Go on, share content nicely…..
Jinfo Blog

5th October 2010

By Joanna Ptolomey

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In business 'sharing nicely' can be something that is only paid lip service to. After all competitive advantage can be the differentiator between success and failure. Especially in industries where research and development are key to the success in the market place. A certain amount of secrecy is always expected and required. However there are many benefits to sharing certain types of content and it can be to the benefit of all industry players and their stakeholders. At DigiPharm, (http://digbig.com/5bcnek), Kay Wesley, a leading global digital agency director, reminded the audience that there are certain types of information that should be shared for the common good. She believes that in the STM sector that this type of sharing spurs on new and innovative research that benefits the patient and business in general. In case we needed further evidence Kay cited the fantastic example of the human genome project where the code is now freely available to push research developments and innovation to new heights. I was also interested to discover that the Antarctic expeditions collaboratively share across subject disciplines such as geography, science and medicine. Information products and vendors are keen to push the benefits and facilitate the sharing and collaboration too. In the LiveWire and VIP magazine we have reviewed many products that do this well - AIP UniPHY (http://digbig.com/5bcnen) and (http://digbig.com/5bcnep), BiomedExperts.com (http://digbig.com/5bcneq) and (http://digbig.com/5bcner), SSRN (http://digbig.com/5bcnes). ResearchGate (http://digbig.com/5bcnet) and Sciencefeed (http://digbig.com/5bcnex) are other good examples of products that help facilitate this sharing content principle. Content responsibility was a constant theme at DigiPharm with many of the speakers making reference to content responsibility and appropriateness. Content is no longer the domain of the big providers with sharing and crowdsourcing being seen as relevant and as useful. Content needs to be bespoke these day – different stakeholders want information, and content relevant to them in their language. In the pharmaceutical sector that includes patients – and by the way they are also huge creators of valuable content too. Open publishing and user generated content is now changing the look and feel of valuable STM information significantly. Content workflow is also creating much enthusiasm in the STM sector and many speakers and delegates were making reference to it. Organisations don’t want to be paying for information that they don’t need. They also need information to flow into their work streams and to be shared with their partners, external collaborators and also stakeholders. Providers such as Reprints Desk are developing tools particularly aimed at managing content in this way. Kay believes that the pharmaceutical sector can drive a creative commons in healthcare – I would like to think that all healthcare stakeholders could work together to create content appropriate to different stakeholders needs. We need more than one driver of this train – sorry pharma. There is a certain level of sharing content that makes perfect sense – perhaps we can stop reinventing the wheel and be more efficient at meeting the needs for all stakeholders. In terms of content it will depend on the sharer I think – for R&D endeavours sharing with partners and collaborators there is no problem and workflow systems help with that. As for sharing all in the pharmaceutical sector, and to be blunt within the healthcare sector as a whole, I think there is a long way to go.

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