Dr. Walter Warnick, Director
U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI)
Web-Enabled Government Conference
Washington, DC
June 2, 2005
(Slide 1)Slide 2: OSTI's Mission
We are a component of the DOE Office of Science. Our mission is to advance science and sustain technological creativity by making R&D findings available and useful to DOE researchers and the American people.
Slide 3: OSTI's Vision
Our vision for the future rests on the premise that emerging computing power and fast networks have only just begun to revolutionize scientific communication.
Our vision and our intention is to accelerate the sharing of scientific knowledge.
Slide 4: Dispensing with the Fancy Words …
Our purpose is to help people know about science.
Slide 5: The Art of the Possible
We've done that, are doing that, by understanding the 'art of the possible' .
We've achieved success in developing innovative, groundbreaking tools that have made DOE information access quicker, cheaper, more convenient, and more complete than ever before.
Slide 6: Forging New Ground
We've forged new ground by successfully pioneering distributed search across disparate, non-standardized sources.
Slide 7: Authoritative Selected Science Information
Science.gov offers three key elements to search technology:
- Federated search
- Relevance ranking of federated results
- Alerts of federated databases
OMB E-Government Report to Congress on March 1, 2005, noted that Science.gov was one of two efforts, government-wide, satisfying the requirements of Section 207 of the E-Gov Act.
Slide 8: Science Progresses only if Knowledge is Shared
Global Discovery Corollary
If you accelerate the sharing of knowledge, you accelerate scientific progress
OSTI is working to accelerate knowledge diffusion
Slide 9: We will start by:
Expanding volume
Increasing searchable content within databases; increasing number of databases-
Amplifying power
Employing emerging technologies, such as grid (Science.gov 4.0); increasing computing power and storage -
Enhancing use of data
Integrating analytical tools and other aids; improving sophistication of relevance ranking; implementing next-generation algorithms and visualization techniques
Slide 10: Two-Way Street
But it's not just researchers in need of acceleration of knowledge diffusion.
Science is, at the very least, a two-way street.
As rapid advances in research enhance the economic well-being and health of the public, so too does research rely heavily on public support.
Slide 11: Science Access
We take strong exception to the notion that science is so complex that non-scientists need not have access.
Slide 12: The Mission
After all, you can't love something unless you know about it.
So back to our mission: We want to assist people who want to learn about science.Slide 13: OSTI's Purpose
That's been OSTI's purpose for almost six decades.
Forging new ground to help foster a knowledge of science.
