Gordon Bell and Jim Gray, two scientists at Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, have proposed less government spending on supercomputers and more on data storage. The argument is that "innovation in data-storage technology is now significantly outpacing progress in computer processing power" and that supercomputers are less necessary in the era of inexpensive Beowulf clusters of Linux boxes. The implication is that the government funds not spent on supercomputers would be spent on an open-access infrastructure for collecting, sharing, and preserving scientific data, although I haven't seen the open-access consequences spelled out anywhere yet. For other details, see John Markoff's story in today's New York Times (free registration required) and the discussion in Slashdot.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/02/2003 01:17:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
