HCC: Collaboration in the Development of Cyberinfrastructure

近年来，出现了主要由超级计算机和高速网络等先进技术基础设施支持的新形式的大型分布式科学企业。这一“网络基础设施”吸引了主要资助机构的大量投资和领域科学家的大量参与。尽管它的主要目标是转变和加速科学和工程实践，但相对较少的研究集中于系统地研究网络基础设施开发和使用的实际实践，或审查其产生的变革。该项目将为正在进行的计算机支持的合作工作、科学和技术研究以及网络基础设施研究等领域的研究做出经验和概念上的贡献。从经验上讲，它将详细说明网络基础设施发展方面的合作，特别是与当地关切有关的合作。从概念上讲，这个项目建立在作者S之前对网络基础设施中协作的研究之上，以创建一个理解框架：1)人员、流程和工具的增量调整和重新调整；2)以及这些调整如何在以下方面发挥作用：分布式机构之间的协作；学科之间的协作；项目本身和科学界之间的协作；以及工作组内部和工作组之间的协作。鉴于网络基础设施不仅由先进的计算技术组成，而且由既是开发人员又是最终用户的科学家和工程师组成，本研究将：-调查现有的科学和工程实践；-调查科学和工程实践是如何协同转变的；-确定协作模式(例如，社交网络、沟通和管理战略)，并将这些模式与组织和科学成果联系起来。将使用民族志方法，包括参与者观察法和半结构化访谈。定性的社会科学方法有助于理解实践以及工作过程如何随着时间的推移而变化和发展。一个新的元基因组网络基础设施项目将作为实地考察地点。更广泛的影响：通过帮助更深入地理解网络基础设施发展是如何依赖技术和社会转型的，这项研究将刺激和支持此类努力的未来发展。为了进一步加强网络基础设施，将在网络基础设施的社会方面开展工作的机构之间建立合作，以更有效地界定共同关切的问题。为了使创新更广泛地有用，研究将在多学科和跨学科的会议上发表，并以对政策制定者有用的格式发表。

Recent years have seen the rise of new forms of large-scale distributed scientific enterprises supported primarily through advanced technological infrastructures such as supercomputers and high speed networks. This "cyberinfrastructure" is attracting significant investment from major funding agencies and substantial participation from domain scientists. Although its primary aims are to transform and accelerate scientific and engineering practice, relatively little research has focused on systematically studying the actual practices of cyberinfrastructure development and use or on examining the transformations that it is created to engender.This project will make empirical and conceptual contributions to ongoing research in areas such as computer supported cooperative work, science and technology studies, and the study of cyberinfrastructure. Empirically, it will detail collaboration in cyberinfrastructure development, especially in relation to local concerns. Conceptually this project builds on the author?s previous research on collaboration in cyberinfrastructure in order to create a framework for understanding: 1) the incremental alignment and realignment of people, processes, and tools; 2) and how these alignments play out in: collaboration between distributed institutions; collaboration between disciplines; collaboration between the project itself and the scientific community; and collaboration within and between work groups.Given that cyberinfrastructure is comprised not only of advanced computational technologies, but also of scientists and engineers, who are both developers and end users, this study will: - Investigate existing scientific and engineering practices;- Investigate how scientific and engineering practices are collaboratively transformed;- Identify patterns of collaboration (e.g., social networks, communication and management strategies) and relate those patterns to organizational and scientific outcomes.Ethnographic methods will be used including participant-observation and semi-structured interviews. Qualitative social science methods are useful for understanding practice and how work processes change and develop over time. A nascent metagenomic cyberinfrastructure project will serve as the field site.Broader Impacts:By contributing to a more sophisticated understanding of how cyberinfrastructure development is dependent on both technical and social transformation, this research will stimulate and support the future development of such efforts. To further enhance cyberinfrastructure, collaborations amongst institutions conducting work on social aspects of cyberinfrastructure will be established to more efficiently define common concerns. To make innovations more broadly useful, research will be presented at multi- and interdisciplinary conferences and published in formats that will be useful to policy-makers.