1. 1 eResearch Infrastructure an NCRIS investment Supporting Australian research in an increasing technological and information rich world Rhys Francis Executive Director The Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council

2. 2 Why is eResearch happening now?

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5. 5 We are in a technological age.. Capacity Moore’s law, clock speed (?), bandwidth, storage density, nano, photonics Connectivity Internet, wireless, mobile, coverage, always connected, never lost, globalisation Content Born digital, imaging, sensing, modelling, simulating, aggregating, relating, sharing Interface Speech, 3d projection/sound, haptics, non-rigid displays, visualisation, immersion Products Ubiquitous computing, smart appliances, automation, labour reduction Complexity Robustness, seamlessness, self-organising, evolutionary, not understood

6. 6 Not all technology explodes at once … CapacityExplosive growth started 50-60 years ago ConnectivityExplosive growth started 15-20 years ago ContentExplosive growth started 3-5 years ago InterfaceThe soft visual, smart speech, sensed interface maybe around in 10 years time ProductsSmart autonomous devices maybe 25-100 years ComplexityMajor problem, complexity maybe a forever challenge

7. 7 Why Does ICT matter? Our society was shaped by a truth: only people process information communication was between people everything made was made by somebody all decisions were a product of mind For most of history it was IMPOSSIBLE to speak to anybody at a distance From 1870 to 1990: ICT delivered that ability to 8% of the world’s population From 1990 to 2007: ICT delivered that ability to 50% of the world’s population ICT means that voice and images can be sent from anyone in the world to anyone else in the world, anywhere, at a moments notice In the past, no-one could publish information and have it accessible to everyone This possibility is now available to more than 15% of the world’s population The web shows one of the highest growth rate of technology adoption ever Until now, it was only possible to socialise, work or play with neighbours ICT is drawing this “tyranny of distance” to a close New collaboration, immersion and remote presence technologies stand poised to redefine human interaction The promise is expansive: Improved efficiency, reduced waste, shared experiences, enhanced communities, increased variety Information, entertainment and knowledge gathered, kept, synthesised, processed and delivered to suit the needs of any moment and every individual at marginal cost Nothing ever lost, nothing ever accidentally forgotten or missed, nobody ever without help or assistance

8. 8 The world is connecting - it’s a hand held world WorldwideCell PhonesInternetPCs 200532%17%14% 201048%26%20%

9. 9 The world is connecting - human to human

10. 10 Population 1 AD ~200 million 1000 AD ~300 million 1500 AD ~500 million 1750 AD 800 million Our heritage Where we are The future

11. 11 The human dilemma An avalanche of information results from vastly increased connectivity, computing and data storage Vast amounts of information arise from sensor development but no person can peruse it A step change in population, development, processing capacity provides a multiplicative step change in the amount of research in progress What if we propose no substantive change in our ability to learn and understand –the information space understood by any researcher must shrink as a fraction of the available information How do we evolve from research in a knowledge poor environment, our heritage, to research in a knowledge rich environment, our children’s future –from being valued for a lifetime gaining knowledge –to a world where everything ever known by anyone is available to all

12. 12 There are various paths forward Work with higher bandwidth human faculties –The interactive modeling and visualisation theme Make knowledge more accessible –The smarter tools solution Learn to work in teams –The collaborate or perish proposition Build servants more intelligent than us –The magic wand approach Extend the human ability to learn –Open pandora’s box, augmentation … others ? ….slow down eResearch is about applying ICT to knowledge in three ways Enhance comprehension - the higher bandwidth agenda –We need the means to easily find and use information where ever it is –We need the means to assimilate more information Enable collaboration - the interoperation agenda –We need the means to work easily and naturally in virtual teams –We need the means to ‘join’ together content, tools and laboratories Encode Knowledge - the smart tools agenda –We need the means to use knowledge without knowing it –We need the means to encode semantics as well as information

13. 13 eResearch Strategy (circa 2006) Thematic Issues Continuing Need for a Focus –through national coordination Human Capabilities –People, skills and understanding Linkage of eResearch Resources –seamless access to resources Access to Data –Most data is outside the research system Structural and Cultural Change –evolution of organisational structures and cultures Awareness and Support –develop researchers’ ability to adopt eResearch Service Clusters Data –outreach, curation, data management –meta-services, location, access, movement –practice, providers and users Computing –capability computing facilities –national computing environment Interoperation –discipline services (tools ((software)) –user and operations support –collaboration services support Access –the Australian access federation –the Australian research and education network

