

Show HN: ThinkLab – A platform for massively collaborative open science - jspaulding
http://thinklab.com/

======
grownseed
This is a very interesting idea and I really hope it takes off. The people
involved seem to genuinely care about the mission and I think that's a very
good sign.

That said, I do have a few questions that I couldn't answer from looking at
your website:

\- Is funding only available within the US or are other countries considered
too?

\- What about existing research projects that are currently closed but intend
to become open and have their data shared, would your process support that?

\- Do you enforce what should be shared and how, or is it up to the
leaders/collaborators? (reason I ask is because, for instance, patient data
may be involved but cannot be shared)

Also, under "Phase 3: Research" > "2\. Collaborative Wrap-up" you mention
packaging the research. I think that's one of the biggest problems in
research, it's a jungle out there (e.g. randomly formatted Excel files are
still the norm in a lot of places...). Providing directions, templates, access
to platforms, etc. i.e. doing a lot of hand-holding might be necessary here. I
also think it would drive a lot of people to using your platform and spreading
the word about it.

In any case, best of luck!

~~~
jspaulding
Thanks for the comment. To answer your questions

\- Funding availability by country will depend on who our funding partners are
(right now we have none).

\- Yes, we could support existing projects that want to become open. Right now
the site assumes people start with a "proposal stage", but we could create an
option for an existing project.

\- ThinkLab does not enforce what should be shared. It's up to the project
leaders to declare what they intend to share, and it's up to the collaborators
to ultimately decide how much of a performance bonus the research team should
receive. (Partly based on how open they are with their data)

Thanks again.

