The power of preprints: the open publication project for ecologists

Ideas are free but not cheap.  Peer-reviewed publications are still the major form of accepted dissemination of ecological ideas.  Even with open access however, this communication modality is outdated.  Discussion, feedback, transparent review, versioning, ranking, and articulation of both idea development and peer-review are needed to accelerate scientific discovery.  A new communication venue is proposed herein: archival of open access pre-prints similar to arXiv but with annotation, review, and discussion.  Think stackoverflow + arXiv for ecologists; not a final step in the evolution of scientific communication but an affordable idea we need to explore.