[open-science] Panton Principles Publicity

Sun Jun 12 23:47:51 UTC 2011

Hi All

See below for a conversation Maria and I have been having regarding
publicity for the Panton Principles (PP from here on in!). It started when I
shared a poster design:
http://tinyurl.com/6gj2e6v

Since, some very interesting points have come up. As a quick summary for
those who don't want to read the whole conversation:

- Would a PP logo be a good thing to have? Should we have a design
contest/request ideas and submission?
- Peter came up with a tagline for a web banner of 'Open data means better
science', could a question directly addressing the community be more
engaging for the poster?
- Would a design like this
http://sunnibrown.com/2010/06/03/pbs-this-emotional-life/ be too childish?
- What makes open data in science unique compared to open data in other
fields and how could we incorporate this into our messages/publicity?
*
*Any comments, opinions, design ideas etc are most welcome!

Jenny*

From:* Jenny Molloy <jenny.molloy at okfn.org>
*To:* maria <adresamariei at yahoo.co.uk>
*Sent:* Monday, 6 June 2011, 10:19
*Subject:* Re: Working Group on Open Data in Science

Hi Maria

Thanks for the comments, all very good points!

On Fri, Jun 3, 2011 at 5:38 PM, maria <adresamariei at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Hi Jenny,

Sorry for being late with my reply.
I took a look at the poster and I really like it.
Trying to be critical, I might have some suggestions:

- in terms of the elements included, I was wondering if it would be a good
idea to include the ofkn logo, together with a possible logo for the Panton
principles themselves?

We currently don't have a PP logo and with just the OKF logo it looks a
little unbalanced, but I have been trying to come up with a PP logo for
quite a while now, and getting nowhere. I think it needs to be a
collaborative effort (preferably involving more creative people than me!).
Do you have any ideas as to what make a good logo? I was trying to do
something simple with two Ps but had exactly the same problem you describe
below in that it had no relation to open data in science.

*Maybe we can launch a logo design contest? Or choose something from the
T-shirt competition for Open Data (
http://blog.okfn.org/2011/06/07/okf-t-shirt-competition/) - like a special
prize for something that would potentially be turned into a PP logo?*

- The website is with red, while the poster is with green, maybe a
consistency in tems of colours/style/font will make it memorable?

I agree, we definitely need a consistent theme, but I found red, white and
black a little restrictive when it came to poster design. Originally I was
looking at going for this sort of style:
http://sunnibrown.com/2010/06/03/pbs-this-emotional-life/
What do you think of that? The elements of the current poster could probably
be retained along with your suggestions below and it would be more
consistent with the website (although the website can easily be changed

*This style is lovely, I would fall for it immediately! The only challenge
would be to keep it not too childish.. (it would work perfect I guess for
advocating PP for the general public. I wonder if 'scientists' would
resonate - and now I'm playing Devil's advocate.*
*How about this style, just black on white, and with a coloured logo. And
with some science elements (like equations, a dna structure....)*

I'm glad you like it! I think we could keep it out of the childish region
relatively easily. I like the idea of incorporating science elements and I
think we should keep it simple, but some colour would help draw attention
probably. We could play with that later. Maybe we could sketch some quick
ideas exchange them via scanning and emailing? I have some time next weekend
to try and be a bit creative!

- the poster presents the three main principles/steps. Maybe the original
idea is to simply create awareness and to keep the message as simple as
possible... but if there is space for some more content, I would put an
intriguiting question/a message for making the principles highly
relevant/desirable/ or simply to help the viewer understand the message without
needing him to go to the website in order to figure it out,(now I'm
reffering to a general public, but maybe I am wrong and your target are the
scientific communities who.... are/aren't familiar with the idea?)

The idea was very much to get the name out there and try to encourage people
to log on to the website, and we were targetting scientists (the idea was
that this could go up on department noticeboards) but a question or tagline
would be good. We came up for one for a web banner 'Open data means better
science' - if we can think of an intriguing question that might be even
better!

*If we address communities directly, maybe: "Want better science? Open your
data. (find out how)" Just an idea..*

- the benefit of a more explicit message (or possibly rethinking the images)
can also be argued like this: If the poster remains the same and we change
the title- instead of 'Panton Principles' with 'Creative Ideas', 'New Media
Content', 'Open Design' or simply any kind of 'Resources' - then the poster
would still make sense, as the circle images are general/stereotypical and
the three principles are appliable to any kind of 'Openness' movement.
(ok, :) not all the images, except the left one with the dna code, but
still, this also can represent just 'knowledge'). Maybe it would be better
to find something that is specificly oriented towards science and what does
it mean to open data from the scientific domain towards the public one?

