HR: 08:00h
AN: IN21C-01 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts - Are we Meeting the Requirements of our User Communities?
AU: * Klump, J
EM: jens.klump@gfz-potsdam.de
AF: GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Data Centre Telegrafenberg A3, Potsdam, 14773, Germany
AB: The 20^th century brought about an "information revolution" that has forever altered the way we work, communicate, and live. The way science has been conducted for the past 200 years has been challenged by new media of communication and for the dissemination of data. We now have the tools at hand, commonly called cyberinfrastructure, that enable new forms of global collaboration. But are we fully realising the potential of cyberinfrastructure? Has it become an integral part of our scientific culture? Tools developed in Earth and Space Science Informatics projects suffer the same effects like informatics developments in other fields. Many of the projects fail to meet user requirements, and they do so for a number of reasons. Besides a certain reluctance on the side of scientists to adopt new tools for conducting their research, many cyberinfrastructure projects suffer from "marketing myopia" (Levitt, 1960) in the way they try to "sell" their applications. According to Levitt, the difference between selling and marketing is that the former fulfils the needs of the seller and the latter the needs of the buyer. Cyberinfrastructure projects must stop trying to sell their achievements to the scientific community, and instead market them by considering the scientists" needs right at the beginning of their endeavours. Admittedly, the requirements of scientific user communities are "moving targets", because scientific workflows are often subject to ad-hoc changes, depending on the outcome of the preceding step. Another important risk factor, faced by many cyberinfrastructure projects, is that the designated user community is not aware of the availability of this new resource. This is where training and outreach are essential, especially to draw in early adopters of new technology and multipliers among researchers. Only cyberinfrastructure tools that truly serve their designated user community will eventually become part of the scientific infrastructure. This presentation looks at the factors and strategies that affect adoption of cyberinfrastructrures by the scientific community.
DE: 6314 Demand estimation
DE: 6329 Project evaluation
DE: 6339 System design
DE: 6344 System operation and management
SC: Earth and Space Science Informatics [IN]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting