Open notebook science

Inspired by a recent blogpost on open notebook science, I've spent the weekend coding. I've setup a site (Social Notebook) with the idea of trying to remove the risks from open notebook science. Basically the site uses a social network model. The method behind this madness is that it requires users to logon, and since it uses an invitation only registration system, accounts are associated with peoples real identities, rather than pseudonyms. This allows user tracking, so you know who reads what. My hope is that by making it very easy everyone (even if not logged in) to see who has read what, it will remove the motivation to steal someones idea without credit, since anyone can see that you did. Clicking on the Knowledge Propagation Graph (http://elgg.jfitzsimons.org/demos.html) link at the bottom of any page leads to a directed graph of how ideas have propogated.

At the moment it's a little primitive. I'll add in page resolution to the graph over the coming week and dates, and I'll try to add latex support tonight.

Each user has their own mini-wiki and can restrick access to any information using groups. You can define your own groups or use one of the four built-in groups: public, friends, logged-in users or private. I'll try to come up with an embargo script which can automatically change these based on date based on Dave Bacon's idea.

I'm hoping that a few people will try the current beta version and let me know where it can be improved. There is no pressure to put up work. If you just want to be able to participate, play around with the system and look at other people's notebooks that's fine. Just drop me an email, or leave a comment here. The only requirement is that you sign up with your real name, so if you want to join please use an institutional email address.

Update: If you want a login for the beta site, you could just leave a comment here. As long as you fill in the email address field with a reasonable address, I'll mail you an invitation.