school of information university of michigan collaboratories at a glance c @ g judy olson nathan...
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SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Collaboratories at a GlanceC@G
Judy Olson
Nathan Bos
Erik Dahl
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Card model of how a technical field develops
Point system Dimensions Relationships Laws
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Goal• To understand the space of
collaboratories– Compare and contrast– Distill successes and challenges
• Theory of collaboratories as organizational entities
• Practical prescription including best practices
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Secondary goal
• In our endeavor, we will decide which collaboratories to investigate in depth
• By understanding the space of possibilities, we can choose wisely
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Method
• Collect a large set of collaboratories– We have identified 77 possible
candidates• See handout
– Collect a basic set of information– Note similarities and differences on
both technical and social dimensions
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Method
• Examine the existing literature on what drives successes and challenges in organizations
• Dimensionalize the space
• Hypothesize causal relationships
• See what you see!
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Early view of collaboratories
DigitalLibraries, E-Pub
access toinformation
access to facilities
people-to-peopleCommunication,
GroupwareServices
Distributed,media-richinformationtechnology
Interaction withthe Physical
World
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Definition
• A collaboratory is– An organizational entity– That links a community of individuals– Working at a distance– On common problems or tasks…
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Definition
• …that contains– Electronic tools that support– Rich and recurring human interaction
and– Provides common access to resources,
including information and instrumentation, needed to engage in the problems or tasks.
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
The Science of Collaboratories project
• Focuses on SCIENCE and ENGINEERING collaboratories– So the task is primarily research– Or design
• Same framework might generalize to other kinds of tasks– e.g. developing policy, securing expert
consultation, pursuing education
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Kinds of Collaboratories
• Research focus– Distributed Research Center– Shared Instrumentation– Product Development– Community Data Systems
• Practice focus– Virtual Community of Practice– Virtual Learning Community– Expert Consultation
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Distributed Research Center
• Functions like a University research center, but at a distance.
• Project is unified by a topic area of interest, and includes a number of joint projects in that area.
• Most communication human-human• No well specified product as the focus
• Alliance for Cell Signaling
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Shared Instrument
• Increases access to a scientific instrument• Often remote access to an expensive
instrument• Often supplemented with other technology
to support communication
• Keck observatory
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Product Development
• Focuses on the building of a product– Instrument– Infrastructure– Policy– Research methodology
• More time-bounded than others
• Intermed
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Community Data System
• Information resource that is created, maintained, or improved by a distributed community
• Information is semi-public, of wide interest.
• Zebrafish Information Network
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Virtual Community of Practice
• A network of individuals who share a research area and communicate about it online
• Share news of professional interest, advice, techniques.
• Not focused on joint projects
• Ocean US
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Virtual Learning Community
• Main focus is on increasing the knowledge of the participants– Not to do original research
• Can be inservice or professional development
• Ecology Circuit Collaboration
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Expert Consultation
• Provides increased access to an expert or set of experts
• The flow of information is mainly one way, rather than two way as in a distributed center
• TeleInViVo
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Progress to date
• Data collected on 38 Collaboratories– Clustered according to the major
functions they serve• Allows comparison across collaboratories
for – What technology did they use– How might money flow have affected the work– What successes and challenges were involved
• Small set of data elements
see handout of big table
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Resource Diagrams
• Representation of– Participants, both organizations and
individuals– Instruments– Shared data– Communication flow– Resource flow (money)
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Beginning to mine the data
• What technologies are in use?– Find out what different types of
collaboratories use• Suite of technologies
– Find technologies used in environments with different constraints
• Bandwidth available for video• Low versus high resources available
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Technology types
• Synchronous conversation• Synchronous object sharing• Asynchronous conversation• Asynchronous object sharing• Support for the transitions among modes
of work• Special computational needs• Management of the technical resources
See handout
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Findings on technology use
• Video– CFAR
• Off the shelf, NetMeeting
– Cell signaling• Polycom desk and room systems
– Access Grid (future)
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Findings on technology use
• Shared instrument– Bugscope
• Children can zoom and move the view
– SPARC• Because of safety issues, only the operator
can move the view
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Findings on technology use
• Community data systems– Cell signaling molecule pages
• Managed as a vetted contribution
– Visible Human• One group provided the information for
many to use
• Awareness system– No collaboratories mention using this!
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Where are the data?
• SOC database– C@G is one of its components
• Pages accessible
• In the future we will become a Community Data System– You and others can contribute entries
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGANwww.si.umich.edu
Beyond C@G
• For a smaller number of collaboratories
• We collect more in-depth information– Staffing and management
– History
– Incentives
– Usage data
– Cultural aspects of the community
– Detailed functionality
– Details of the technology
– Readiness
– Impact on the field