Today science is big business. It’s now subject to all kinds of commercial and political pressure and external formal controls. The deluge of data is, like the social web, threatening to suffocate us. The combination of data explosion and external control makes it utterly imperative that information is utterly free—in terms of access. Access to see the raw data, the computer models and the control and flow of information.
Can Free Software Drive the Fourth Paradigm?
March 9, 2010