National Collaboratories Applying Information Technology for Scientific Research (1993) / Chapter Skim
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5 BUILDING AND USING NATIONAL COLLABORATORIES
5 BUILDING AND USING NATIONAL COLLABORATORIES
Pages 56-72
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From page 56... ...
3. Controlling remote instruments.
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From page 57... ...
PROVIDING BASIC CAPABILITIES TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS Today's computing and communications infrastructure supports rudimentary collaboration at a distance but typically is inadequately developed, deployed, and supported to sustain the quality and scope of tools and applications envisioned for collaboratories that will facilitate scientific research. Interconnecting Data Sources Scientists participating in this project's three workshops discussed a number of components considered essential to an enhanced capability for sharing data: · Electronic libraries that would combine databases, literature, and software relevant to their research.
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From page 58... ...
Unusual and nonintuitive links among database items recorded by one researcher may well stimulate new insights or approaches to a problem by other scientists. Implementing logical links between related items in different sources requires a standard format for representing the links and a series of methods for determining semantic relationships.5 These are areas for research and development.
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From page 59... ...
For example, spreadsheet results can be represented in bar or pie chart form and inserted into a multifont, compound text document; spreadsheets may refer to database entries; and text may be merged with the contents of one or more databases. In general, such integrated systems must be developed around common format conventions supporting data exchange or conversion, a process that has proved to be easier in the PC environment than in the more demanding scientific computing environment.
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From page 60... ...
Controlling Remote Instruments The value of controlling instruments through a computer network and collecting data regardless of the instruments' location depends on both the inaccessibility of the instruments and the difficulty of collecting data in the given environment. Remote control of instruments and remote data collection are required capabilities for space physicists, for example, who must collect data from distant reaches of space either through ground-based instruments positioned in remote locations, such as the Sondre Stromi lord Observatory in Greenland, or through space-based instruments that may need to be retargeted during the progress of a mission.
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From page 61... ...
The most widely available technologies that support user interaction are electronic mall and facsimile transmission, which support asynchronous communication. Other applications include bulletin board systems, computer conferencing systems, file and document storage and retrieval systems, and the relatively new "groupware," which is now emerging in the commercial marketplace but is still strongly proprietary in nature and therefore not yet a good basis for interoperability or standardization.
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From page 62... ...
, it does not address remote control of instruments, remote collection of data, accessing of archived data, and resource discovery software. Computer-supported cooperative work technologies designed for commercial application are often implemented over private corporate networks operating in protocols and software environments that differ from those common in government-supported research networks.
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From page 63... ...
Issues for Individual Scientists To use and build collaboration tools and systems, individual scientists-both the users and developers of technology - must have the motivation to do so. Of particular concern is the perceived lack of opportunity for career advancement associated with electronic data sharing and collaboration.
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From page 64... ...
For sciences with more distributed data collection, such as genome research, publishers of journal literature may require that supporting data be deposited in the archives before articles referencing them can be published. This approach ties the additional reward of publication to data sharing, and many sequences are now submitted to databases very soon after discovery directly from many molecular biology departments.
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From page 65... ...
If funds for direct personnel support are not forthcoming, they will show up as a tax on the time of scientific personnel. Doctoral students or postdoctoral researchers who are supposed to be doing science may end up spending a substantial fraction of their time doing technology support.
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From page 66... ...
This example is explored more fully in Appendix D User-Developer Partnerships A partnership between computer scientists and engineers, on the one hand, and scientists who recognize a need for better computing and communications capabilities, on the other, should provide intellectual and material benefits to both parties.
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From page 67... ...
The primary interest of scientists will be the practice of their own science, whereas the primary interest of computer scientists will be in system design, prototype systems, and theoretical studies in support of system building. Without strong countervailing incentives, many scientists will be reluctant to invest too much of their time trying to use prototype systems that may be viewed as computer science experiments.
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From page 68... ...
Providing support extends beyond building or purchasing networks and tools to ensuring the availability of people skilled in organizing and providing support services. Such services may range from maintaining help desks and hot lines to providing information management support that will save researchers time and effort by helping them to set up workstations, connect to the network, install the software, use the features, update the databases, and so on.
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From page 69... ...
Managing the Results of Increased Interaction Using collaboration technology, individual scientists will have the capability to form new working relationships independent of their physical institutional homes. While these relationships may energize scientists and lead to new discoveries, they may also complicate the role of managers in scientists' home organizations who are charged with keeping track of scientific manpower and resources.
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From page 70... ...
This structural barrier to providing adequate ongoing funding for infrastructure must be overcome if the country is to create, maintain, and benefit from the premier information infrastructure that many now want to build.~4 Funding a collaboratory program does not have to imply taking money away from individual research grants. First, in recognition of the problems that many scientists have in collaborating under any circumstances and the added problems anticipated from broadening collaboration to include computer scientists and engineers along with domain scientists, the committee envisions that colIaboratory projects will be selected from the bottom up.
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From page 71... ...
The most significant results will be achieved with sustained and focused efforts to develop valuable shared databases and digital libraries of specific scientific content; to develop collaboration tools for particular scientific purposes; and to put into operation institutionalized pilot collaboratory programs, building on rapidly evolving technology trends. The technology base for such an effort is ready, the programmatic environment is especially auspicious, the computer and communications research community is particularly interested in making this a high-priority item, and the national interest will be well served by developing leading-edge information infrastructure that can serve not only the scientific community but, eventually, the business sector as well.
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13. Although information infrastructure is now receiving increased attention as a matter of public policy and private enterprise, current efforts provide scientists with limited access to specialized network-based computing tools.
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