EAGER: An Actor-Network Investigation of the XSEDE Project

网络基础设施被定义为包括人员、软件、网络、数据和计算能力的生态系统。虽然这个术语通常指的是超级计算机，但这个定义把“人”放在第一位。XSEDE，即极限科学和工程发现环境，是美国国家科学基金会资助的最大规模的网络基础设施支持和协调活动。XSEDE已经帮助研究人员找到了他们需要的计算能力，以及使其工作所必需的帮助，并提供了大量相关服务。这项研究项目考察了激励参与XSEDE的因素。它阐明了XSEDE和NSF用来平衡合作、协作和竞争的具体方法，并调查了XSEDE如何鼓励跨部门的互动，创建了一个单一、连贯的组织。为了研究这些方法，该项目使用了行动者-网络理论，这是一种社会科学方法，认为社会结构是由个人通过关系网络操作形成的。这个理论被用来理解项目的人员要素如何相互作用，以及如何与整个组织相互作用。该项目的发现将为支持美国未来网络基础设施的组织提供设计和治理方面的见解。重要的是，这项研究将为如何最好地组织大型协作项目和服务提供洞察力。因此，这项研究将增加大型网络基础设施项目的结构、领导和管理可能建立在健全的社会学科学基础上的程度。科学和社会都将从研究大规模科学组织的形成、参与和维持的不同方法的传播中受益。XSEDE项目将于2022年8月31日结束，在项目的最后几个月提供一个独特的机会，向过去十年来使其功能得以实现的人学习。通过参与者-网络理论的视角研究XSEDE，这项研究将获得、保存和传播关于是什么使该组织在吸引和留住有才华的员工和领导者方面取得成功的信息，同时还将洞察参与者对未来组织中哪些方面可以改进的看法。通过在新形势下应用著名的理论方法，该项目创造了新的知识，将以对联邦资助机构和美国科学和工程界重要的方式提高对大型网络基础设施项目功能的理解。该项目将进行两轮访谈，重点是XSEDE参与者的互动和动机，首先是XSEDE的领导层和直接受雇于本组织各种职能的主要利益攸关方和工作人员。在第一轮之后，该项目将产生初步结果，并将在征求反馈的同时与XSEDE社区公开分享。第二轮面谈将侧重于核实和确认以前和新面谈对象的调查结果。在第二轮之后，我们将根据社区的意见修改调查结果，特别注意两轮面试之间的(错误)对齐，寻找机会对调查结果进行三角测量，以发展对XSEDE的全面、复杂的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Cyberinfrastructure is defined as an ecosystem that includes people, software, networks, data, and compute capabilities. While this term commonly refers to supercomputers, this definition places “people” first. XSEDE, the eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, is the largest NSF-funded cyberinfrastructure support and coordination activity. XSEDE has helped researchers find the computing power they need and the assistance essential to making it work, with a large range of associated services. This research project examines the factors that motivate participation in XSEDE. It elucidates the specific methods XSEDE and NSF use to balance cooperation, collaboration, and competition, and it investigates how XSEDE has encouraged interactions across divisions, creating a single, coherent organization. To study these methods, the project uses Actor-Network Theory, a social science approach that considers social structures to be formed by individuals operating through networks of relationships. This theory is used to understand how the project’s human elements interact with each other and with the organization as a whole. The project’s findings will provide insight into the design and governance for future organizations supporting cyberinfrastructure in the United States. Importantly, this research will provide insight about how best to organize large-scale collaborative projects and services. As a result, the study will increase the extent to which structure, leadership, and management of large cyberinfrastructure projects may be based on sound sociological science. Science and society alike will also benefit from the spread of diverse approaches to studying the formation, engagement, and maintenance of expansive scientific organizations.The XSEDE project will end on August 31, 2022, offering a unique opportunity during the project’s final months to learn from the people who have enabled its function for the last decade. By studying XSEDE through the lens of Actor-Network Theory, this study will obtain, preserve, and disseminate information on what has made this organization successful in attracting and retaining talented staff and leaders, while also discerning participant views on what could be improved in future organizations. By applying a well-known theoretical approach in a new situation, the project creates new knowledge that will improve understanding of large-scale cyberinfrastructure project function in ways that are important to federal funding agencies and the U.S. science and engineering community. The project will proceed through two rounds of interviews focused on the interactions and motivations of XSEDE participants, beginning with XSEDE leadership and key stakeholders and staff members who are employed directly in the organization’s various functions. After this first round, the project will produce preliminary findings, which it will share openly with the XSEDE community while soliciting feedback. The second round of interviews will focus on verifying and validating findings among both previous and new interviewees. After this second round, we will revise the findings with community input, paying specific attention to the (mis)alignments between the two rounds of interviewing, looking for opportunities to triangulate the findings to develop a full, complex understanding of XSEDE.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.