P2P data sharing

Salvatore Salamone, The Uncommon Information Commons, Bio-IT World, July/August, 2006. Excerpt:

Like most life scientists, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health spent a great deal of time managing data. As is the case in many labs, data were stored in Excel spreadsheets that were e-mailed to colleagues. As such, much time was spent formatting and preparing data for analysis. And when data was shared, there were also difficulties tracking any changes to the data to ensure everyone was working with the same information.

"I was working on many projects with lots of colleagues; it was hard to synchronize all of the information," says Michael Barmada, associate professor of human genetics in the Graduate School of Public Health. "I started looking for a data management solution....We were dealing with huge amounts of data, and we were looking for ways to fit all types of data together. We were getting swamped."

In his quest for a solution, Barmada heard a talk by Josh Knauer, director of advanced development at MAYA Design, about a new type of database called the Information Commons, a peer-to-peer system that allows many people to securely post and share large amounts of disparate data. In today's vernacular, it's something like a wiki database where many users can contribute data, designated people can edit or change the data, and in this case, the originator of the data can selectively control who sees what data.... For those wanting to try the Information Commons approach, MAYA Design will offer the basic software for free. If specific tools are desired, MAYA typically partners with an organization where both apply for a research grant or contract to fund the development.