It would be better, I just couldn't do it! Any ideas you have would be very
welcome, we can also throw this discussion open to the mailing list if you
don't mind your comments being forwarded?

*Please be free to forward any of my messages. Just some thoughts on the
particularities of open data in science: for me, it means a change of
thinking- science is as competitive as business or any other domain. As the
social constructivism of science claims, there si no objective truth there
to be discovered. It is everything an intertwined web of social, economical,
political and technological developments, and elements like:  phd funding,
peer-reviews, universities agenda, sponsors of innovation organisations, the
rush to be published and recognised by the scientific community- the
prestige of being quoted, the rush to be the first one coming up with a new
discovery, the avidity of being validated by older peers, or, on the
contrary, to disqualify the big theoreticians ..... they are all part of
this web and its results. Things can be different in a zillion ways, when it
comes to innovation.*
*
*
*As I experience it in the academic world (and I am just at my master level)
is this fierce competition between people can be quite dramatic. Bruno
Latour writes excellent about this inner mechanisms (if you are curiouse,
take a look here:
http://www.bruno-latour.fr/livres/MTP-TABLE%20OF%20CONTENTS.html Making
things Public, Re-assembling the Social)*
*
*
*Panton Principles hit a very sensitive point in the scientific community. *
*Let's put it in the 'worst scenario' case: the mission is to convince a
community of individuals sensitive about recognition and solitary results,
to collaborate, share, and do it together.*
*And it has to pay off something more valuable than it pays now. *
*Mobility, Recognition and prestige are always good motivators and I guess
there is no other way. Can we think of a system of recognition within Panton
Principles?
*
*To attach to the Panton Principles the idea of a great reputation.*
*
*
*Thought: Bruno Latour would be a great key opinion leader in the community.
*
*Maybe we can develop a Panton  Principles Manifesto? And 'attack' the
scientific community from two sides: bottom-up (hackers, hacktivists and the
rest of the cool guys) and from above (key opinion leaders - people that
have high chances to publish real fast something about the manifesto).*

I think the Principles themselves are the manifesto, but getting opinion
leaders to endorse and publicise them would be great. We should also look at
the website and how it records endorsements, it might be nice to get a
counter on there now there are already quite a few.

- what is unique about open data in science, in comparison with other sets
of open data/open data in general?

I suppose that as opposed to e.g. government data it has always been
explicitly intended for reuse and redistribution, because that's how science
works. However, it is difficult to reuse because access is often controlled
by journals as opposed to the data generators/providers (the scientists) -
in other domains there is no middle party, and there is currently little
reward/recognition for scientists publishing data openly. Also, just the
fact that so much can be done with it! Genuinely new results can be
generated (rather than standard analyses or interesting visualisations)
alongside the advatange of improving quality and being better able to spot
mistakes/discrepancies which is common to most fields of open data. Those
were the first things that came to mind, but this is probably one to open to
the mailing list because there are people there who have thought about this
a lot more than me. Also, I'm not sure my points help in terms of poster
design but somebody else's might.

- may I ask who is the target/where will it be published?

The target initially were scientists who don't already know much about the
open data movement, the idea was that it could be sent to University science
departments to be put up on noticeboards, although obviously if we get a
design that is good for the public as well then all the better!

*Great! Besides universities and research centres, maybe it would be also
fruitful here: http://www.4sonline.org/ It would be a great dissemination
platform (online and at the conference itself). Maybe someone from the Open
Knowledge Foundation can have a short presentation there about ....And other
portals and conferences as well...*
*Maybe I can help with some online research on this and provide you with a
list of contacts? *

That sounds great! If you identify events/conferences etc where this could
be discussed it is always worth dropping an email to the mailing list as
someone may already be planning to go, or may not have heard of it but would
like to. A list of contacts would be an excellent start, and we can try to
encourage as many people as possible to visit the website and endorse the
Principles.

Let me know if you're happy for us to move this discussion to the mailing
list as I think some really interesting points could come out of it! Speak
to you soon

*Great, of course! Keep in touch!*

Jenny

Thank you!

Keep in touch,

Maria
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