Cyberinfrastructure 2010 in the Rockies – A Human Centered Approach

Event Registration (registration closed)

Proposed agenda for the day

This CI Days event will be a day-long conference to explore Cyberinfrastructure needs for research in the 21st century. Included topics will be the roles and opportunities for academic libraries, campus information technology organizations, and faculty and other researchers to build and support CI in academic/research settings. The event will be held at Colorado State University, Fort Collins on Friday August 13, 2010.

Attendees will be faculty/researchers, librarians, and IT professionals from Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries institutions with interests and perspectives on CI-enabled research and discovery in academic research environments. The Alliance is a consortium of 15 academic institutions in Colorado and Wyoming with 12,244 academic/research faculty, 24,196 professional staff, and 180,169 students.

Sponsors for this CI Days event are the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries (Alliance), Colorado State University Information Science and Technology Center (ISTeC), and the Colorado State University Libraries and Information Technology units.

Location and registration information:

  • Proposed agenda for the day
  • Event Date: Friday August 13, 2010
  • Event Location: Lory Student Center, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. Campus Map: Lory is at grid location 3-I. Campus visitors should use parking lot 310, entering from Laurel Street (on the north end of Lory Student Center) or Lot 425 which is west of Morgan Library.  Directions to Morgan Library.
  • Event Registration (registration closed): (Attendees, please complete the form with the requested information, including lunch choice and parking needs.  Registration is at no cost to the attendee and includes refreshments and lunch. A parking pass can also be provided at no cost. All other expenses are an attendee’s personal or institutional responsibility.)  Registration is open until 5 PM MST, Monday August 2, 2010.
  • The Colorado State University Visitor’s Center page may be useful for attendees who may be needing additional directions to Fort Collins, hotel information, or other travel information.

Supporting Pages:

What is CI (Cyberinfrastructure)?
What is Open Access?

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What is CI (Cyberinfrastructure)?

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Definition of CI (Cyberinfrastructure)

Although there is no uniform or codified definition of Cyberinfrastructure at present, for purposes of our CI Days event, we point to an explanation of ‘Campus CI’ by Russ Hobby, Coordinator of the CI Days program as the working definition we have adopted:

“First let’s tackle Cyberinfrastructure (CI) in general. We think of CI as a distributed computer with computation, storage, input/output, software, and management all at different locations, using the network as its backplane. The different pieces and functions of the computer are provided and used by many people in many different locations, and as such, combine to form a complex system. With the aid of good user management tools, user interfaces and workflows, the complexity is largely hidden from the researcher.

Campus CI would then be a “distributed computer” shared campus-wide or among certain departments. It may consist of campus computing facilities shared with other campuses or with a regional or national CI. There is no single definition!

CI can encompasses a range of support resources for the people that use it – including training, consulting and collaboration tools that allow the multiple locations to work smoothly together. Another aspect is the coordination and formatting of data so that it may be shared within and between research disciplines.

Benefits of CI:

  • Is focused on sharing and making greater capabilities available across the science and engineering research communities

  • Allows applications to interoperate across institutions and disciplines

  • Ensures that data and software acquired at great expense are preserved and easily available to all

  • Empowers enhanced collaboration over distance and across disciplines.”

-About Campus CI: https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/cidays/About+Campus+CI

We will point out that this definition of CI, although specifically noting science and engineering, can and should include the humanities and social sciences.

We will also point out that in the definition provided here, and in others, there are three principle areas that comprise Cyberinfrastructure:

  • The technology itself – computational, telecommunications, shared communications and workspace resources
  • The information that feeds into the discovery process, including:
    • Existing information that informs research (articles, data, and other information resources)
    • Information created by researchers as a result of their inquiry (raw and analyzed data, working drafts, and other communications)
    • Final results of the research (articles, data, and other information resources)
  • Skilled professionals to provide training, consultation, support and management for researchers

Additional Resources on Cyberinfrastructure:

CI Days

CI Days is a consortium of Information Technology and Research organizations, funded by the NSF (National Science Foundation) to award grants to academic institutions that will help foster ongoing conversation, exploration, and development of Cyberinfrastructure supports at individual academic and research institutions.

https://wiki.internet2.edu/confluence/display/cidays

CI Days Consortium Organizations

EDUCAUSE http://www.educause.edu/

Internet 2 http://www.internet2.edu/

MSI_CIEC http://www.msi-ciec.org/

NLR http://www.nlr.net/

Open Science Grid http://www.opensciencegrid.org/

SURAgrid http://www.sura.org/programs/sura_grid.html

TeraGrid https://www.teragrid.org/

NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure

http://www.nsf.gov/dir/index.jsp?org=OCI

NSF Cyberinfrastructure Vision for the 21st Century

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsf0728/index.jsp?org=NSF

American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Commission on Cyberinfrastructure

http://www.acls.org/programs/Default.aspx?id=644&linkidentifier=id&itemid=644

Our Cultural Commonwealth, an ACLS report on Cyberinfrastructure for the Humanities and Social Sciences

http://www.acls.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/Programs/Our_Cultural_Commonwealth.pdf

EDUCAUSE Resource Topics Pages:

Cyberinfrastructure

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/Cyberinfrastructure/17972

E-Scholarship

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/Cyberinfrastructure/17972

E-Research

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/EResearch/33568

Cloud Computing

http://www.educause.edu/Resources/Browse/Cloud%20Computing/27148

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What is Open Access?

