow. - Alexander Griekspoor

Alexander, you won't get any argument from me on that, but Matt did start this manifesto with "there are no technical reasons...why an open data platform for science couldn't excel". In my view the technical problems are largely soluble with clear pathways for development, and I don't have the detailed knowledge to make a big contribution at the coalface. The social problems are much larger and require a more multipronged attack - which is directed by but not defined by the current technical capability. - Cameron Neylon

What are the "social" issues? I'm confused by the use of the word in this context. Are we talking about cultural changes, such as acceptance of a more "open data" world, coercing people into using public repositories and so on? Or is this social as in social network? If the latter, I don't see the relevance to what Matt is discussing. - Neil Saunders