If we build it will they come? Creating the right cyberinfrastructure for dispersed collaboration

1. If we build it will they come? Creating the right cyberinfrastructure for dispersed collaboration Thomas A. FinholtSchool of InformationUniversity of Michigan

2. Outline • The field of dreams • Recommendations of the NSF panel • Challenges • Group • Cultural • Prospects

3. If we build it, they will collaborate • Data and access to data represent fundamental barriers to dispersed collaboration • Efficient movement of vast amounts of data is a prime rationale for cyberinfrastructure • Federating, visualizing and mining data are principle challenges

4. The collaboratory concept • Synchronous communication • Asynchronous communication Researchers • Synchronized data • Synchronized data and images • Data discovery • Teleoperation • Teleobservation Facilities Data • Automatic archiving • Simulation codes • Hybrid experiments

5. NEESgrid The collaboratory component of the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)

6. Bhuj, India. One of the towers of this apartment complex totally collapsed,and the central stairway leaned on another building of the complex.Photo courtesy of Dr. J.P. Bardet, University of Southern Californiahttp://geoinfo.usc.edu/gees/RecentEQ/India_Gujarat/Report/Damage/Bhuj/Bardet_Feb18.html

7. Shake table: Nevada, Reno

8. Reaction wall: Minnesota

9. Centrifuge: UC Davis

10. Wave basin: Oregon State

11. Field structural: UCLA

12. Field geotechnical: Texas

14. NEESgird interface

15. NEESgrid: Simulation and observational data

16. NEESgrid: Simulation

17. Cultural challenges • NEES • “earthquake engineers” vs. “IT specialists”

18. Earthquake engineers – in Hofstede’s scheme • Power distance • Hierarchical • Bias toward seniority • Individualist • “My lab is my empire” • Solo PI model • Masculine • Adversarial • Competitive • Uncertainty avoidance • Highly skeptical of new technologies • Extremely risk adverse

19. IT specialists – in Hofstede’s scheme • Power distance • Egalitarian • Bias toward talent • Collectivist • Use the Internet to create worldwide communities • Project model • Masculine • Adversarial • Competitive • Uncertainty avoidance • Extremely open to new technologies • Extremely risk seeking

20. Agreeing on terms

21. Building it so they will come… • Dispersed teams performed poorly relative to collocated teams • Performance suffered due to coordination overhead • More successful dispersed teams adopted explicit coordination mechanisms The ideas on this slide are from an NSF report by Cummings and Kiesler (2003), available at: http://netvis.mit.edu/papers/NSF_KDI_report.pdf

22. Use of H.323 videoconferencing NSF LAN meetings b a c d UNR Demo a = initial ES-TF meeting; b = ES-TF meeting time changed; c = succession to new ES-TF chair; d = change to biweekly ES-TF meetings

23. Prospects • How important is data federation? • Some earthquake engineers use data from others…but they all have remote collaborators

24. Some use data from others…

25. …but everyone has remote collaborators

26. Conclusions • The cyberinfrastructure vision places great emphasis on collaboration primed by access to data • Evidence suggests that communication and coordination may be stronger determinants of collaboration success • Observation of dispersed teams shows great energy expended on ad hoc coordination • Transformation of scientific and engineering work via cyberinfrastructure may be more easily achieved by solving problems of coordination and communication