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A short explanation of Open Access from the Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS):

Open Access provides the means to maximise the visibility, and thus the uptake and use, of research outputs. Open Access is the immediate, online, free availability of research outputs without the severe restrictions on use commonly imposed by publisher copyright agreements. It is definitely not vanity publishing or self-publishing, nor about the literature that scholars might normally expect to be paid for, such as books for which they hope to earn royalty payments. It concerns the outputs that scholars normally give away free to be published – peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers and datasets of various kinds.

The three original, formal definitions of Open Access are the Budapest (2002), Bethesda (2003) and Berlin (2003) definitions and they are usually referred to as a consolidated ‘BBB definition‘.

- (2010) Open Access, What is it and why should we have it? http://www.openoasis.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130&Itemid=390 (Viewed June 6, 2010)

Additional Open Access Resources:

Science Commons

http://sciencecommons.org/

Creative Commons

http://creativecommons.org

SPARC

http://www.arl.org/sparc/

Open Access Week

http://www.openaccessweek.org/

OASIS (Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook)

http://www.openoasis.org/

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Agenda for CI Days – Cyberinfrastructure 2010 in the Rockies: A Human Centered Program

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August 13, 2010 (DRAFT schedule 2010-07-21)

8:30–9:00 Registration and coffee

9:00-9:15 Welcome, review agenda, introduce sponsors (Jeff Bullington, moderator):

  • Alan Charnes, Director, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries
  • HJ Siegel, Director, CSU ISTeC (Information Science and Technology Center) and Abell Distinguished Professor

9:15–9:45 Importance of CyberInfrastructure, role of CI Days : – Russ Hobby, I2 and CI Days Sponsor. Chair: Jeff Bullington

9:45–10:30 Data Curation and Digital Repositories Panel, with focus on a user-centered design approach to data curation services and activities: Mary Marlino, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research; Greg Newman, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory; Jessica Colati, Colorado Alliance. Chair: Dawn Paschal

10:30-10:45 Break

10:45–11:00 H.J. Siegel on ISTeC Model

11:00–12:00 “Adopting Open Access Practices for your Research; KU’s Path to Open Access.” Town Peterson, Professor Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Univ. of Kansas. Chair: Pat Burns

12:00- 12:45 Lunch (box lunches will be ready, choices made during registration)

12:45-1:45 “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Open Access.” John Wilbanks, VP of Science Commons. Chair: Pat Burns

1:45-2:00 Instructions for the group work. Chair: Jeff Bullington

2:00–3:00 Group work, break-out sessions by topics:

  • Why not the Google Cloud?
  • Working across boundaries: models for collaboration.
  • Will my great granddaughter have access to my articles?
  • Open Access or opening a can of worms?  (Originally: What’s happening at your institution regarding Open Acces and, Open Access or opening a can of worms?)
  • IT and Libraries: operational paradigms
  • Copyright and Intellectual Property: The future of scholarly communications?
  • Human dimensions of CI
  • How do we respond/react to federally-mandated data management requirements?  (Originally: What about the other aspects of CI?)
  • What? There are still libraries buying print books? Or, why does anyone under the age of 30 still visit a library?

3:00-3:20 Break and transition back to large group

3:20-4:00 Reports from break-outs back in large group

4:00-4:30 Wrap-up: Russ Hobby (I2 and CI Days Coordinator) shares thoughts and observations on the day, including suggestions for next steps for participants and their institutions.

4:30-5:30 Ice cream social and networking

CI Days Afternoon Break-Out Session Questions

Why not the Google Cloud?

  1. Yes, Google provides worldwide exposure and accessibility at no cost, but why should I permit Google to make money on my work?
  2. Who owns the content, Google or me?
  3. Is Google a trusted repository? What happens to my stuff if Google craters or merges? Should I worry?
  4. What if I want to restrict our content to a selected audience? Can Google provide that service? Is there an alternative?

Working across boundaries: models for collaboration.

  1. How do you build a people infrastructure that spans all colleges within a university?
  2. How do you find activities that interest multiple colleges?
  3. How do make multi-college activities happen?
  4. What are administrative obstacles and how do you (try to) overcome them?

Will my great granddaughter be able to access my articles?

  1. Stability of digital formats.
  2. Migration of digital formats.
  3. Who is responsible?
  4. What are we willing to let go?
  5. What about support for obsolete applications?

