Cameron, thanks for pulling together the different threads. The link to the comments in the RealClimate post was especially interesting.

This is why I see discussions focussed on just information consumption (creating/using databases, open access) or just information production (electronic laboratory notebooks) as ultimately not going anywhere very interesting.

If the Web's success stories have anything in common, it's that the line between information creator and information producer is pretty thin. This artificial distinction results from previous experiences with one-way media (print, tv, radio, video). The Web is all about taking that artificial distinction warping it, and playing with it in unconventional ways, to the horror of those who control the existing one-way media.

I believe the new breed of scientific information systems that end up really working will be those that solve both the information creation and information consumption problems simultaneously and definitively.

Mike, you've hit the nail on the head wrt Web frameworks like Rails. The barrier to creating useful, two-way communications channels for science has gotten very low indeed. The possibilities are very much within reach to those who take the challenge.