We want online scientific social networking

[Petition for engineers and scientists only]

Problem description:

Scientific conferences cost too much to the world ($500-1000 USD for registration not counting travel and hotel), are harmful to the planet (too much traveling) and not always useful (the review process is too slow - 3 to 6 months- and limited reviews are received -3 to 5 reviews-).

Background:

http://arxiv.org introduced a model called "fast publication". Scientists upload their work to arxiv where it is protected i.e. available to everyone and recognized by scientific databases like DBLP and can be referenced without being published in a journal.

Scientific social networking:

We consider the following online scientific social networking system in addition to the existing conferencing system:

1. We can upload our scientific work where it is protected (similar to arxiv model)

2. We can browse others' scientific work

3. We can ask questions to authors, provide comments, get answers etc.

4. Our input is archived and made available to public

5. We can receive comments to our work and update it, or collaborate with others if we wish

Using this system, if we provide good feedback, we can form a social network for ourselves without necessarily attending scientific conferences.

We also believe that the final version of a scientific paper should be published with a license permitting everyone to redistribute exact copies.