Today, I will start, what will inevitably become a new staple in my life: Blogging for Orwik. Orwik is a new company that will revolutionize the way that science is done in academia and elsewhere.

The major problem with science today is that scientists are people. Sure, we all want to do science for the pure fascination of the subject, but we also want to be respected for the science we do, we want to have the resources to do the science we want, and we want to change the world we live in with our science. How, as scientists can we accomplish any and all of these tasks?

I am sure I will say much more about the subject, but suffice it to say that unfortunately, the economics of science are not straightforward. In fact, they are really backwards. Consider this system: scientists have to write papers that are supposedly peer-reviewed and published by scientific publishing houses. Scientists are evaluated based on a somewhat obtuse formula that takes into account how many people read and cite their work by granting institutions such as NIH which translates into money for their science, and by their department which usually translates into houses, cars and college tuitions for kids.

The problem here is that the publication system is somewhat outdated. Created in the 17th century, it was never designed for the way we do science in the 21st century. We at Orwik believe that the way that science is disseminated needs a bit of a makeover. Many other scientists have also recognized that the system of science publishing is flawed.

For example, Tim Berners Lee, who was one of the founders of the web has been talking for a while about the need for change. Recently, he gave a very impassioned address at the TED conference. The link to that can be found here. There, he outlined his vision for a new web. This web, built around data, has a chance to empower new insights that we glean from the science we do. It comes from the epiphany that data in context is much more valuable than homogenized data. I agree.

In line with some of the ideas presented by Tim, we are working hard to change the way that scientists interact with each other, and how they disseminate their science. We hope that you will follow our progress here and help us add our little piece in ushering a new, open and democratic way we do science.