Todd Suomela's Library tagged commercial →  View Popular, Search in Google

First, in addition to all the well-documented social issues associated with industry/researcher collaborations and commercialization pressure – biased results, reduced researcher collaborations, data withholding and the potential for the premature and possibly harmful application of technologies – the emphasis on economics will inevitably lead to more of the kind of hype and overly optimistic predictions described above. When research funding is conditional on the potential for economic growth and rapid translation, the research community will find ways to promise economic growth and rapid translation.

Second, as more and more of the publicly funded research community becomes associated with this commercialization agenda, it will become increasingly difficult to find truly independent voices to critique the hype and calibrate expectations. The best science is dispassionate, independent and objective. The promised pursuit of profits is one of the surest ways to erode these qualities.

Third, it will reduce public trust in the science and the scientific community. Our research team recently completed a survey of more than 1,200 Albertans. We found university researchers funded by government to be among the most trusted. But that trust erodes significantly when those same researchers receive funds from industry.

Finally, this strategy fails to recognize how science usually unfolds. It is very difficult to predict what research will be beneficial or commercially viable. This is especially so in areas as scientifically complex as genetics and stem cell research.

You run a site on the open Inter­net? Well, first of all thanks. But remem­ber that the tools we have is the Inter­net: Just don’t link to the public-facing pages of siloed sites. In fact, it might be best not to men­tion them but if you have to, make it hard to find them.

You’re just a user? Awe­some. Just start demand­ing the inter­net remain open. You came out (or at least thought of doing so) when SOPA threat­ened the Inter­net. When your Telco decides to close things up, walk away from it and to a provider that promises to remain open. When politi­cians try to abuse the Inter­net, call them on it. And when a provider tries to lock you up, walk away. You can do it again and again. The fight is going to be a long one but it’s well worth it.