Chapter 1: Provocations
Introduction
Starts with Derek J. de Solla Price’s contrasting of little and big science in 1963
Weinberg has coined “big science” in 1961 to refer to big aspirations like rockets, flux capacitors, etc.
Price asked about the relative value of big versus little science
Weinberg asked whether big science was ruining science in general
money invested in big science: what’s the true ROI?
“’Big Data’ has acquired the hyperbole that ‘Big Science’ had 50 years ago.” p. 1
unstated question: What are data?
value of data lies in their meaning
digital data are surprising in that they are more fragile than physical evidence because they can’t be interpreted without the technical apparatus used to create them (MT: not really true, can be interpreted by other apparatuses sometimes)
data exist within a knowledge infrastructure
Borgman frames the issues with big data in scholarship in terms of 6 broad provocations:
- reproducibility, sharing, reuse
- knowledge transfer across contexts and time
- publication form
- tradeoffs of open access
- stakeholder relationships and redistribution of costs/benefits/risks
- tension between funding short-term view and long-term development of knowledge infrastructures
“The rise of data in the media hype circle and in scholarly discourse reflects the convergence of several trends.” p.4
- sheer volume of digital data
- commodification of data and other information sources
Provocations
What is New Now
Big Data, Little Data
Bigness
Disciplines and Data
The Long Tail
No Data
Data are not Available
Data are not Released
Data are not Usable
Conclusions
References
The value
Chapter 2: Digital Scholarship
Introduction
Knowledge Infrastructures
The Social and the Technical
Communities and Collaboration
Knowledge and Representation
Theory, Practice, and Policy
Open Scholarship
Open Access to Research Findings
Open Access to Data
Open Technologies
Converging Communication
Data Publishing Metaphors
Dynamic Data
Units of Data
Documents of Record
Conclusions
References
