Sharing data makes our shoulders broader

Here is a presentation intro I’ve used recently in talks about data sharing and reuse.  I post it as a reference to thank those who share their Flickr photos under Creative Commons licenses.
Feel free to reuse! (obviously with Flickr attributions intact and license choices respected)

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If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants, said Isaac Newton and others before him.

While historians speculate that Isaac Newton was actually being sarcastic,

Nicolas Poussin (1658) "Landscape with blind Orion seeking the sun." Image from wikimedia

most of us would agree that science progresses by standing on shoulders of those who came before. Or by kneeling on their backs.  Or clambering up their work any other way we can.

photo credit: jsmjr on Flickr

I suggest that when we share our research output, not only as published research descriptions, but also in the form of open datasets and methods, we are, in effect, making our shoulders broader.

photo credit: camilleharrington on Flickr

All of a sudden, a lot more people can build on our work.

photo credit: lifeabundantly on Flickr

Researchers can climb higher than otherwise possible,

photo credit: conform on Flickr

and jump up and down on our findings to make sure they are really stable.

photo credit: lifeabundantly on Flickr

It allows contributions from places we may never have expected,

photo credit: Zemlinki! on Flickr

and investigators can explore places they never could have on their own.

photo credit: Matthew and Tracie on Flickr

In short, our broad-shouldered research can make a contribution that far exceeds its original role.

photo credit: David Paul Ohmer on Flickr

photo credit: druclimb on Flickr

Edited 2010/08/09 to add concluding photo.