VOSS: Leveraging Development Expertise Across Cyberinfrastructures

分布式协作科学需要新的和强大的技术来支持通信、数据共享和聚合、访问远程仪器和大规模数据分析。支持这种科学的必要基础设施被称为网络基础设施。人们越来越认识到人力基础设施对网络基础设施的重要性，组织和行动者的安排必须协调一致才能完成工作。基础设施是复杂的系统，其带来的挑战无法仅靠技术或社会发展来解决。社会技术系统方法对于理解如何创建长期、可持续的网络基础设施以推进科学知识和实践是必要的。该项目将通过对两个大型网络基础设施建设和研究学习组织进行比较人种学研究来解决这些挑战。这些组织中的每一个都主持和参与了不同规模和复杂程度的多个网络基础设施项目。定性研究方法将包括参与者观察和半结构化访谈，以了解工作实践如何随时间变化和发展。拟议的研究将：1)描述人力和技术资源如何在网络基础设施项目、团体、个人网络和组织中协同再利用；2)描述特定的社会或技术安排如何鼓励或阻碍重用；3)描述和分析这些组织如何管理其身份、结构和边界，以支持组织学习和创新；4)开发新的概念模型，构建组织层面结构、人际网络和网络基础设施生产之间的关系。从经验上看，这个项目将提供一个关于网络基础设施中心如何应对突发、分布式和长期设计挑战的理解。从概念上讲，这个项目将开发一个框架来理解：1)人员、流程和工具的增量校准和重新校准；2)这些一致性是如何发挥作用的：在网络基础设施建设组织内部，在网络基础设施建设组织之间，在组织（或组织子组）之间，具体项目及其领域社区之间的合作中。就更广泛的影响而言，通过促进对网络基础设施发展的更复杂的理解，本研究将刺激和支持未来网络基础设施的发展。将在从事网络基础设施社会方面工作的机构之间建立合作，以更有效地确定共同关注的问题。该项目将为培养新一代跨学科研究人员提供机会，包括本科生、研究生和博士后。为了使创新更广泛地发挥作用，研究结果将在多学科和跨学科会议和讲习班上提出，并以对决策者有用的形式发表。

Distributed collaborative science requires new and powerful technologies to support communication, data sharing and aggregation, access to remote instruments, and large-scale data analysis. The infrastructure necessary to support this kind of science is called cyberinfrastructure. There has been increasing recognition of the importance of the human infrastructure to cyberinfrastructure, the arrangements of organizations and actors that must be brought into alignment in order for work to be accomplished. Infrastructures are complex systems that present challenges that cannot be addressed by either technological or social development alone. A sociotechnical systems approach is necessary to understand how to create long-term, sustainable cyberinfrastructures in order to advance scientific knowledge and practice. This project will address these challenges by undertaking a comparative ethnographic study of two large cyberinfrastructure building and research and learning organizations. Each of these organizations hosts and participates in multiple cyberinfrastructure projects of varying size and complexity. Qualitative research methods will include participant-observation and semi-structured interviews to understand how work practices change and develop over time. The proposed research will: 1) describe how human and technical resources are synergistically re-used across cyberinfrastructure projects, groups, personal networks, and organizations; 2) describe how reuse is encouraged or discouraged by particular social or technical arrangements; 3) describe and analyze how these organizations manage their identities, structures, and boundaries to support organizational learning and innovation; and 4) develop new conceptual models that frame the relationships among organizational-level structures, interpersonal networks, and the production of cyberinfrastructure. Empirically this project will provide an understanding of how cyberinfrastructure centers are approaching the challenges of designing for the emergent, distributed, and long-term. Conceptually this project will develop a framework for understanding: 1) the incremental alignment and realignment of people, processes, and tools; and 2) how these alignments play out: within cyberinfrastructure building organizations, between cyberinfrastructure building organizations, and in collaborations between organizations (or organizational sub-groups), specific projects and their domain communities. In regards to broader impacts, by contributing to a more sophisticated understanding of cyberinfrastructure development, this research will stimulate and support the development of future cyberinfrastructure. Collaborations among institutions conducting work on social aspects of cyberinfrastructure will be established to more efficiently define common concerns. This project will provide opportunities to train a new generation of interdisciplinary researchers by involving undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral students. To make innovations more broadly useful, findings will be presented at multi- and interdisciplinary conferences and workshops and published in formats that will be useful to policy-makers.