Science Two Point–Whoa!!!
Computer scientist Ben Shneiderman, a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, proposes–and I’ll tell you now that these are his terms, not mine–”Science 2.0″ to replace “Science 1.0.”
Basically, he proposes–I think–a new scientific approach influenced by a community base ala social networking (e.g. friendster, myspace, facebook) and collaboration (e.g. wikipedia).
I’m really not sure what Prof. Shneiderman really wants; the article in Science magazine requires subscription and the article I read has the writer confused himself. I try to read in between the lines and it seems that Prof. Shneiderman isn’t proposing anything novel or new. The label “2.0″ only seems to be a marketing ploy to make science “hip” and “trendy.” To this–and I’m speaking as a scientist (I have a degree in chemistry, baby!)--meh. I mean, a computer scientist (and a professor at that) is proposing something natural scientists have been doing for centuries, albeit with a new label and an emphasis on the human aspect. The writer of the article speculates that maybe Prof. Shneiderman just wasn’t able to translate his vision fully into the published paper.
Unless I see the original paper (anyone out there have a Science magazine subscription?), I’ll go to the scientist’s default mode: open-minded but skeptical.
