C-ME: A 3D Community-Based, Real-Time Collaboration Tool for Scientific Research and Training

The need for effective collaboration tools is growing as multidisciplinary proteome-wide projects and distributed research teams become more common. The resulting data is often quite disparate, stored in separate locations, and not contextually related. Collaborative Molecular Modeling Environment (C-ME) is an interactive community-based collaboration system that allows researchers to organize information, visualize data on a two-dimensional (2-D) or three-dimensional (3-D) basis, and share and manage that information with collaborators in real time. C-ME stores the information in industry-standard databases that are immediately accessible by appropriate permission within the computer network directory service or anonymously across the internet through the C-ME application or through a web browser. The system addresses two important aspects of collaboration: context and information management. C-ME allows a researcher to use a 3-D atomic structure model or a 2-D image as a contextual basis on which to attach and share annotations to specific atoms or molecules or to specific regions of a 2-D image. These annotations provide additional information about the atomic structure or image data that can then be evaluated, amended or added to by other project members

TOWARDS INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURES FOR E-SCIENCE: The Scope of the Challenge

The three-fold purpose of this Report to the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Research Councils (UK) is to: • articulate the nature and significance of the non-technological issues that will bear on the practical effectiveness of the hardware and software infrastructures that are being created to enable collaborations in e- Science; • characterise succinctly the fundamental sources of the organisational and institutional challenges that need to be addressed in regard to defining terms, rights and responsibilities of the collaborating parties, and to illustrate these by reference to the limited experience gained to date in regard to intellectual property, liability, privacy, and security and competition policy issues affecting scientific research organisations; and • propose approaches for arriving at institutional mechanisms whose establishment would generate workable, specific arrangements facilitating collaboration in e-Science; and, that also might serve to meet similar needs in other spheres such as e- Learning, e-Government, e-Commerce, e-Healthcare. In carrying out these tasks, the report examines developments in enhanced computer-mediated telecommunication networks and digital information technologies, and recent advances in technologies of collaboration. It considers the economic and legal aspects of scientific collaboration, with attention to interactions between formal contracting and 'private ordering' arrangements that rest upon research community norms. It offers definitions of e-Science, virtual laboratories, collaboratories, and develops a taxonomy of collaborative e-Science activities which is implemented to classify British e-Science pilot projects and contrast these with US collaboratory projects funded during the 1990s. The approach to facilitating inter-organizational participation in collaborative projects rests upon the development of a modular structure of contractual clauses that permit flexibility and experience-based learning.

Linking to Scientific Data: Identity Problems of Unruly and Poorly Bounded Digital Objects

Within information systems, a significant aspect of search and retrieval across information objects, such as datasets, journal articles, or images, relies on the identity construction of the objects. This paper uses identity to refer to the qualities or characteristics of an information object that make it definable and recognizable, and can be used to distinguish it from other objects. Identity, in this context, can be seen as the foundation from which citations, metadata and identifiers are constructed. In recent years the idea of including datasets within the scientific record has been gaining significant momentum, with publishers, granting agencies and libraries engaging with the challenge. However, the task has been fraught with questions of best practice for establishing this infrastructure, especially in regards to how citations, metadata and identifiers should be constructed. These questions suggests a problem with how dataset identities are formed, such that an engagement with the definition of datasets as conceptual objects is warranted. This paper explores some of the ways in which scientific data is an unruly and poorly bounded object, and goes on to propose that in order for datasets to fulfill the roles expected for them, the following identity functions are essential for scholarly publications: (i) the dataset is constructed as a semantically and logically concrete object, (ii) the identity of the dataset is embedded, inherent and/or inseparable, (iii) the identity embodies a framework of authorship, rights and limitations, and (iv) the identity translates into an actionable mechanism for retrieval or reference

Scientists’ Data Reuse Behaviors: A Multilevel Analysis

This study explores the factors that influence the data reuse behaviors of scientists and identifies the generalized patterns that occur in data reuse across various disciplines. This research employed an integrated theoretical framework combining institutional theory and the theory of planned behavior. The combined theoretical framework can apply the institutional theory at the individual level and extend the theory of planned behavior by including relevant contexts. This study utilized a survey method to test the proposed research model and hypotheses. Study participants were recruited from the Community of Science’s (CoS) Scholar Database, and a total of 1,528 scientists responded to the survey. A multilevel analysis method was used to analyze the 1,237 qualified responses. This research showed that scientists’ data reuse intentions are influenced by both disciplinary level factors (availability of data repositories) and individual level factors (perceived usefulness, perceived concern, and the availability of internal resources). This study has practical implications for promoting data reuse practices. Three main areas that need to be improved are identified: Educating scientists, providing internal supports, and providing external resources and supports such as data repositories

Using internet-enabled remote instrumentation for research and training in physics: evaluation of different diffusion barriers for silver metallization

