Open Content and the Commons

open content and
the commons

kaitlin thaney
program manager, science at creative commons
sherbrooke, quebec - 11 march 2010

This presentation is licensed under the CreativeCommons-Attribution-3.0 license.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

make sharing easy, legal and scalable

integrated approach

building part of the infrastructure for
knowledge sharing


knowledge?

journal articles
data
ontologies
annotations
grey literature
plasmids and stem cells


(1) the “paradigm shift”

(2) access ...
(content) (research tools) (data)

(3) technical / semantic


1.
the “paradigm shift”
it’s no longer about the container.


scientiﬁc revolutions occur when a
sufﬁcient body of data accumulates to
overthrow the dominant theories
we use to frame reality,

... a so-called paradigm shift

- thomas kuhn

media company response:
adjust the physical media
force the cd format

ignore that people...
like to make mixes.


facing the same
shift
for education, science


scholarship entrenched in idea of
transmitting knowledge via paper

mentality reﬂected even in the way we
describe “papers”

static, one-dimensional documents


information sharing is at the root of
scholarship and science

the system of print publishing is a
system of communicating knowledge

then came the move to digital ...


in the digital world, “papers” can
become living, breathing works

no longer static PDF documents

linking to data sets, other relevant
papers, information, plasmids, genes


oldest scientiﬁc
journal
published in
english-
speaking world

1665


need to change the way we think of
scholarly publishing,
of knowledge sharing

paradigm shift

begin thinking of “papers” as
containers of knowledge


the container is still the paper

what’s changed is how we use it

2.
access is step one

content needs to be legally and
technically accessible


indexing, translation, redistribution: disallowed


“ By open access to the literature, we mean its
free availability on the public internet,
permitting users to read, download, copy,
distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of
the articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as
data to software, or use them for any other lawful
purpose, without ﬁnancial, legal or technical
barriers other than those inseparable from gaining
access to the internet itself.”

Image from the Public Library of Science, licensed to the public, under
CC-BY-3.0


“The only constraint on reproduction and
distribution, and the only role for copyright in this
domain, should be to give authors control over the
integrity of their work and the right to be
properly acknowledged and cited.”


legal
implementation


Open Access journals

>1000 journals under CC

image from the public library of science
licensed to the public under CC-BY 3.0


... what about the
physical
materials?


non-digital.


ideally ...

contact author, obtain material,
recreate experiment

build on the existing work, publish

and repeat ...


the reality ...
materials difficult to find, fulfill, lack
resources

reagents and assays often re-invented
or reverse engineered

locked in contracts, bureaucracy,
deliberate withholding, “club mentality”

solves the access problem via
contract
UBMTA (standardized material
transfer agreements, or
MTAs)
SLA

SCMTA
standard icons, CC
methodology, metadata


build offer through simple set of choices
similar way to license chooser


scientist

lawyer

machine


and scaling ...


access to data

the data “rights” conundrum...


legal implications

in short, it’s complicated.


©
“creative expression”

is it creative?


category errors


the problem of...
Non-Commercial

for data


Non-Commercial

what’s a commercial use
of the data web?


the problem of...
Share Alike

for data


issue of license proliferation

whatever you do to the least of the
databases, you do to the integrated system

(the most restrictive wins)

risk for unintended consequences


the problem of...
Attribution

for data


the problem of...
any license

for data


national law / jurisdiction-based
hurdles

sui generis,
“sweat of the brow”
Crown copyright
“level of skill”

how internat’l data sharing efforts
are affected?

attribution vs. citation

which one applies? which is best ﬁt?
what’s the difference?

“credit where credit is due”

attribution:
(legal entity)

“triggered by making of a copy”
does it apply to facts?
how to attribute? (papers, ontologies, data)

“in a manner speciﬁed by ...”
attribution stacking


citation:
(gentle(wo)man’s club)

legal requirement?
interoperability?
credit where credit is due
entrenched scientiﬁc norm


we shouldn’t use the law to make it
hard to do the wrong thing ...


need for a legally accurate and
simple solution

reducing or eliminating the need to make the
distinction of what’s protected

requires modular, standards based approach
to licensing


... must promote legal predictability and certainty.

... must be easy to use and understand.

... must impose the lowest possible transaction costs on
users.

full text:
http://sciencecommons.org/projects/publishing/open-access-data-protocol/


norms approach

set of principles (not license)

open, accessible, interoperable

create legal zones of certainty


calls for data providers to waive all rights
necessary for data extraction and re-use

requires provider place no additional
obligations (like share-alike) to limit
downstream use

request behavior (like attribution) through
norms and terms of use


3.
technical considerations

(semantics, annotation, standards)


“read 189,000
papers” is not
the ideal answer.


