We all have our idea of what is meant by an open society. We think of freedom to act, speak and think as we wish within the law, of a tolerance of others’ views and a state machinery that respects these freedoms of the individual and interferes as little as possible in our lives. We also probably think of open information flows and with them the flow of knowledge within, into and out of that particular society. With respect to science, we would expect an open society to optimise scientific developments both at home and outside the society – for example, by the utilisation of the good communication channels present in an open society, by bridges that span the gap between scientists and politicians, and by the forging of effective ways to transfer the fruits of scientific progress to the population and wider. Yet even in exemplary open societies, science may not work with society to best effect, and society may not create the conditions that science needs to flourish.

Now we need to think globally – about the ways science can enhance the global society and what needs to be done to facilitate these things. There are a number of issues or threats to global society that are both critically important and which cannot be resolved without the application of science. The challenge of terrorism is one, of course. Others include securing and managing energy supplies, global economic change, threats to health on a global scale such as an influenza pandemic, climate-related problems, poverty and the issue of weapons of mass destruction. Science has a role to play in the alleviation, resolution or prevention of all these things if we can harness its power correctly.

The theme on Open Society, Open Science at ESOF2008 in Barcelona covered all these issues and more, bringing together expert speakers and scientists to talk about the way science can be better integrated into society and the way societies can benefit from scientific discovery. The sessions generated a lot of discussion and debate.

Science itself can be open or closed. We have always understood that military research is kept under wraps, but it should not be expected that other research, carried out for the benefit of the public and funded by public money, is closed to people who may wish to learn from and use it. Yet the way the world’s scientific communication system has developed over the last few centuries has had just that effect. Now scientists are beginning to use the World Wide Web to communicate their findings openly and to initiate scientific conversations that were not possible before this technology was introduced. This ‘Open Access’ system works not only for research articles but for datasets as well, which scientists can now make available, via the Web, for sharing. Other scientists use the data, of course, but the interested public can access them too, to inform thinking and arguments about health issues, climate, the environment and new technologies. Increasingly, these technologies involve another ‘open’ entity – Open Source Software. This is software developed on a community basis, with the source code made available for free for anyone to build upon. It has been adopted by companies from large to small – even the biggest giants like IBM build products upon it.

Science and society are coming together, then, but there are two further enablers that need to be right. First, the developing world still lags behind the developed one in terms of connectivity. Bridging the bandwidth gap is a critical task if developing and emerging countries are to make the best use of scientific progress. Second, the communication of science to the public that pays for it needs to improve. Societies in the twenty-first century must be scientifically literate and equipped to understand, assess, judge and use the fruits of scientific research.

Politicians, in the main, have a grasp of these issues and the will to try to resolve them NGOs are also playing their part. The scientific community, from individual researchers through administrators and managers of science, to science funders also all have a role to play in this big effort to open up science. The Euroscientist will be exploring some of the problems and successes over the next few issues.

Alma Swan
Editor, The Euroscientist
Director, Key Perspectives Ltd, Truro, UK