Whew. It's been a trip so far. My new job is at a company that is starting up after a hiatus -- it's not what is usually meant by a start-up, but from what I can tell the atmosphere is pretty similar. I'll link to it, and maybe talk about some of my work, when I have a better sense of where the boundaries are. I don't want to be continually pestering the admin to vet my blog posts! For now all I'll say is that we make HIV diagnostic tools, and it's good to be back in that fight. I might post HIV-related content from time to time, but I'll add a disclaimer about my corporate connection.

I don't have a lot of free time, but I do want to keep talking and thinking about Open Science... now that I'm in biotech, it's harder to see how to do things openly, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try.

For the moment, in lieu of any original content, here are two must-reads for anyone who reads me:

Walt Crawford has devoted an entire issue of Cites&Insights to library access to scholarship, and you should read it for a useful overview of the state of scholarly communication in general and not just because he says nice things about my efforts to put some numbers to the questions. (At the risk of being ungrateful, I will add that I could have done with fewer swipes at Stevan Harnad, but then I must in fairness further add that I am under-informed about the library community perspective on the original archivangelist. Ymmv.)

Cameron Neylon has been thinking about science and society again. Just do yourself a favour and read it, OK? Here's a quote to whet your appetite:

We need at core a much more sophisticated conversation with the wider community about the benefits that research brings; to the economy, to health, to the environment, to education. And we need a much more rational conversation within the research community as to how those different forms of impact are and should be tensioned against each other. We need in short a complete overhaul if not a replacement of the post-war concensus on public funding of research. My fear is that without this the current funding squeeze will turn into a long term decline. And that without some serious self-examination the current self-indulgent bleating of the research community is unlikely to increase popular support for public research funding.

In case you ever wondered why I married the spousal unit.