Finding Optimal Targets for Change Agents: A Computer Simulation of Innovation Diffusion

We introduce a diffusion of innovation model based on a network threshold approach. Realistic network and threshold data were gathered regarding the diffusion of new software tools within part of a large organization. Novel model features are a second threshold for innovation rejection and a memory that allows actors to take trends into account. Computer simulations produce expected outcomes, such as the S-shaped diffusion curve, but also diffusion breakdown and oscillations. We define and compute the quality of change agent targets in terms of the impact targeted actors have on the diffusion process. Our simulations reveal considerable variance in the quality of actors as change agent targets. Certain actors can be singled out as especially important to the diffusion process. Small changes in the distribution of thresholds and changes in some parameters, such as the sensitivity for trends, lead to significant changes in the target quality measure. To illustrate these interdependencies we outline how the impact of an actor targeted by a change agent spreads through the network. We thus can explain why a good change agent target does not necessarily need to be an opinion leader. Simulations comparing the effectiveness of randomly selected targets versus a group of good change agent targets indicate that the selection of good targets can accelerate innovation diffusion.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44730/1/10588_2004_Article_5142624.pd

Report from the TeraGrid Evaluation Study, Part 1: Project Findings

TeraGrid integrates multiple high-performance computing resources at distributed provider facilities. In 2006, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a grant to the University of Michigan's School of Information (UM-SI) to conduct an external evaluation of TeraGrid. The primary goals of the evaluation were to provide specific information to TeraGrid managers that will increase the likelihood of TeraGrid success, and to give NSF and policy makers general data that will assist them in making strategic decisions about future directions for cyberinfrastructure. In order to accomplish these objectives, the UM-SI study assessed four aspects of the TeraGrid project: 1) progress in meeting user requirements; 2) impact of TeraGrid on research outcomes; 3) quality and content of TeraGrid education, outreach, and training activities; and 4) satisfaction among TeraGrid partners. We employed a mixed method approach that consisted of a user workshop; participant observation; document analysis; interviews with 86 individuals representing five different categories; a survey of a sample of 595 TeraGrid users; and two surveys to assess TeraGrid tutorials held in 2006 and 2007. Most of the data were collected from June 2006 through May 2007. Findings from the evaluation study are presented in two parts. In this first part, we report results from analyses of all data collected during the investigation. Detailed findings from the user survey are presented in Part 2 of the report.National Science Foundationhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61838/2/TeraGrid_Evaluation_Report_Project_Findings_August_2008.pdfDescription of TeraGrid_Evaluation_Report_Project_Findings_August_2008.pdf : Final repor

TeraGrid User Workshop Final Report

In 2006, the NSF awarded a one-year grant to the University of Michigan’s School of Information (UM-SI) to conduct an external evaluation of TeraGrid. This report describes the results of the first major evaluation activity. On June 12, 2006 the UM-SI evaluation team conducted a workshop to begin to examine the relationship between TeraGrid’s development priorities and the needs of its users. The invitation-only workshop was funded by TeraGrid and was held at the University Place Conference Center in Indianapolis, Indiana. The TeraGrid User Workshop Final Report summarizes the data collected and information gained during the workshop.National Science Foundationhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61841/1/TeraGrid2006_Tutortials_Survey_Report.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61841/4/2006_TGUser_Workshop_Report.pd

TeraGrid Evaluation Report, Part 2: Findings from the TeraGrid User Survey

TeraGrid is a national infrastructure that integrates multiple resources at distributed resource provider facilities. In 2006, the National Science Foundation awarded a grant to the University of Michigan’s School of Information to conduct an external evaluation of TeraGrid. One of the main objectives of the evaluation study was to assess TeraGrid's progress in meeting the needs of its users. This report describes the results from the TeraGrid User Survey, a major activity in support of this objective.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61839/1/TeraGrid_Evaluation_Report_Survey_Findings_July_2008.pd

Psychology

The Internet explosion and broad interest in collaborative technology have driven increased interest in the field of computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW). Historically, behavioral research on CSCW applications has reflected a strong influence from ethnomethodology. This article argues that the CSCW community should adopt a stronger orientation to other social science disciplines, particularly psychology. Greater attention to the psychological literature provides three benefits. First, psychologists offer well-validated principles about human behavior in group and organizational contexts that are relevant to CSCW research. Second, psychologists offer reliable and proven measures of human behavior that, if adopted by CSCW researchers, can provide a uniform basis for comparison across studies. Finally, psychologists offer data collection and analysis methods that identify salient and generalizable features of human behavior, which may lead to the development of universal principles of CSCW design.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68835/2/10.1177_089443939801600106.pd

Narratives of Engagement: Working at the Intersections of Information, Social, and Domain Science

Engagement ??? sometimes called action research, contribution, or intervention ??? is the participation of the researcher in the object of study. It is a key contemporary feature in making iSchool research accessible and relevant to broader communities. However, it also presents novel challenges for the traditional academic endeavor. We have many ???shorthands??? for these difficulties: misaligned reward structures, diverging goals, miscommunication across heterogeneous expertises, multiple membership, challenges of multidisciplinary collaboration, or unrealistic expectations on social science. Often these difficulties are precisely what our research attempts to address but only rarely do we give ourselves leeway to discuss how they affect our own practice. We have arranged this session to open and encourage discourse on the experiences, approaches and outcomes of engagement. The core of the presentations will be centered on storytelling. Stories, or narratives, are ideal devices for capturing and conveying the complexities of real world field experiences. The four participants in this interactive panel will recount exemplary narratives of their engagement at the intersections of social research, information studies and domain sciences. These stories will serve as the material for an open discussion. Our participants were selected both for their diverse modes of interface with their objects of study and a shared commitment to engaging social /information/domain science. This includes a range of activities stretching from policy recommendations, to participant observation or contributions to technology design; from distanced roles such as ???shrink wrapped??? consulting, to long view historical studies, to becoming a daily members and ???stakeholders??? in the success of projects

Running head: COLLABORATORIES

(Ed.) – please do not cite without permission] Collaboratories 2 Science is an inherently collaborative enterprise and this trend has accelerated over the past few decades. In particular, the Internet creates new possibilities for the organization of joint scientific work, specifically among geographically separated collaborators. A notable instance of Internet-mediated science is the collaboratory, or a laboratory without walls, where scientists are connected to each other, to instruments, and to data independent of time and location. This chapter explores past and current collaboratory efforts to identify factors that predict success and failure. The chapter concludes with an assessment of directions for future collaboratory development