Splicing UNIX into a Genome Mapping Laboratory

The Whitehead Institute/MIT Center for Genome Research is responsible for a number of large genome mapping efforts, the scale of which create problems of data and workflow management that dictate reliance on computer support. Two years ago, when we started to design the informatics support for the laboratory, we realized that the fluid and everchanging nature of the experimental protocols precluded any effort to create a single monolithic piece of software. Instead we designed a system that relied on multiple distributed data analysis and processing tools knit together by a centralized database. The obvious choice of operating systems was UNIX. In order to make this choice palatable to the laboratory biologists---who rightly consider it their job to do experiments rather than to interact with computers, and who have come to expect all software to be as intuitive and responsive as the Apple Macintoshes on their desks---we designed a system that runs automatically and essentially invisibly. Whenever it is necessary for the informatics system to interact with a member of the laboratory we have carefully chosen a user interface paradigm that best balances the user's expectations against the system's capabilities. When possible we have chosen to adapt familiar software to our user interface needs rather than to write user interfaces from scratch. We've managed to hide the power of UNIX behind the innocuous personal computer-based front ends our users know and love, using techniques that should be applicable in other environments as well. 1

Abstract Splicing UNIX into a Genome Mapping Laboratory

Research is responsible for a number of large genome mapping efforts, the scale of which create problems of data and workflow management that dictate reliance on computer support. Two years ago, when we started to design the informatics support for the laboratory, we realized that the fluid and everchanging nature of the experimental protocols precluded any effort to create a single monolithic piece of software. Instead we designed a system that relied on multiple distributed data analysis and processing tools knit together by a centralized database. The obvious choice of operating systems was UNIX. In order to make this choice palatable to the laboratory biologists—who rightly consider it their job to do experiments rather than to interact with computers, and who have come to expect all software to be as intuitive and responsive as the Apple Macintoshes on their desks—we designed a system that runs automatically and essentially invisibly. Whenever it is necessary for the informatics system to interact with a member of the laboratory we have carefully chosen a user interface paradigm that best balances the user’s expectations against the system’s capabilities. When possible we have chosen to adapt familiar software to our user interface needs rather than to write user interfaces from scratch. We’ve managed to hide the power of UNIX behind the innocuous personal computer-based front ends our users know and love, using techniques that should be applicable in other environments as well

Antecedents of trust in the sharing economy: A systematic review

Users and potential users of the sharing economy need to place a considerable amount of trust in both the person and the platform with which they are dealing. The consequences of transaction partners’ opportunism may be severe, for example damage to goods or endangered personal safety. Trust is, therefore, a key factor in overcoming uncertainty and mitigating risk. However, there is no thorough overview of how trust is developed in this context. To understand how the trust of users in the sharing economy is influenced, we performed a systematic literature review. After screening, 45 articles were included in a qualitative synthesis in which the results were grouped according to a well-established trust typology. The results show various antecedents of trust in the sharing economy (e.g. reputation, trust in the platform, and interaction experience) related to multiple entities (i.e. seller, buyer, platform, interpersonal, and transaction). Trust in this economy is often reduced to the use of reputation systems alone. However, our study suggests that trust is much more complex than that and extends beyond reputation. Furthermore, our review clearly shows that research on trust in the sharing economy is still scarce and thus more research is needed to understand how trust is established in this context. Our review is the first that brings together antecedents of trust in online peer-to-peer transactions and integrates these findings within an existing framework. Additionally, the study suggests directions for future research in order to advance the understanding of trust in the sharing economy

An Exploration of Collaborative Economy Entrepreneurs in the Tourism Industry through the Novel Prism of Epistemic Culture

This paper presents a conceptual framework derived from Knorr-Cetina’s (1999) theory of Epistemic Culture (EC) and uses it to catalogue and explore what she described as the “machineries of knowing”. The conceptual framework is explicated via empirical analysis of a case of an emergent group of collaborative economy entrepreneurs (CEEs) and their ventures operating in the tourism industry. Based upon qualitative interviews with property owners/managers as CEEs, this study builds further upon an a-priori proposed typology of EC Machineries of Knowing (MOK) and then explores the possible influence of such MOKs upon participating entrepreneurs. The exploration of ECs in the particular setting of the collaborative economy focusses attention upon how epistemic cultures form a specific entrepreneurial ecosystem and how they inter-relate with typologies of entrepreneurs. This fresh conceptual approach is shown to have good explicatory qualities that are capable of unlocking the “black box” that is collaborative economy entrepreneurship