A social study of the development and use of Grid for the LHC

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A social study of the development and use of Grid
for the LHC

• Will Venters (Lecturer in Information Systems)
• w.venters_at_lse.ac.uk
• www.pegasusresearch.org.uk
• UCL 23/2/07

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What is Information Systems?

• Study of ICTs development and use in the world
  of people, e.g.
• Systems development methods and their reshaping
• ICT and global outsourcing
• Business strategy and ICT
• Mobile technology and work
• ID cards debate

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Our Work

• ICT in use influences and is influenced by the
  social context as well as by its technical
  characteristics
• We draw on the social sciences (e.g. economic,
  social, organisational, and political viewpoints)
• We have worked in, and done research on, complex
  infrastructures
• knowledge management
• financial networks
• health information systems
• systems development / software engineering
• open-source processes
• Pegasus builds on and will contribute to this
  stream of work

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Our Expertise
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The Pegasus Team

• Three year project funded by the EPSRC
  Usability challenges from e-science
• Project started 1st June for 3 years.
• Members
• Dr Will Venters (Lecturer LSE)
• Dr Tony Cornford (Senior Lecturer LSE)
• Dr Mark Lancaster (Senior Lecturer in PP UCL)
• Dr Yingqin Zheng (Project Research Officer -LSE)
• Avgousta Kyriakidou (Project student -LSE)
• Advisory Group
• Prof. Tony Doyle, Prof. Steve Lloyd, Dr Elaine
  Ferneley, Dr Susan Scott, Prof. Wanda Orlikowski.

Yingqin
Will
Mark
Tony
Avgousta
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The Pegasus Project

• We aim to study GridPPs approach to e-science
  infrastructure development, deployment and use,
  and as a mix of technology, practices, knowledge,
  people, cultures, institutions, and politics
• We study GridPP as a means to do science.
• Relevant for improving the potential of other
  Grids, and to inform other large infrastructures
  (e.g. NHS connecting for health, financial
  clearing and settlement ).

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Why is GridPP interesting to us?

• Our interest is in how complex infrastructures
  develop and evolve
• particle physicists are pragmatic contrast to
  other developers (e.g. consultancies,
  corporations)
• particle physicists are distributed and have for
  a long time worked together as a "virtual
  organisation" of great interest to others in
  e-science.
• GridPP has to deliver on time for LHC

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What are we planning to do?

• We trace
• development of GridPP
• what influences the technology
• how GridPP comes to be used for the LHC
• how this use affects GridPP
• We are interested not just in the rationalistic
  processes of design, but in the emergent
  behaviours, the improvisation in practices, the
  dynamic competences which evolve
• For many areas of IS development these are
  crucial issues
• global and distributed approaches,
  collaborations, and contingent ways of processes
  of innovation

Image courtesy of PPARC
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How do we intend to do this
Journals E-Science guidance Education
Ethnography / Interviews
Qualitative analysis using tools
Data Collection
Analysis
Publication
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Data Collection

• BUTthe particle detector is looking at
  objective particles we are looking at
  intelligent, complicated humans
• We cannot do a scientific experiment instead we
  employ a technique from anthropology Ethnography
  
• Not devolved objective observers (we know that
  doesnt work!)
• Observe, discuss, experience and participate
• Interest in cultures, values, ways of working
• Concerned with peoples interpretations
• Confidentiality and Impartiality
• Avoid bias from dominant opinions, or the
  researcher
• We are not from particle physics or computer
  science so we can and will ask the stupid
  questions

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Data Collection

• Over the next two to three years we will be
• Attending Meetings etc. of GridPP, LCG, EGEE
• Visiting workplaces (including UCL!)
• Asking questions
• Observing the technology in development and in
  use
• Reading and analysing documents
• Interviewing (usually around an hour)
• Taking lots of notes!
• And analysing the results!

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Research so far

• Interviews
• Observing Meetings
• Attending GridPP Collaboration meetings
• Mailing lists
• Wiki

• Interviews
• WLCG Collaboration Meeting

Grid Deployment (GridPP)
Grid Developers (middleware)
Grid Users (Actual and potential)

• Interviews
• Online Work Diary

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The kind of second order questions we will be
seeking answers to.

• How do you carry out experimental particle
  physics research?
• What activities are involved in your day to day
  work?
• How do you collaborate?
• How do you communicate?
• How do you approach problems and resolve them?
• How do you share expertise with colleagues and
  deposit existing knowledge for future researchers?

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Data Analysis
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Emerging Themes

• Embedded PP practices are reflected in the way
  Grid technology is being developed and the way
  the collaborative effort is organised.
• e.g. common goal, long term vision,
  improvisation, distributed collaboration, virtual
  organizations
• Reliability, Scalability, and Efficiency
• Mediating the specificity of PP computing and
  generality of grid infrastructure
• Heedful systems and distributed cognition are
  emerging areas of theoretical focus. (Weick and
  Hutchins)

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Wider Contributions to IS

• Existing theories of infrastructure suggest
  infrastructure must be (Star and Ruhleder)
• Embedded inside other technologies and social
  arrangements
• Built upon the installed base reflecting an
  inertia.
• Transparent in use (and not reinvented for each
  task)
• Only visible upon breakdown.
• Reach beyond a single event or practice.
• Learnt as part of becoming a member of a
  community.
• Embodied in standards (negotiated with other
  infrastructure)
• We aim to draw upon, and contribute to such
  literature using, e.g. concepts such as
  bricolage, situated actions, virtual
  organisations, translation and inscription.

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Specific Outputs

• From all this observation we will write a set of
  thick descriptions describing
• How the needs of the LHC shape GridPP
• How GridPP is understood by, and comes to be used
  by, particle physicists preparing for the LHC
• How GridPP is actually put to use by particle
  physicists in research using the data from LHC
• Using these reports to produce a framework and
  set of guidance for others developing similar
  Grids (including engineering, businesses and
  government).

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Finally...Whats in it for GridPP?

• The insights from the PP community and the way
  you work will be of value to other scientific
  communities.
• Help promote the work of GridPP as a national
  infrastructure for particle physics.
• Help demystify particle physics, and let the
  public learn about the process of technological
  innovation within contemporary science.
• Help the PP users reflect on their own practices
  with computing technology.
• Provide an alternative perspective on
  experimental PP work.

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A social study of the development and use of Grid
for the LHC

• INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND INNOVATION GROUP
• Will Venters UCL 23/2/07
• w.venters_at_lse.ac.uk
• www.pegasusresearch.org.uk