SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Collaboratories at a Glance G Judy Olson Nathan Bos Erik Dahl

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Card model of how a technical field develops Point system Dimensions Relationships Laws

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Goal To understand the space of collaboratories –Compare and contrast –Distill successes and challenges Theory of collaboratories as organizational entities Practical prescription including best practices

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Secondary goal In our endeavor, we will decide which collaboratories to investigate in depth By understanding the space of possibilities, we can choose wisely

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Method Collect a large set of collaboratories –We have identified 77 possible candidates See handout –Collect a basic set of information –Note similarities and differences on both technical and social dimensions

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Method Examine the existing literature on what drives successes and challenges in organizations Dimensionalize the space Hypothesize causal relationships See what you see!

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Early view of collaboratories Digital Libraries, E-Pub access to information access to facilities people-to-people Communication, Groupware Services Distributed, media-rich information technology Interaction with the Physical World

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Definition A collaboratory is –An organizational entity –That links a community of individuals –Working at a distance –On common problems or tasks…

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Definition …that contains –Electronic tools that support –Rich and recurring human interaction and –Provides common access to resources, including information and instrumentation, needed to engage in the problems or tasks.

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN The Science of Collaboratories project Focuses on SCIENCE and ENGINEERING collaboratories –So the task is primarily research –Or design Same framework might generalize to other kinds of tasks –e.g. developing policy, securing expert consultation, pursuing education

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Kinds of Collaboratories Research focus –Distributed Research Center –Shared Instrumentation –Product Development –Community Data Systems Practice focus –Virtual Community of Practice –Virtual Learning Community –Expert Consultation

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Distributed Research Center Functions like a University research center, but at a distance. Project is unified by a topic area of interest, and includes a number of joint projects in that area. Most communication human-human No well specified product as the focus Alliance for Cell Signaling

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Shared Instrument Increases access to a scientific instrument Often remote access to an expensive instrument Often supplemented with other technology to support communication Keck observatory

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Product Development Focuses on the building of a product –Instrument –Infrastructure –Policy –Research methodology More time-bounded than others Intermed

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Community Data System Information resource that is created, maintained, or improved by a distributed community Information is semi-public, of wide interest. Zebrafish Information Network

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Virtual Community of Practice A network of individuals who share a research area and communicate about it online Share news of professional interest, advice, techniques. Not focused on joint projects Ocean US

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Virtual Learning Community Main focus is on increasing the knowledge of the participants –Not to do original research Can be inservice or professional development Ecology Circuit Collaboration

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Expert Consultation Provides increased access to an expert or set of experts The flow of information is mainly one way, rather than two way as in a distributed center TeleInViVo

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Progress to date Data collected on 38 Collaboratories –Clustered according to the major functions they serve Allows comparison across collaboratories for –What technology did they use –How might money flow have affected the work –What successes and challenges were involved Small set of data elements see handout of big table

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Resource Diagrams Representation of –Participants, both organizations and individuals –Instruments –Shared data –Communication flow –Resource flow (money)

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Key

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Distributed Center

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Shared Instrument

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Product Development

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Community Data System

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Virtual Community of Practice

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Virtual Learning Community

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Expert Consultation

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Comparisons within a category

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Comparisons within a category Bugscope

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Beginning to mine the data What technologies are in use? –Find out what different types of collaboratories use Suite of technologies –Find technologies used in environments with different constraints Bandwidth available for video Low versus high resources available

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Technology types Synchronous conversation Synchronous object sharing Asynchronous conversation Asynchronous object sharing Support for the transitions among modes of work Special computational needs Management of the technical resources See handout

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN As listed in the database

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Findings on technology use Video –CFAR Off the shelf, NetMeeting –Cell signaling Polycom desk and room systems –Access Grid (future)

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Findings on technology use Shared instrument –Bugscope Children can zoom and move the view –SPARC Because of safety issues, only the operator can move the view

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Findings on technology use Community data systems –Cell signaling molecule pages Managed as a vetted contribution –Visible Human One group provided the information for many to use Awareness system –No collaboratories mention using this!

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Where are the data? SOC database is one of its components Pages accessible In the future we will become a Community Data System –You and others can contribute entries

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Data base

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Data base

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Data base

SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Beyond For a smaller number of collaboratories We collect more in-depth information –Staffing and management –History –Incentives –Usage data –Cultural aspects of the community –Detailed functionality –Details of the technology –Readiness –Impact on the field