1. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Collaboratories at a Glance C @ G Judy Olson Nathan Bos Erik Dahl

2. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Card model of how a technical field develops Point system Dimensions Relationships Laws

3. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

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

5. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

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

7. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

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

9. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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.

10. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

11. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

12. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

13. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

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

15. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

16. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

17. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

18. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

19. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

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

21. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Key

22. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Distributed Center

23. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Shared Instrument

24. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Product Development

25. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Community Data System

26. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Virtual Community of Practice

27. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Virtual Learning Community

28. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Expert Consultation

29. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Comparisons within a category

30. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Comparisons within a category Bugscope

31. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

32. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

33. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu As listed in the database

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

35. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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

36. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu 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!

37. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Where are the data? SOC database –C@G is one of its components Pages accessible In the future we will become a Community Data System –You and others can contribute entries

38. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Data base

39. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Data base

40. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Data base

41. SCHOOL OF INFORMATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN www.si.umich.edu Beyond C@G 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