Why Has Unidata Been Successful?

Celebration of Unidata’s 25th YearOctober 15-16, 2009

Clifford A. JacobsNational Science Foundation

The conversation The premise The intangibles The unanticipated The burden of success

Themes

THE CONVERSATION

25 years of dialog among UPC, NSF, UCAR management, & the community

A cacophony - 1983 A patron and a conductor Stability and reflection The nagging question

A cacophony to a symphony

THE PREMISE

“Information is the currency of democracy.” – Thomas Jefferson

Key Elements Purpose

National Character of relating to one another

“Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations. …In democratic countries the science of associations is the mother of science; the progress of all the rest depends on the progress it has made.”

-- Alexis DeTocqueville's DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA 1835

Trustworthy execution Governance

Software

Communications

“Reputation system” broker

WORK

WORK

Convention

Organization

UPC

G

S

R

C

THE INTANGIBLES

Social Anthropology Factor

Unidata as a virtual community? - “Virtual communities are social aggregations that emerge from

the Net when enough people carry on those public discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships in cyberspace.” - Rheingold, Howard (1993). The Virtual Community

Unidata fostering Social Capital – “features of social organization such as networks, norms, and

social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit.” - Robert Putman (1995) America’s Declining Social Capital. Journal of Democracy

Unidata as a synthesis of a virtual community that fosters social capital –

“….social capital and civic engagement will increase when virtual communities develop around physically based communities and when these virtual communities foster additional communities of interest.” - Anita Blanchard and Tom Horan (2000) Virtual Communities and Social Capital

Virtual Communities and Social Capital

THE UNANTICIPATED

The Incubator and a Frontier Outpost

Shared values that lead to greater impact than originally anticipated Unidata as an “Incubator”

“…organizing processes to accelerate shared discovery, maturation, and validation of community-based capabilities. Common understanding of scenarios

Greater foresight and discernment Improved collaboration Sustainable “life-cycle”

Unidata as “A Frontier Outpost” “…to open a quality conversations, augmented by “light-

weight tools, to leverage collaborative capacity of united, but diverse sectors of society, seeking to discover, frame, and act on national potentials”

An Unanticipated Shared Purpose

Courtesy of Susan Turnbull, GSA

THE BURDEN OF SUCCESS

“I ask not for a lighter burden, but for broader shoulders.” -- Jewish Proverb

The increasing reach and influence of Unidata demands a thoughtful response Developing a ancillary support community

and a coalitions of the willing Strategic decisions about engagement -

ROI Defining the community will become

increasing difficult Stovepipes to Wind chimes

NetCDF 320,000 | UPC 24

Thank you