[T]he creators of LionShare say the new technology could make it easier for educators and researchers to quickly share or search for large academic and scientific files with peers or other institutions. LionShare uses a secure, private "peer-to-peer" network for faculty, researchers and students to share photos, research, class materials and other types of information that may be not be easily accessible through current technology, said Mike Halm, director of the LionShare project at Penn State University. "It's a lot more than academic Napster," said Halm, who spoke about the project at a meeting in Philadelphia on Tuesday of the Internet2 consortium. On its Web site, Internet2 describes itself as partnership of universities, industry and government working together "to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies."...A researcher looking for data in most cases would need to search each repository separately, which could be very time-consuming. [PS: Not true for OAI-compliant repositories.] Depending on what the researcher is looking for, it may also difficult to download large data sets or video of, for instance, a deep-sea expedition. LionShare uses new technology to combine peer-to-peer and repository searching into a single search, "like Google-searching the Internet," Halm said. The technology is supposed to officially emerge from testing and into general use on Sept. 30....A Penn State news release about LionShare states several times that the technology is aimed at academic file sharing. People who allow data to be shared can place limits on who can view files. "It all comes down to how people share content and what restrictions they put on the content that they share," Halm said. Halm said LionShare was spearheaded by Penn State researchers and developed with Internet2 and Simon Fraser University in Canada. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded a $1.1 million grant to Penn State in 2003 to develop the technology.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/21/2005 03:14:00 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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
