conceptualizing and advancing research networking systems
DESCRIPTION
Science in general, and biomedical research in particular, is becoming more collaborative. As a result, collaboration with the right individuals, teams and institutions is increasingly crucial for scientific progress. We propose “research networking systems” (RNS) as a new type of system designed to help scientists identify and choose collaborators, and suggest a corresponding research agenda. The research agenda covers four areas: Foundations, Presentation, Architecture and Evaluation. Foundations includes project-, institution- and discipline-specific motivational factors; the role of social networks; and impression formation based on information beyond expertise and interests. Presentation addresses representing expertise in a comprehensive and up-to-date manner; the role of controlled vocabularies and folksonomies; the tension between seekers’ need for comprehensive information and potential collaborators’ desire to control how they are seen by others; and the need to support serendipitous discovery of collaborative opportunities. Architecture considers aggregation and synthesis of information from multiple sources, social system interoperability, and integration with the user’s primary work context. Lastly, Evaluation focuses on assessment of collaboration decisions, measurement of user-specific costs and benefits, and how the large-scale impact of RNS could be evaluated with longitudinal and naturalistic methods. We hope that this paper stimulates the human-computer interaction, computer-supported cooperative work and related communities to pursue a broad and comprehensive agenda for developing research networking systems.TRANSCRIPT
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Conceptualizing and advancing research networking systemsTitus Schleyer, DMD, PhD1, Brian Butler, PhD2, Mei Song, PhD1, Heiko Spallek, DMD, PhD1
1University of Pittsburgh2University of Maryland
Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, May 9, 2012
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Definition
“Research Networking Systems (RNS) are systems which support individual researchers’ efforts to form and maintain optimal collaborative relationships for conducting productive research within a specific context.”
List of RNSs: http://bit.ly/RNSList
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Four key areas for RNS
•Foundations•Presentation•Architecture•Evaluation
• 13 claims• 51 research
questions}
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Sample claims
Public domain image http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1996/of96-737/ 2012
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Claim 2: Exploiting social networks is essential for efficient and effective research networking.
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Claim 5: RNS must represent individuals’ expertise, interests and activities using controlled terminologies.
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Mr. Taxonomy
VS
Brother Folksonomy
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Claim 6: RNSs must allow users to search and visualize researcher profiles in multiple ways.
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Picking collaborators from a stack of CVs …
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Copyright © 2011 The Trustees of Indiana University
Copyright © 2011 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College
image courtesy Melissa Haendel 2011
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Claim 9: RNSs must integrate information from multiple systems, make use of meta-information such as indexing terms to synthesize the information and present results in a cohesive manner.
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Databases
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Informal sources
Social Media
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Claim 10: RNS must integrate seamlessly with an individual’s workflow and the software applications that are part of it.
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Claim 11: Evaluating RNS search results requires metrics which combine traditional information retrieval measures with those specific to collaboration.
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Conclusion
• moving RNSs forward requires broad but integrated research program
• CSCW, HCI, social science and others essential to progress
• rapid, iterative cycle between foundational research, design, implementation and evaluation
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Please visit us at:http://di.dental.pitt.edu/orcTwitterFacebook /titusschleyerScribd }
Thank You for Your Attention!Questions, comments?
(Yeah!)
Thanks to:• NCRR award 1 U54 RR023506-01• Michael Dziabiak
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http://scr.bi/RNS-CHI2012