A Book Review on Michael Nielsen’s Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science

A Book Review on Michael Nielsen’s Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science
by Anne Campagnet-Reed

As an MLIS candidate, I have been doing a lot of reading about the new community of Internet-based collaboration and the role of social media in enhancing and accelerating knowledge acquisition. One book I am enjoying right now is Reinventing Discovery by Michael Nielsen. Beginning with two examples of crowd-based problem solving (Tim Gowers’s Polymath Project in 2009 and the Kasparov versus the World chess tournament in 1999), Nielsen goes on to demonstrate the power of online collaboration for all kinds of research: medical, mathematical, social, humanitarian, and other.

Nielsen contends that asynchronous online mass collaboration is actually a superior way to problem-solve, versus “real” face-to-face meetings, for a number of reasons. One is that the more people you have working on a large, multi-faceted problem, the more likely a real expert—someone with highly specialized knowledge—will emerge from the crowd to answer the particular piece of the puzzle that matches their expertise. Assuming that other parts of the problem are being worked on simultaneously by others with their own areas of special expertise, a solution to the entire problem can be advanced much more quickly than it could in smaller “in person” groups, separated by geography and time.

Another advantage of mass online collaboration proffered by Nielsen is the fact that asynchronous communication (such as texting or email, where the recipient may not respond immediately) allows for more precise and thoughtful communication than face-to-face exchanges. He gives the example of a traditional conference, where many experts may occupy a room together, but where communication may be hindered by factors such as fatigue, mood, and the general competition for attention. Composing an answer to an asynchronous message, on the other hand, allows those engaged in a dialogue a chance to re-read for understanding, reflect before responding, and edit responses for clarity and precision before hitting the “send” button. Thus, the communication conveys the most focused remarks, phrased in the most accurate and concise way possible.

An overarching theme in the book is the benefit of free and open scientific collaboration. One example that Nielsen brings to light is the development of OSS (open source software). He tells the story of how the powerful and ubiquitous Linux operating system was developed by a young Finnish student, Linus Torvalds, as a hobby. He shared his prototype operating system via an online forum, making its code freely available, and inviting other hackers to contribute. By 2008, the core of the Linux OS contained 9 million lines of code contributed by over 1,000 people, becoming—and remaining—one of the most robust and profitable computer operating systems in the world.

Nielsen also touches on WordPress (my favorite blogging tool), developed as an OSS platform by Matt Mullenweg at the age of 19. I have observed Mullenweg invite hackers (through Meetup.com) to coding meetups in his San Francisco-based Automattic® headquarters to sit and create code for new apps and plug-ins. Imagine people who work for free because they believe in the power of creating and sharing code! Another example of the power of crowd collaboration is Wikipedia, which, Nielsen points out, is gaining in credibility as an information source.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Amplifying Collective Intelligence,” expounds the ideas mentioned above. Part 2, “Networked Science,” evangelizes the open sharing of research data among scientists worldwide. Such sharing of information traditionally has been counter-intuitive to scientists, who feel great pressure to publish original research papers for which they retain exclusive copyrights, in their competition for tenured professorships and research positions. Nielsen lays out several advantages to open information sharing, not the least of which is the enhanced reputation of the scientist who shares. The last chapter, entitled “The Open Science Imperative,” exhorts scientists everywhere to start sharing their research data in any way they can: through everything from blogs and social media, to publishing code instead of scientific papers. He reasons that the benefits of such sharing will outweigh the selfish motivations of individual researchers, and that the resulting climate of collaboration will advance humankind at an accelerated rate, allowing us to address pressing global issues.

I recommend this book as a thought-provoker and cobweb-shaker for all involved in the information or scientific communities.

Anne Campagnet-Reed holds a master’s in education and is working on her MLIS at San José State University. She has worked in all aspects of publications, from writing and editing, to print production and electronic media education. Fascinated from the start by the implications of digitized communication, she wrote her field study on academic Internet use and accessibility in the mid-1990s. She currently works as a high school teacher librarian, writes poetry and occasional fiction, and blogs avidly on a variety of topics.