Does the "data" in the proposal description interfere with opendata.stackexchange?

Question

Proposal: Open Science

The current description of the Open Science proposal reads:

Proposed Q&A site for the "open science" movement to make scientific research, data and dissemination accessible to all.

I think that in this context it can be easy to interpret this "data" as "open data". While I don't think they necessarily refer to the same concept, is there a potential interference with the Stack Exchange Q&A site about Open Data?

Answer 1

One source, "The case for an open science in technology enhanced learning", International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol. 3, No. 6, 2011, ppg 643-54. Kraker, et al., gives four "instruments of open science":

1. Open Access,
2. Open Data,
3. Open Source, and
4. Open Methodology

Another source, openscienceASAP, adds two more principles to the definition of open science:

5. Open Peer Review, and
6. Open Educational Resources

Thus the concept of open data is a core component of open science. So, too, is open source, which also has its own Stack Exchange site, though still in beta at this time.

Contrary to your question, while the "data" in the proposed description may not always refer to the same concept as that of the "open data" of Open Data.SE, the majority of the time it likely will be the same concept. As such there will be some interference, and many of the questions on this site dealing with open data could well be on topic there, and well received. The same could be said for many of the PHP and Perl scripts that are used in server administration relative to the Server Fault, Stack Overflow, and Super User sites. Depending on the wording, such question could be on topic for any of the three sites. Yet, in context, the question is likely to be a better "fit" for one of the three over the other two. Likewise, some open data question may receive better answers here, and others will do better there. I don't think either site would suffer because of that. Often the context of the question will determine where the question "should" be asked.

All the above, including your question, can be said to apply to the "Open Source" component of Open Science as well. Some of the questions for that may have better answers on the FOSS site than the Open Science site. OTOH, many will be linked to other components of Open Science in such a manner as to make them a bad fit for the FOSS site where the implications could be missed.

In both cases there will be crossover. The word "interference" might be less accurate to describe the effect, however. I think the results of crossover questions will be the enhancement of both the Open Science site, and the site such questions do get asked, and answered, on.