Building a Community Modeling and Information Sharing Culture

By copying information from sources and distributing it to new destinations we do not loseinformation at the sources. Nevertheless, exchange of information is still restricted by patent law, as well asby institutional, cultural and traditional hurdles that create protective barriers hindering the free flow of thisvaluable commodity. We believe that one of the greatest challenges we face in creating a new researchparadigm will be building the community modeling and information sharing culture. How do we getengineers and scientists to put aside their traditional modes of doing business? How do we provide theincentives that will be required to make these changes happen? How do we get our colleagues to see thatthe benefits of sharing resources far outweigh the costs? We argue that timely sharing of data andinformation is not only in the best interest of the research community, but that it is also in the best interest ofthe scientist who is doing the sharing.