All men by nature desire to know. And indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer sight to almost anything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, sight makes us know and brings to light many differences between things
Aristotle, Metaphysics
Open science is based on two ideas. The first is that science benefits from the open sharing of information. The second is that open science emphasises challenge in open forum. Open science stands in contradistinction to the closed system of refereeing and the paywalls that characterise university science.
Open science does not serve the interests of commercial corporations, but people's desire to learn. Open science is charged only at the rate needed to sustain the work (if it can be made free then so much the better). Open science is linked to the concept of open education; which is education that is affordable for anybody with the time, interest and ability.
Shen and Open Science
In the past the Shen project was very dependent on selling hardcopy to keep the work funded. Today the Shen project is in a better position and so, true to the open science principle of easy access, the hardcopy guide to Shen is now freely readable online.
Helping Us
But we are still reliant, as is everybody in today's economy, on funding to drive our work forward and if you gain benefit from the 800+ web pages on this site (soon to top 1,000), you can help us do even more by donating to the cause of Shen open science and open education
Shen Open Science Prize
Shen has been translated into 15 computer languages and we are instituting a prize system, the Shen Open Science Prize, to reward people around the world who have made significant contributions to Shen or who help to keep it running. So your contribution will go towards supporting their work.
Winner Date
Bruno Deferrari October 2021
Mark Tarver
Faster, smaller S31 Shen kernel released; read about the S series of kernels here.
Fourth edition of 'The Book of Shen' released; read about it here.
Bruno Deferrari wins the first Shen Open Science prize.
Yggdrasil project launched - the grand unification of programming languages.
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