Science Commons is a very powerful concept. Journalists might report about it, and it would surely benefit journalists and the public they serve. When I was in grad school, they told us that each of our painstakingly written and researched, peer-reviewed paper would be read by an average of 4 people, reviewers excluded. For important research which should be used to evaluate or create public policy, isn’t this a question of the tree falling in the woods? If the greatest research or evaluation work is going unread and unknown, what are policy-makers basing their decisions and arguments on? Opinion, emotion, the influence of lobbyists. With Pres. Obama and technology today, we can actually put research into databases and begin constructing a Public Policy Knowledge Base. Policy based on rational argument and facts, not anecdotes could be the result. Support Science Commons. No, better than that, explore it, and report on it.

Mr. Wilbanks now serves as the Vice President of Science at Creative Commons, and runs the Science Commons project.

via ETech Preview: Science Commons Wants Data to Be Free – O’Reilly Radar.