Search is not the final frontier, it is a journey

I was searching the Internet, using one of the top three search engines, looking for Web articles and blog posts on “e-gov” to find out what government agencies are doing when I came across a Web site that searches globally shared science content. I make it sound like poof it what there in the top 10 search results listed, actually I had to click through a few Web sites before I discovered it. As a person who is big on relevant (to me of course) search results, I am usually impressed with search engines. But, I know from working on the NASA Engineering Network search project that displaying the results that the end-user is looking for is a bit Jedi Mind tricky. But I digress, sort of.

The Web site I discovered is a search-based site called WorldWideScience.org and is maintained by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), which is in the Office of Science under the Department of Energy. Using federated search engine technology, WorldWideScience.org provides single search and retrieval for national and international science and technology information, something the “top three” search engines cannot do. And here is why.

In order to be a global science and technology search site, WorldWideScience.org made partnerships with other countries, some traditionally not open to share, like China and Korea. You can view the video about worldwidescience.org as well as the China’s and Korea’s Participation signing ceremonies . Other countries that share content are India, Finland, Sweden, Britain, Japan, Mexico, Cuba, and many more  and the participation has grown since its 2007 debut from 10 countries to 56 countries and 375 million pages of science information, as of June 2009.

In researching WorldWideScience.org and the databases indexed (a term used in the search field that basically means a partnering of the database with the search function), I found out that NASA content is searched by virtue of being part of science.gov . If you are interested in the list databases and content indexed by science.gov, go to http://www.science.gov/scigov/search.html?searchMode=advanced and click the [+] sign.

The ability to share and search science and technology information is an amazing effort, not only technically but socially as well. Some people find power in holding on to information and not sharing. They lack the vision of sharing power, the leveraging of knowledge that someone else has. Sharing information with other people leads to a new collective knowledge and collective intelligence (see Wikipedia). And in the case of WorldWideScience.org they believe the benefit of having global access to global content “accelerates scientific discovery and progress by providing one-stop searching  of global science sources.”

Give WorldWideScience.org and share what you think about globally sharing.

WorldWideScience.org is continually seeking participants with national or international science databases or portals who would like their source searched by WorldWideScience.org. If you want to share, contact webmaster@worldwidescience.org.