Designing Virtual Organizations for Impact and Sustainability: Exploring a Resource-Use-Impact Planning Model

越来越多的虚拟组织正在形成，以进行科学和工程研究，但成败参半。 该项目创建了一个基于资源的框架，用于规划和评估虚拟组织的发展努力，并探讨了这个框架可以发挥的作用，在提高虚拟组织的成功。 基于资源的框架有助于确定虚拟组织是否能够通过自愿的个人行动成功地创造和调动共享资源，以利用外部利益攸关方的支持，并在虚拟组织内外产生重大影响。 该项目弥合了社会科学研究、基础设施设计和管理规划与评估之间的差距。 该框架提请注意创建和维持虚拟组织所需的资源和支持的性质、参与者将参与的活动以及虚拟组织的预期影响，包括如何让参与者和外部利益攸关方看到这些影响。 这三个领域之间的相互作用也进行了研究。 拟议的框架将通过访谈、案例研究、与虚拟组织领导人和开发人员一起进行可用性练习。为虚拟组织设计和评估创建科学的指导方针是发展网络基础设施的关键一步-支持更可持续的虚拟组织，并对许多政府机构，非营利组织，企业和NGO。开发虚拟组织规划和评估工具将产生深远的影响，使技术能够汇集广泛的资源来解决关键问题和解决根本问题。 此外，代表性不足的群体和少数民族机构可以更容易地参与从事科学和工程合作的虚拟组织。

Increasingly, virtual organizations are being formed to undertake science and engineering research, but with mixed success. This project creates a resource-based framework for planning and evaluating virtual organization development efforts and explores the role that this framework can play in enhancing virtual organization success. The resource-based framework helps identify whether a virtual organization will be able to successfully create and mobilize shared resources through voluntary individual action to leverage the support of external stakeholders and have significant impacts within and beyond the virtual organization itself. This project bridges the gap between social science research, infrastructure design, and management planning and evaluation. The framework draws attention to the nature of the resources and the support needed to create and maintain virtual organizations, the activities that participants will engage in and the expected impacts of the virtual organization, including how these impacts will be made visible to participants and to external stakeholders. Interactions between these three areas are also investigated. The proposed framework will be developed, refined, and tested through a combination of interviews, case studies, and usability exercises undertaken with virtual organization leaders and developers.Creation of science-informed guidelines for virtual organization design and evaluation is a crucial step in developing cyberinfrastructure-supported virtual organizations that are more sustainable and have a broader impact on the team science efforts underway at many government agencies, non-profits, businesses and NGOs. Developing a tool for virtual organization planning and evaluation will have a profound impact, allowing technology to bring together a wide range of resources to solve critical problems and address fundamental questions. In addition, under-represented groups and minority institutions can more easily participate in virtual organizations engaged in scientific and engineering collaborations.