SFI is Ireland's main science funding body. Like others such in the world, it rests on the idea that the economy benefits from large tranches of public funding for science. Again like its peers, the examples of Google, Apple and so on are deemed irrelevant by SFI; in each case, the breakthroughs came from a new business idea applied to a publicly-available technology by college dropouts (Facebook, with even less tech, is similar). Steve Jobs did not just ransack Xerox Park; he simply insisted that the mouse should cost $10 max. Larry Page did not just rip off Leo Katz's ranking algorithm, IBM's clever etc; the lads at Google developed a business model based on scanning the results of searches. In each case, there was no benefit in being there first.
This particularly applies to a country as small as Ireland that can't afford anything like SFI (or PRTLI, etc). It is indeed possible to import "adjunct" faculty and up the ratings of Irish science, as assessed by publications. But wait : Doesn't this mean that the whole world now knows about the "innovation" that the unwitting taxpayer just paid for? Given that a paper achieves credibility by being much-referenced, doesn't his mean we're giving away our secrets to everybody?
No, actually; the taxpayer probably doesn't know, because the research is locked up in pay-per-view journals. (The late Robert Maxwell got his business start in one such, Pergamon press). Open science attempts to redress this, and there is a growing consensus it is correct in insisting that what is paid for by public money should be available to the public. However, our politicians are unwilling to miss out on the chance of seeming all futuristic/visionary for the cameras - and damn the torpedoes (or the cost)
As this is being written, Minister Bruton is being taken through his Potemkin tour of silicon Valley (for once, the usually weak pun “silly con” is indeed appropriate ). On the way, he will be assured of the Irish presence at Stanford, and the great things to be expected from the Irish innovation centre in San Jose. SFI is the second-biggest national scandal after Anglo, and Bruton might use this trip to start its demolition. I am going to restrict myself to two projects in areas in which I have some competence to show why he should do so.
The centre at Stanford first came to public attention with the news that the Deri mother house in Galway had taken to the air;
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/academics-rack-up-euro108000-taxpayer-bill-for-private-jets-2394074.html
So the money was refunded ….but by the taxpayer. I am to my knowledge the only Irish person to have had original courses accredited by Stanford in the past decade, so surely the Stanford Deri should have trumped anything I did with its share of 12 million diverted away from childcare, primary education, and palliative care for cancer sufferers, inter alia;
http://www.deri.us/team/
There is only one Stanford faculty member there, and he has not even given them the link to his normal site (Petrie is not faculty);
http://logic.stanford.edu/people/genesereth/genesereth.html
Note the complete absence of private funding in both Deris;
http://www.deri.ie/
But cui bono? Have a look at the “alumni” of Deri and play “spot the Irish person” (Hint; of the 10% or so, they’re disproportionally in administration);
http://www.deri.ie/about/team/alumni/
Why are we paying for the training of foreign researchers who have NO special skills? Deri – insofar as it does anything – deals with concerns that are so theoretical that NO companies will be formed.
Not so with the other project I am going to mention, software localization, which has no proper role whatsoever on a university campus;
http://www.cngl.ie/index.html
This is again exclusively funded courtesy of the taxpayer;
http://www.cngl.ie/research.html
Software localization is ideal for the R+D departments of corporations. However, they are unlikely to do any of this while they can charge the taxpayer through a mechanism like SFI. Then, when they sell the products, they can hit up the taxpayer again, now in his role as a consumer.
Ireland is increasingly fragmenting into two groups; those who think we can stand on our own two feet and produce worldclass work, and those who believe we should continue to borrow and in doing so sacrifice the autonomy that was so dearly purchased by accepting the restrictions on our autonomy the IMF/ECB (UK/USA...) will impose.
In short, we’re back to where we were 100 years ago. In the meantime, Ireland should focus on open source science.
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. Stanford
13 u Meitheamh 2011
PS Here is a very truncated list of some of the better open science sites, which give access to research without any cost to the taxpayer;
http://creativecommons.org/science
http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/ - good link to patent attacks
http://daviswiki.org/LUGOD Linux/Gnu fans
http://keionline.org/ “Knowlege ecology” Good, informative
http://www.righttoresearch.org/ for students and very good
http://thirdreviewer.com/ general comments
http://roar.eprints.org/ is reprints free
http://www.eprints.org/openaccess/ similar – Stevan Harnad, who pioneered “skywriting” is here!
http://foresight.org/ as it says on frontier tech with example http://opensourcesensing.org/
http://speakscience.org/ better still includes videos
http://okfn.org/ good = open knowledge, has tools
http://www.biotorrents.net/browse.php loads of data incl astrophysics
http://www.mendeley.com/ soc netw for sci w tools
http://colabscience.com/ collaborations parallel scientific
http://corp.kaltura.com/ video
Biology and Biomedical applications
http://p2pfoundation.net/Product_Hacking Hardware and has real sites as links
http://blog.stodden.net/A pioneer speaks
http://www.mindthehealthgap.org/ great idea neglected diseases
http://openpcr.org/ Good PCR tools
http://www.synthesis.cc/ very good indeed - rob carlson
http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/igh/ seems “open source” pharma?
