Open Exploration
- Thomas Keller
We should discuss this, but one thing I find that I like about blogs is that new information is put at the top of a page, and works backwards in time. Thus, it seems reasonable to just do add more information at the top of a page within a specific research area, rather than trying to fix old information that's already outdated as soon as it's posted.
This is a temporary stomping grounds for our experiment in what I am calling open exploration. It is flawed in many ways, but is much better than the blog thing. It assumes that people know a logical heirarchy for more and more detailed information, and will update it as more information is gained. It also assumes that people themselves know all the links between different ideas. It is, however, a start.
I'll begin by uploading some papers, datasets, and programs for exploring and mashing up the data. The programs themselves have various flaws, depending on your operating system and what you already have installed. But, people should update pages when they have time to make instructions for getting to the fun part (learning new information!) as quickly as possible.
I will say that once you get used to it, Kubuntu is much less annoying than Windows, and automatically updates itself on a regular basis, including research tools. We should develop tutorials for getting people familiar with useful programming and data exploration tools as quickly as possible. I suggest starting with a virtual pc copy, or whatever the free virtual thing is, of Kubuntu to get started, so that you can use your other OS to quickly find information to sort out how to get over humps you are stuck at.
I'll admit that the current topics are all very close to my research interests, but I consider all contributions to be valid and valuable science. For example, I consider Ellie to be an amazing cook and would like to learn some of her favorite recipes and how they change over time.
