school of information. university of michigan collaboratory environments in developing countries...

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION .UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Collaboratory Environments in

Developing Countries

Gary M. OlsonPaul M. Fitts Professor of Human-Computer Interaction

Ann ZimmermanResearch Fellow

School of Information

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan USA

Pretoria, South Africa, Sept. 5, 2005


Colleagues Involved …

Judy Olson Nathan Bos Matt Bietz Erik Hofer Dan Cooney Airong Luo

Jude Yew Greg Peters Jeremy Birnholtz Tom Finholt Stephanie Teasley Dan Atkins


Outline

Introduction– Definition of collaboratory

A case from southern Africa – IARC

Science of Collaboratories Project– Success defined– Success factors

Conclusions


Definition of a Collaboratory

A collaboratory is an organizational entity that spans distance, supports rich and recurring human interaction oriented to a common research area, and provides access to data sources, artifacts and tools required to accomplish research tasks.


Challenge: Collaboratories in Africa

Less developed technical infrastructure More mixed experience with relevant

applications

But very high motivation


Projects in Southern Africa

Basic research on the nature of HIV-C Clinical trials

– Mother-infant transmission– Antiretroviral (ARV) Therapies– Vaccine candidates

Education– Members of the public– Health care workers


South Africa1. Project Participants

Partners AIDS Research Center, Harvard University

Nuffield Dept. of Clinical Medicine, U of Oxford

Nelson Mandela College ofMedicine, U of Natal, Durban


Botswana2. Project Participants

School of Public Health,Harvard University

Ministry of Health,Republic of Botswana


What is being supported?

Lab meetings Clinical meetings Remote colloquium speakers

Our own project coordination with collaborators in the region


Increasing Use of Tools


http://www.scienceofcollaboratories.org

National Science Foundation grant


Breadth & Depth Strategy

Collaboratories at a Glance– Collect a large set of collaboratories

• We have identified more than 200 examples

– Collect a basic set of information In-depth studies

– A few projects documented in detail– Interviews, observations, site visits– About 18 so far


Theory of Remote Collaboration (TORC)

Corpus– Collaboratories at a Glance– In-depth studies of some collaboratories

Bottom-up– What have we seen that makes

collaboratories successful Top-down

– What does the literature say about success in distributed organizations


What is Success?

Use of the collaboratory tools Software technology Direct effects on the science Science careers Effects on learning, science education Inspiration for other collaboratories Learning about collaboratories in general Effects on funding, public perception


Factors That Affect Success The Nature of the Work Common Ground Collaboration Readiness Management, Planning and Decision

Making Technology Readiness


Implications for Developing Countries

Mix of challenges– High on collaboration readiness– Mixed to low on technical readiness

Tools are improving– Web conferencing– Voice over IP

Collaboratory impact could be greatest in developing world– Research collaborations– Education


Further Information

[email protected], [email protected]

www.crew.umich.edu for papers

www.scienceofcollaboratories.org

school of information. university of michigan collaboratory environments in developing countries...

Documents