Media Coverage

Beyond papers – GitWikXiv

http://blog.jessriedel.com/2015/04/16/beyond-papers-gitwikxiv/

BY RIEDEL APRIL 16, 2015

• Knowen: A new upstart whose lofty aim is to be the wikipedia of scientific knowledge. Claims to cover course notes, introductory texts, and new research all in the same framework (example). At the moment, just a skeleton. (Added: Knowen’s creator Ivar Martin has an illuminating comment below.)

GitWikXiv follow-up: Distinctions in academic tools

http://blog.jessriedel.com/2015/04/27/gitwikxiv-follow-up-distinctions-in-academic-tools/

BY RIEDEL APRIL 27, 2015

Centrality is extremely important for the universal character of collaboration, since it means that there is one place to go if you want to affect the consensus, and any two parties who disagree are forced to meet. Important examples: ArXiv, Wikipedia, PubMed, and (aspirationally) Knowen.

GitWikXiv follow-up: An open attribution standard?

http://blog.jessriedel.com/2015/05/09/gitwikxiv-follow-up-an-open-attribution-standard/
BY RIEDEL MAY 9, 2015

My GitWikXiv post on making the academic paper universally collaborative got a lot of good comments. In particular, I recommend reading Ivar Martin, who sees a future of academic writing that is very different from what we have now.

GitWikXiv follow-up: A path to forkable papers

http://blog.jessriedel.com/2015/05/20/gitwikxiv-follow-up-a-path-to-forkable-papers/
BY RIEDEL MAY 20, 2015

I now have a more concrete idea of some of the pie-in-the-sky changes I would like to see in academic publishing in the long term. I envision three pillars:

• “Scientifica”: a linked, universally collaborative document that takes the reader from the most basic introductory concepts to the forefront of research. Imagine a Wikipedia for all of science, maintained by researchers. Knowen and Scholarpedia are early prototypes, although I believe a somewhat stronger consensus mechanism akin to particle physics collaborations will be necessary.