Open access or opening a can of worms? (Originally: What’s happening at your institution regarding Open Acces and, Open Access or opening a can of worms?)

  1. Is OA an active topic among librarians at your institutions?
  2. Is OA an active topic among faculty at your institutions?
  3. Have you had an OA initiative? Successful or not?
  4. Are you contemplating an OA initiative?
  5. How was or will be your OA initiative constructed?
  6. Who led the OA initiative?
  7. What were the keys to success?
  8. What were the significant negative factors?
  9. What would you do differently were you to conduct another OA initiative?
  10. Will impending budget reductions be a factor in a future OA initiative?
  11. What do you anticipate will be the impact upon of OA of the proposed federal law requiring deposit of scholarly communications in open access journals?
  12. Should OA be a replacement to traditional scholarly communications or can it survive in a symbiotic relationship?
  13. What are some transferable principles from the Physics OA model that can be readily applied in other disciplines? (eg. arXiv)
  14. Is there a “tipping point” for OA? How will we know when we are getting close?
  15. Baiting the hook…Who are the most important stakeholders to reel in, if you want a successful OA movement on your campus?
  16. Are there sharks in the water? Spotting “Predatory” OA publishers and other considerations to keep in mind.

IT and Libraries : operational paradigms.

  1. How could campus library and IT units’ best work together to support CI needs for the campus and researchers?
  2. How could they work with other campus units (academic departments, research centers, etc.) to the same?
  3. What knowledge, skills, and values do libraries have to apply to building and supporting CI?
  4. What knowledge, skills, and values does IT have to apply to building and supporting CI?
  5. What knowledge, skills, and values do faculty/researchers have to apply to building and supporting CI?

Copyright and Intellectual Property: the future of scholarly communications?

  1. What do faculty and researchers need to know about author copyrights and intellectual property rights, including more traditional copyright, licensing, and alternatives for rights management (e.g., Creative Commons)?
  2. How can librarians best support the needs of faculty and researchers in determining/negotiating their copyrights?
  3. What concrete steps can faculty, librarians, and IT take to regain control of scholarly communication?
  4. What information about copyright do faculty and researchers need to facilitate self-archiving, open access, and alternative publishing methods for their research outputs?

Human dimensions of CI.

  1. What information, training, and tools will a campus need to provide to end-users (faculty, researchers, etc.) for CI?
  2. What are the skill sets and trained professionals (within libraries and IT) needed to support campus CI environments in the future?
  3. What are the important end-user needs that should be accounted for in CI environments?

How do we respond/react to federally-mandated data management requirements? (Originally: What about all the other aspects of CI?)

  1. What is happening at your institution, and who is exploring these issues now?
    1. Offices of Sponsored Programs
    2. Research Associate Deans
    3. VP for Research?
    4. Others?
  2. Where will the data be stored?
    1. Faculty PCs? Departmental servers?
    2. Institutional servers?
    3. Shared, collaborative servers, e.g. the ADR?
    4. External sites, e.g. supercomputer centers?
    5. We should be flexible in this regard?
  3. Where will the metadata be stored?
    1. See item 2 above.
    2. Who verifies the metadata?
  4. What does this entail?
    1. Massive data storage. How?
    2. Massive data backup? How?
    3. Transcoding when formats/standards change? Who? How?
  5. To what degree are libraries or librarians involved in this? Should they be?
  6. So, how are these initiatives going?
  7. What advice can you offer to other institutions in terms of what they should be doing in regards to this?

What—there are still libraries buying print books? Or, why does anyone under the age of 30 still visit a library?

  1. Will all in-person library services be mediated virtually?
  2. How will patron-driven acquisition of information and next-gen discoverability engines change the perceived value proposition of the library?
  3. What will happen to collaborative resource sharing, especially ILL/document delivery and last print archives?
  4. Will all information wanted by library customers be available online?
  5. Will the current packaging of journals and books deconstruct to mix-and-match multi-media objects?
  6. Will the definition of a bricks and mortar “library” be synonymous with “student center”?

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  1. How do we respond/react to federally-mandated data management requirements?
    1. What is happening at your institution, and who is exploring these issues now?
      1. Offices of Sponsored Programs
      2. Research Associate Deans
      3. VP for Research?
      4. Others?
    2. Where will the data be stored?
      1. Faculty PCs? Departmental servers?
      2. Institutional servers?
      3. Shared, collaborative servers, e.g. the ADR?
      4. External sites, e.g. supercomputer centers?
      5. We should be flexible in this regard?
    3. Where will the metadata be stored?
      1. See item 2 above.
      2. Who verifies the metadata?
    4. What does this entail?
      1. Massive data storage. How?
      2. Massive data backup? How?
      3. Transcoding when formats/standards change? Who? How?
    5. To what degree are libraries or librarians involved in this? Should they be?
    6. So, how are these initiatives going?
    7. What advice can you offer to other institutions in terms of what they should be doing in regards to this?
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