Dear Vaheh,
On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 03:18:07PM +0000, Oganesyan, Vaheh wrote:
> But to store those difficult datasets to help the future software
> development sounds really farfetched.
As far as I see the general plan, that would be a second stage (deposit
all datasets) - the first one would be the datasets related directly
to a given PDB entry.
> This assumes that in the future crystallographers will never grow
> crystals that will deliver difficult datasets.
Oh sure they will. And lots of those datasets will be available to
developers ... being thrown a difficult problem under pressure is a
very good thing to get ideas, think out of the box etc. However,
developing solid algorithms is better done in a less hectic
environment with a large collection of similar problems (changing only
one parameter at a time) to test a new method.
> If that is the case and in 10-20-30 years next generation will be
> growing much better crystals then they don't need such a software
> development.
They'll grow better crystals for the type of project we're currently
struggling with, sure. But we'll still get poor crystals for projects we
don't even attempt or tackle right now.
Software development is a slow process, often working on a different
timescale than the typical structure solution project (obvious there
are exceptions). So planing ahead for that time will prepare us.
And yes, it will have an impact on the biology then. It's not just the
here and now (and next grant, next high-profile paper) we should be
thinking about.
> Am I missing a point of discussion here?
One small point maybe: there are very few developers out there - but a
very large number of users that benefit from what they have
done. Often the work is not very visible ("It's just pressing a button
or two ... so it must be trivial!") - which is a good thing: it has to
be simple, robust, automtic and useable.
I think if a large enough number of developers consider depositing
images a very useful resource for their future development (and
therefore future benefit to a large number of users), it should be
seriously considered, even if some of the advertised benefits have to
be taken on trust.
Past developments in data processing have had a big impact on a lot of
projects - high-profile or just the standard PhD-student nightmare -
with often small return for the developers in terms of publications,
grants or even citations (main paper or supplementary material).
So maybe in the sprit of the festive season it is time to consider
giving a little bit back? What is there to loose? Another 20 minutes
additional deposition work for the user in return for maybe/hopefully
saving a whole project 5 years down the line? Not a bad investment it
seems to me ...
Cheers
Clemens
--
***************************************************************
* Clemens Vonrhein, Ph.D. vonrhein AT GlobalPhasing DOT com
*
* Global Phasing Ltd.
* Sheraton House, Castle Park
* Cambridge CB3 0AX, UK
*--------------------------------------------------------------
* BUSTER Development Group (http://www.globalphasing.com)
***************************************************************
