Funding Social Science Data Archiving and Services in the Networked Environment

Knowledge is a peculiar thing. You can give it away any number of times without ever giving it up. The more knowledge that you give away, the greater the likelihood that someone will give you back new knowledge. If you hoard knowledge, its value may decline; if you do not refresh your learning with contributions from others, its value will certainly decline. These peculiarities apply strongly to a special kind of knowledge: factual information that is organized for analysis, otherwise known as “data.”