Can 'Citizen Science' Revolutionize Medicine?

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/07/28/Making_the_...

Tim O'Reilly, Jimmy Wales, Stephen Friend, and John Wilbanks discuss the future implications of citizen science. Friend discusses how individuals with a rare disease can contribute to the public knowledge pool, while Jimmy Wales offers the example of a pet diabetes wiki.

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Digital technologies have greatly enhanced our ability to communicate and share information, but the scientific community remains largely untouched by these advances.

Why doesn't the web work for science the way it works for culture and for commerce? What will it take to make science digital?

Join the Commonwealth Club of California for a fascinating discussion on the movement to bring digital methods to the world of science. - Commonwealth Club of California

Tim O'Reilly is the founder and CEO of O'Reilly Media, Inc., thought by many to be the best computer book publisher in the world. O'Reilly Media also publishes online through the O'Reilly Network and hosts conferences on technology topics, including the O'Reilly Open Source Convention, the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, and the Web 2.0 Conference.

Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (born August 7, 1966 in Huntsville, Alabama) is the founder, board member and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit corporation that operates the Wikipedia project, and several other wiki projects, including Wiktionary and Wikinews. He is also the co-founder, along with Angela Beesley, of the for-profit company Wikia, Inc.

As VP of Science, John Wilbanks runs the Science Commons project at Creative Commons. He came to Creative Commons from a Fellowship at the World Wide Web Consortium in Semantic Web for Life Sciences.

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[Tom Merle]

Another example of the Wisdom of Crowds

[John McFarlane]

no, smart ass. i'd like to use open resource patient documentation to help contribute to the research into the health disorder and disease recurrent on my mothers side of my family.

[Saktoth]

You'd like to have a rare disease?

Uhhh....

[John McFarlane]

this is really exciting! i'd love to take part in something like this

[wmg111]

The potential of online patient documentation and observation is limitless.

Imagine what could be accomplished if it was fully funded worldwide?