ticer summer school
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Slides for my presentation at the 2009 Ticer Summer School, August 2009.TRANSCRIPT
The Long and Winding Road to Success in Science
Collaboratories
Gary M. OlsonBren School of Information and Computer Sciences
University of California, Irvine
Ticer Summer School
August 5, 2009
Many Collaborators
G. Olson, PD J. Olson N. Bos A. Zimmerman S. Teasley T. Finholt J. Hardin D. Cogburn D. Atkins
M. Hedstrom E. Yakel P. Knoop E. Hofer D. Cooney J. Herbsleb (CMU) J. Trimble (Howard) Zillions of grad students
What I Work On
Last 20+ years:– Collaboration in science and engineering– Focus on geographically distributed
collaboration
Recently– Emerging interest in scholarship more
broadly, especially in social sciences and humanities
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science Collaboratories
– Definition– Classic examples– Recent social science & humanities
What We Know about Success Future of Collaborative Scholarship
– Including roles for librarians
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science & Engineering Increasingly complex problems
– Division of labor– Diverse expertise, specialization
Larger or specialized resources– Expensive equipment– Larger data sets– Vast computational resources
Funding– Opportunistic– Mandate
Personal– Like to work with certain people
Collaboration at a Distance
Has been a feature of science and engineering for a long time
Asynchronous (hand-off) can be supported by many “old” technologies
Synchronous since late 19th century Steady growth in capabilities available
Value of Colocation Clear
Much research on why Special case of “radical co-location”
But will not have a Manhattan Project again– Has been proposed in some research
areas (e.g., vaccine for HIV/AIDS)
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science Collaboratories
– Definition– Classic examples– Recent social science & humanities
What We Know about Success Future of Collaborative Scholarship
Definition of a Collaboratory
A collaboratory is an organizational entity that spans distance, supports rich and recurring human interaction oriented to a common research area, and provides access to data sources, artifacts and tools required to accomplish research tasks.
Nomenclature Collaboratories – term of historical interest, especially
in NSF Context– W. Wulf in 1989– Series of NSF reports
But other roughly equivalent terms– eScience– Cyberscience– Science Portals– gridScience– Virtual environments for science– Distributed Knowledge Work Environments– etc.
What is Needed for Collaboration? Communication
– Voice, video – e.g., VoIP– Shared artifacts– E-mail, IM
Remote access to Instruments – teleobservation, teleoperation– Expensive– Remote
Availability of Computational Resources– Supercomputing– GRID
Shared Repositories– Data– Laboratory notebooks– Digital libraries
Coordination– Shared calendars– Awareness tools
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science Collaboratories
– Definition– Classic examples– Recent social science & humanities
What We Know about Success Future of Collaborative Scholarship
Some Classic Examples
UARC/SPARC– Upper Atmospheric Research Collaboratory– Space Physics and Aeronomy Research
Collaboratory NEESgrid
– Network for Earthquake Engineering and Simulation
IARC– International AIDS Research Collaboratory
UARC -- 1993
Sondrestrom, Greenland
UARC Multi-Instrument Screen Shot
SPARC Scope: 1998
George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
NSF program• Major Research Equipment (MRE)• System Integration (NEESgrid collaboratory)
– 2000-2004
• Consortium development– 2004-2114
NEESgrid Collaboratory
UIUC U of Colorado
Electronic Notebook
Challenge: Collaboratories in Africa?
Less developed technical infrastructure More mixed experience with relevant
applications
But very high motivation
Two Similar Projects in Southern Africa Basic research on the nature of HIV-C Clinical trials
– Mother-infant transmission– Antiretroviral (ARV) Therapies– Vaccine candidates
Education– Members of the public– Health care workers
South Africa
1. Project Participants
Partners AIDS Research Center, Harvard U
Nuffield Dept. of Clinical Medicine, U of Oxford
Nelson Mandela College ofMedicine, U of Natal, Durban
Botswana2. Project Participants
School of Public Health,Harvard University
Ministry of Health,Republic of Botswana
What is being supported?
Lab meetings Clinical meetings Remote colloquium speakers
Our own project coordination with collaborators in the region
Increasing use of Tools
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science Collaboratories
– Definition– Classic examples– Recent social science & humanities
What We Know about Success Future of Collaborative Scholarship
www.collate.de
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science Collaboratories
– Definition– Classic examples– Recent social science & humanities
What We Know about Success Future of Collaborative Scholarship
www.scienceofcollaboratories.org
What Have We Learned So Far?
NSF CISE ITR grant
MIT Press, 2008
Breadth & Depth Strategy
Collaboratories at a Glance– Collect a large set of collaboratories
• We have identified more than 200 examples
– Collect a basic set of information In-depth studies
– Few projects documented in detail– Interviews, observations, site visits– About 18 so far
Taxonomy of Collaboratories
Research focus– Distributed Research Center– Shared Instrumentation– Community Data Systems– Open Community Contribution System
Practice focus– Virtual Community of Practice– Virtual Learning Community– Expert Consultation
What is Success?
Use of the collaboratory tools Software technology Direct effects on the science Science careers Effects on learning, science education Inspiration for other collaboratories Learning about collaboratories in general Effects on funding, public perception
Challenges to collaboration Alignment of goals and incentives Establishment of common ground Creation of mutual trust among participants Costs of coordination and communication Appropriate division of labor, with associated allocation of
resources Appropriate technology (user-centered) & support
infrastructure Effective management plan Leadership Legal & regulatory issues Long-term sustainability Cultural issues
Summary of These Factors
Theory of Remote Scientific Collaboration (TORSC)– Ch. 4 in book
Refinement in progress– How to weight the factors– Interactions, tradeoffs among them
Wizard – on-line survey with feedback Extension to Corporate Collaboration
(CorpTORC)
Overview of Talk
Collaboration in Science Collaboratories
– Definition– Classic examples– Recent social science & humanities
What We Know about Success Future of Collaborative Scholarship
Future of Collaborative Scholarship (1) Consolidation of knowledge about successful
collaborations– SOC findings
• Book• Wizard
– Several other recent books – Cummings & Kiesler study of NSF ITR, KDI
More sophistication more realistic expectations– PIs– Funding agencies
The technology itself– Computational power– Networking– Mobile options– Better applications
Especially re data– Analysis– Visualization– Scale
Future of Collaborative Scholarship (2)
Social technologies– Wider range of communication tools
• More flexibility
– Better support for informal interaction• Awareness technology
– Validation of emerging social tools• Especially understanding sociotechnical interplay
– Better social ergonomics• Video – eye contact, gaze direction, quality• Audio – 3D
Future of Collaborative Scholarship (3)
Cohort changes– Striking differences among age groups– Collaboration skills from game world?– Example
• Grudin vs. Palen & Grudin studies of calendaring
Future of Collaborative Scholarship (4)
Distributed Scholarship
Will spread to all areas of scholarship– Social sciences & humanities are
beginning to see the opportunities
Disappear as infrastructure?
But, distance will always matter
Roles for Academic Libraries Management of digital repositories
– Beyond just books and journals Folksonomies vs taxonomies
– Metadata Expertise on emerging search technologies
– Much uninformed behavior Intercultural collaboration Expertise on collaborative technologies
– DOW Chemical
– UM Library