>Magister Scientiae - MScThe growth of the Internet has led to many interesting developments for both educational and commercial purposes. In this project an attempt was made to use the Internet for a research purpose to facilitate the determination of the thermal stability of diffusion barriers. Another purpose of this thesis is to investigate the teaching and training use of the Internet through the development of online interactive tools and activities as well as materials. The training aspects are mentioned as it is hoped that this thesis can serve as a form of documentation of the use of the Internet, while the central part was the determination of thermal stability of TiN, TaN and TiW diffusion barriers on Ag

Role of Communication in Data Reuse

In acknowledging the potentials of existing data, researchers’ interests in sharing and reusing data have recently emerged. However, sharing and reusing data is not a simple one-step process for researchers. Because data reusers build their work on other researchers’ findings, the process of data reuse involves various interactions and communications with other relevant parties. Exploring the nature of communications around data is thus important to fully understand data reuse practices and to support smoother processes of data reuse. This study investigates communications occurring around data during data reusers’ experiences through qualitative interview studies involving this group. This study’s results show that the communications with different stakeholders mainly support data reuse in three areas: searching, learning, and problem solving. The findings provide valuable insights into the domain of scholarly communication, data reuse, and data services

Imperfect Partnership: Effects of Collaboratories on Scientists from Developing Countries.

In recent years, researchers have hypothesized that a new form of scientific collaboration--the “collaboratory”--holds promises to greatly benefit scientists from developing countries. It is argued that distributed collaborations enabled by various information technologies can allow scientists from developing countries to reach remotely located experts, instruments, and databases that their local institutions cannot afford. However, there have been no empirical studies to prove or disprove this. Prior studies of the impact of information technology on scientific work tend to focus on the correlation between technology use and scientific productivity as measured by publications and citations. This approach ignores the mediating factors affecting the relationship between information technology use and scientific productivity. Adopting a qualitative approach (interviews complemented by field observation), I explore how scientists from developing countries benefit from reaching remotely located resources and participating in communities of practice and networks of practice in the virtual organization of a collaboratory. I also demonstrate how the relation of resource dependency, the nature of collaborative work, geographical distance and cultural differences influence scientists’ participation in collaborataries. These factors affect the ability of scientists from developing countries to access resources of collaboratories, build relationships with other collaboratory members and learn knowledge and practice from their collaborators in the developed world. In addition, I show that collaboratories facilitate technology transfer from scientists from developed countries to those from developing countries. However, scientists from developing countries demonstrate an urgent need to build general competence in performing research. This kind of competence can only be achieved through long-term exposure to the practices of advanced laboratories from the developed world. Collaboratories failed to meet the need because of their project-oriented nature and their funding mechanism.Ph.D.InformationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/58369/1/airongl_1.pd

A Web-based multimedia collaboratory. Empirical work studies in film archives

This report represents the latest study in the activity on Ecological Information Systems conducted in the Center for Human Machine Interaction situated at Ris National Laboratory and the University of Aarhus. The purpose of this activity is to give a description of the characteristics of work domains that will serve to outline the general context of concern to design of collaboratories. In addition, a set of preliminary implications for the design of a collaboratory are derived from the cognitive work analysis. To anticipate, further research on this approach to the design of collaboratories will show how the preceding analysis is likely to lead to a novel theoretical framework, called Ecological Collaborative Information Systems (ECIS), required for the design of collaboratories. The intention is to illustrate how the general principles of ECIS can be instantiated to develop a concrete design product: A crossdisciplinary and cross-cultural collaboratory to support customer service and professional research in archives. A web based Collaboratory Numerous valuable historic and cultural films and their sources are scattered in various national archives. Knowledge and usage of the multinational film material are severely impeded by access problems. To fully exploit the cultural film heritage internationally, a high degree of cross-disciplinary and international collaboration among professionals working with the film media is required. The Collaboratory for Annotation, Indexing and Retrieval of Digitized Historical Archive Material (Collate) is intended to foster and support collaboration on research, cultural mediation and preservation of films through a distributed multimedia repository. The collaboratory will provide webbased tools and interfac..

Coordinative Entities: Forms of Organizing in Data Intensive Science

Scientific collaboration is a long-standing subject of CSCW scholarship that typically focuses on the development and use of computing systems to facilitate research. The research presented in this article investigates the sociality of science by identifying and describing particular, common forms of organizing that researchers in four different scientific realms employ to conduct work in both local contexts and as part of distributed, global projects. This paper introduces five prototypical forms of organizing we categorize as coordinative entities: the Principal Group, Intermittent Exchange, Sustained Aggregation, Federation, and Facility Organization. Coordinative entities as a categorization help specify, articulate, compare, and trace overlapping and evolving arrangements scientists use to facilitate data intensive research. We use this typology to unpack complexities of data intensive scientific collaboration in four cases, showing how scientists invoke different coordinative entities across three types of research activities: data collection, processing, and analysis. Our contribution scrutinizes the sociality of scientific work to illustrate how these actors engage in relational work within and among diverse, dispersed forms of organizing across project, funding, and disciplinary boundaries