14. 14 Access Interoperation Compute Data Platforms for Collaboration (circa 2007) Capability Computing Advanced models The Data Commons Data Federations Collaboration services Research workflows Research connectivity Seamless reach Share and access data in the commons National registries and access services Connect repositories to the commons Data frameworks A shared national computational facility Domain oriented modeling capabilities Shared authorisation framework for resources Connect researchers at required bandwidth Services linking resources nation wide Collaboration and workflow tools NCI $24M ARCS $22M ANDS $24M ASSDA $3M AAF $2M AARNet $3M

15. 15 Extract from Revised Roadmap… In the main, the capabilities identified in the 2006 Roadmap are supported A number of additional needs result in a reshaping, and in the most part a supplementing, of elements in individual capabilities. The Humanities, Arts and the Social Sciences (HASS) are specifically recognised as an important capability area The significance of information and communication technologies (ICT) as an underpinning and pervasive capability is strongly acknowledged The inclusion of data itself as collaborative research infrastructure is emphasised The need to further enable and recognise the linkages between specific capabilities has resulted in the grouping of related areas

16. 16 Revising Platforms (circa 2008) Access frameworks and access enabling services –National rules and agreements to simplify sharing Collaboration support services –Applying ‘social technologies’ to research Data capture, management and curation services –Providing data access as a research input / Managing research data output Modelling, visualisation and computational analysis services –Modelling where we need it, massed where the data is Connectivity services, backbone and end-to-end –Person to person / person to resource / resource to resource Discipline development and support services –Resources to build new services for research

17. 17 eResearch: enable, transition and co-ordinate Enable eResearch: –access and authentication systems –data storage systems –a range of high performance computing facilities –high performance communications networks Transition to eResearch: –data federations: the Australian Research Data Commons –collaborative tools, remote access, virtual organisations and shared workspaces: the Australian Research Collaboration Service –building research environments that bridge research communities Coordinate: –promote awareness of the research gains possible from advanced ICT –build bridges across research infrastructure and research investments –reduce policy impediments to collaboration

18. 18 Our proposed investment structure…. Co-ordination Component Shared Spaces collaboration Shared Data federation and re-use Research Networks Advanced Computing Data Storage Access Methods Shared Infrastructure bridge building

19. 19 Now to the title of the talk….. The fascinating thing about the research data management problem…is… –We understand the problem –We understand the solution –We have the technology, ICT and legal The problem is: why exactly do we still have a problem ? –Maybe the growth rate is the problem, we are just swamped –Maybe the road rules to the data highway still need to be agreed –Maybe our expectations are a contributing problem –Maybe we can’t do everything at once

20. 20 The Road Rules for the Data Highway † The revised roadmap contains a very big challenge –related to our expectations –it separates data retention from data federation I haven’t really said what the difference is –just that we need such a difference to make progress –retention is infrastructural, the purpose is open ended –federation and re-use is purpose driven, we don’t need it everywhere –and we all know data value is grey scale and not black and white I am asking you –to help us spell out the “road rules” for the data highway –road rules that make sense of retention infrastructure † Courtesy of a discussion with Tim Barker

21. 21 …and a thought on the big picture Enterprise ICT is building towards integrated corporate memory We need to –retain data and its connections into such knowledge spaces In a born digital world, metadata need only connect data to the knowledge space, if we also have the knowledge space We will less need to establish encompassing world descriptions as ontologies to describe the context of data –publish and join windows into enterprise knowledge spaces We need technologies that support enterprise, collaboration and public ICT domains, and manage the boundaries between them –develop interfaces that use connections to enhance data re-use We need the capability to achieve retention and only later to achieve re-use by re-computing connections between the data We need to promote, publish and connect data as a first class element of the world of born digital knowledge

22. 22 Thank you For further information, contact: Rhys Francis Executive Director Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council Email: rhys@pfc.org.au Website: www.pfc.org.au rhys@pfc.org.auwww.pfc.org.au

23. 23 eResearch Infrastructure an NCRIS investment Supporting Australian research in an increasing technological and information rich world Rhys Francis Executive Director The Australian eResearch Infrastructure Council