Online tool could aid global scientific research
collaboration
< http://www.scidev.net/en/news/online-tool-could-aid-global-collaboration.html>
                By Jessica Hamzelou

August 4, 2009

                Google has launched a new online tool enabling free
data-sharing that could aid with international scientific research
collaborations.

                The tool, Fusion Tables - launched on the Google Labs
website - allows tables of data to be visualised as charts, graphs and maps,
which can help identify patterns and trends. Users are able upload their
data and make the information freely available to anyone, opening up
possibilities for collaboration.

                The Pacific Institute, an environmental research
organisation, is already using the tool. Together with media network Circle
of Blue they have provided free international access to global freshwater
data.

                Alon Halevy, senior engineer at Google Labs, told
SciDev.Net: "We wanted to make it easier for people to share their data, to
save it and make it searchable on the web . We want to unlock data from its
current repositories and let more people get value out of it."

                Google is currently in conversation with several non-profit
and government-funded organisations in an effort to increase the available
online information.

                Since the tool's launch in June ClimateWizard - a
collaboration between The Nature Conservancy, the University of Washington
and the University of Southern Mississippi - has uploaded data on global
climate change predictions.

                The Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International
(CABI) may contribute information to the tool in the future. Communications
manager Sarah Wilson told SciDev.Net: "It's a very interesting piece of kit,
and we'll be watching it develop."

                Halevy also highlights education as a key area for
application of the accumulated data: "I think Fusion Tables is a great tool
for teachers in the classroom to let students investigate their own data,
integrate it or fuse it with data from other places, and make the data come
alive by visualising it on maps." He says he would love to see the tool
applied to teaching in developing countries.