RUI: VOSS: Computational Tools, Virtual Organizing, and Dynamic Innovation Diffusion

“计算和数据支持的科学与工程”(CDS&amp；E)背后的激励愿景是，开发、实施、采用、使用和传播先进的网络基础设施(CI)将彻底改变美国的研究和教育，提高国家的经济竞争力，并保持国家在科学和工程发现方面的领先地位。然而，实施和传播传播信息科学--尤其是采用先进的CDS和E工具--还没有得到很好的理解。这些下一代技术是动态的，达到了前所未有的程度，因为它们是用户驱动的、定制的、按需生产的，并且是“永久性的测试版”。最重要的是，它们是在开发的同时投入使用的；所有这些都发生在支持CI的虚拟组织(VO)中，这些虚拟组织随着技术的发展而不断发展。这个项目考察了在计算机辅助的、虚拟组织的科学和工程研究中新的计算工具的兴衰。该项目采用扎根理论的方法，分析关于高级CDS&E工具出现的访谈数据，并构建一个理论框架，以了解CDS&A；E VOS中动态创新的开发、使用、采用、实施和扩散。该项目的经验重点将是美国国家科学基金会资助的极端科学和工程发现环境(XSEDE；https://www.xsede.org/)，)，这是一个全国性的分布式高性能计算资源网络。Snowball招聘将用于确定在XSEDE生态系统内具有采用、开发和使用计算工具的经验的领域科学家、计算技术专家和超级计算机中心管理员(跨e-Science项目、机构和学科)。访谈将试图通过实践CDS&A；E研究人员来阐明在高级计算工具的出现和此类工具的部署中的最佳实践和常见陷阱。这项工作的发现将帮助NSF和其他联邦机构优化现有和未来的CI投资。这项研究还可能对分享先进科学信息的一些动态、分布式反馈和网络特性的商业和开放源码技术产生影响--有希望的见解可以促进此类技术的开发和传播，远远超出学术科学界的范围。

The motivating vision behind "computational and data-enabled science and engineering" (CDS&E) is that the development, implementation, adoption, use and diffusion of advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) will revolutionize research and education in the U.S., enhancing the nation's economic competitiveness and maintaining the nation's leadership in science and engineering discovery. However, the implementation and diffusion of CI-enabled science -- and especially the adoption of advanced CDS&E tools -- is not well understood. These next-generation technologies are dynamic to an unprecedented degree, in that they are user-driven, custom-made, produced on demand, and "permanently beta." Most importantly, they are being put to use while simultaneously being developed; and all this is occurring within CI-enabled virtual organizations (VOs), which constantly evolve along with the technologies. This project examines the rise and fall of new computational tools within CI-enabled, virtually-organized science and engineering research. The project employs a grounded-theory approach, to analyze interview data about the emergence of advanced CDS&E tools, and to construct a theoretical framework for understanding dynamic innovation development, use, adoption, implementation, and diffusion within CDS&E VOs. The project's empirical focus will be the NSF-funded Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE; https://www.xsede.org/), a nationwide network of distributed high-performance computing resources. Snowball recruitment will be used to identify domain scientists, computational technologists, and supercomputer center administrators (across e-science projects, institutions, and disciplines) who have experience with adopting, developing, and using computational tools within the XSEDE ecosystem. Interviews will seek to illuminate best practices and common pitfalls in the emergence of advanced computational tools and in the deployment of such tools by practicing CDS&E researchers.Findings from this work will help NSF and other federal agencies to optimize existing and future CI investments. The research may also have implications for commercial and open-source technologies that share some of the dynamic, distributed feedback and network properties of advanced scientific CI -- promising insights that could enhance the development and diffusion of such technologies well beyond the academic science community.