DRD1, 1812 adenylate cyclase activation
ADRB2, 154 adenylate cyclase activation
ADRB2, 154 arrestin mediated desensitization of G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
DRD1IP, 50632 dopamine receptor signaling pathway
DRD1, 1812 dopamine receptor, adenylate cyclase activating pathway
DRD2, 1813 dopamine receptor, adenylate cyclase inhibiting pathway
GRM7, 2917 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
GNG3, 2785 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
GNG12, 55970 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
DRD2, 1813 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
ADRB2, 154 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
CALM3, 808 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
HTR2A, 3356 G-protein coupled receptor protein signaling pathway
DRD1, 1812 G-protein signaling, coupled to cyclic nucleotide second messenger
SSTR5, 6755 G-protein signaling, coupled to cyclic nucleotide second messenger
MTNR1A, 4543 G-protein signaling, coupled to cyclic nucleotide second messenger
CNR2, 1269 G-protein signaling, coupled to cyclic nucleotide second messenger
HTR6, 3362 G-protein signaling, coupled to cyclic nucleotide second messenger
GRIK2, 2898 glutamate signaling pathway
GRIN1, 2902 glutamate signaling pathway
GRIN2A, 2903 glutamate signaling pathway
GRIN2B, 2904 glutamate signaling pathway
ADAM10, 102 integrin-mediated signaling pathway
GRM7, 2917 negative regulation of adenylate cyclase activity
LRP1, 4035 negative regulation of Wnt receptor signaling pathway
ADAM10, 102 Notch receptor processing
ASCL1, 429 Notch signaling pathway
HTR2A, 3356 serotonin receptor signaling pathway
ADRB2, 154 transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activation (dimerization)
PTPRG, 5793 transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
EPHA4, 2043 transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
NRTN, 4902 transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase signaling pathway
CTNND1, 1500 Wnt receptor signaling pathway
`


technical


semantic
agreement
is hard.


espresso
coffee
cafe
kopi
cafezinho

latte koffee

mocha americano


“choice” or interoperability.
(pick one)


converge on common names

“coffee”

“cafe” coffee

“kopi” http://ontology.foo.org/1234567


better answers through better formats:

Mesh: Pyramidal Neurons
select ?gene_name ?process_name
where Pubmed: Journal Articles
{ PropertyValue(?pubmed_record, ?p, mesh:D017966)
PropertyValue(?article, sc:identified_by_pmid , ?pubmed_record)
PropertyValue(?gene_record, sc:describes_gene_or_gene_product_mentioned_by, ?article)
SubClassOf(?protein, some(ro:has_function, some(ro:realized_as, ?process)))
SubClassOf(?process, or(go:GO_0007166, some(ro:part_of, go:GO_0007166))
Entrez Gene: Genes
SubClassOf(?protein, some(sc:is_protein_gene_product_of_dna_described_by,?gene_record))
Annotation(?gene_record,rdfs:label,{?gene_name})

}
Annotation(?process,rdfs:label,?process_name)
GO: Signal Transduction


turn ugly query code into a link
http://hcls1.csail.mit.edu:8890/sparql/?query=prefix%20go%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fobo%2Fowl%2FGO%23%3E
%0Aprefix%20rdfs%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2F01%2Frdf-schema%23%3E%0Aprefix%20owl%3A
%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2002%2F07%2Fowl%23%3E%0Aprefix%20mesh%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org
%2Fcommons%2Frecord%2Fmesh%2F%3E%0Aprefix%20sc%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fscience%2Fowl
%2Fsciencecommons%2F%3E%0Aprefix%20ro%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.obofoundry.org%2Fro%2Fro.owl%23%3E%0A
%0Aselect%20%3Fgenename%20%3Fprocessname%0Awhere%0A%7B%20%20graph%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org
%2Fcommons%2Fhcls%2Fpubmesh%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fpaper%20%3Fp%20mesh%3AD017966%20.%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Farticle%20sc%3Aidentified_by_pmid%20%3Fpaper.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fgene
%20sc%3Adescribes_gene_or_gene_product_mentioned_by%20%3Farticle.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20graph
%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fcommons%2Fhcls%2Fgoa%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fprotein%20rdfs
%3AsubClassOf%20%3Fres.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fres%20owl%3AonProperty%20ro%3Ahas_function.%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fres%20owl%3AsomeValuesFrom%20%3Fres2.%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fres2%20owl%3AonProperty%20ro%3Arealized_as.%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fres2%20owl%3AsomeValuesFrom%20%3Fprocess.%0A%20%20%20graph%20%3Chttp%3A%2F
%2Fpurl.org%2Fcommons%2Fhcls%2F20070416%2Fclassrelations%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%7B%7B%3Fprocess%20%3Chttp
%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fobo%2Fowl%2Fobo%23part_of%3E%20go%3AGO_0007166%7D%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20union
%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%7B%3Fprocess%20rdfs%3AsubClassOf%20go%3AGO_0007166%20%7D%7D%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fprotein%20rdfs%3AsubClassOf%20%3Fparent.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fparent
%20owl%3AequivalentClass%20%3Fres3.%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%3Fres3%20owl%3AhasValue%20%3Fgene.%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%20%7D%0A%20%20%20graph%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fcommons%2Fhcls%2Fgene%3E%0A
%20%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fgene%20rdfs%3Alabel%20%3Fgenename%20%7D%0A%20%20%20graph%20%3Chttp%3A
%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fcommons%2Fhcls%2F20070416%3E%0A%20%20%20%20%20%7B%20%3Fprocess%20rdfs%3Alabel
%20%3Fprocessname%7D%0A%7D&format=&maxrows=50


one man’s observation is another
man’s closed book or ﬂight of
fancy.

- willard van orman quine


data without structure and annotation is a
lost opportunity.

work towards maximum reuse of
information, interoperability

support recombination and reconﬁguration
into computer models, queryable by search
engine

treat knowledge as public good

resist the temptation to treat
as property

embrace the potential to treat instead
as a network resource


thank you.

kaitlin@creativecommons.org
sciencecommons.org
creativecommons.org
slideshare.net/kaythaney


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