A Framework for Collaborative GI Science -or- The

1
A Framework for Collaborative GI Science-or-The
distillation of a research idea
Robin S. Smith ICOSS, University of Sheffield

• European GeoInformatics Workshop
• 7 - 9 March 2007

2
Outline

• Researching Society and Technology
• e-(Social) Science
• Collaboration
• Components of digital participation
• Collaboration in GRADE
• Summary

3
Researching Society and Technology

• social construction of technology (Bijker et
  al., 1987)
• social shaping of technology (Woolgar, 2003)
• giving people/society a role
• technologies are the product of complicated
  interactions users, non-users, policies,
  practices and the technology
• A strategic/holistic view of a technology

4
e-(Social) Science Woolgars (2003)
consultative study

• Social Shaping
• all social scientific aspects of genesis, use,
  implementation and effects of the new e
  technologies
• with a tendency to distinguish between research
  which uses the grid and research which is about
  the grid alongside
• how grid technologies will affect practice, and
  how the practices of social scientists will
  affect the development and use of these
  technologies

5
Four research themes

• Different activities around the globe and the
  impacts this may have on the development combined
  research infrastructures
• (G)SDI(s)?
• Impact on other areas of scholarship, from
  more routine aspects of academic life, teaching,
  administration, journal operation, refereeing and
  so on
• - in silico research
• the impact that such infrastructure will also
  have on the existing operation of virtual
  communities such as sharing, privacy, trust,
  collaboration, IPR
• - SDIs?
• historical comparisons with the development of
  other communication technologies and ICTs ideas
  about web democracy the need to explore
  innovative models of cooperation and
  collaboration
• the motivation of this paper

6
e-(Social) ScienceScott Venterss (2006)
research practices

• cyberinfrastructure involves the intersection
  of Grid and collaborative research (p. 2 after
  David, 2004)
• BUT
• social science can be a fundamentally
  individual endeavour and social scientists have
  limited knowledge of the Grid
• adapting tools made by other communities.
• raster calculation vs. discipline-specific
  tools??
• Unnecessary duplication of effort and /or
  infrastructure
• Reduction in the possibilities of
  inter-disciplinary research facilitated by a
  common toolkit/language?

7

• A lack of social theory in recent technical
  developments for e-social science
• requires an articulation between theory and
  practice
• Contributing our experience to other Grid
  communities e.g. for combining information from
  diverse and distributed data sources GIS as
  a collaborative tool (?)

8

• An established approach to understanding the
  social surroundings of e-social science through
  social shaping

9
Glenmorangie (10y)

• An established approach to understanding the
  social surroundings of e-social science through
  social shaping
• A smooth and medium-bodied whisky, with a
  delicate, slightly sweet aroma (Shaw, 1999)
• Scotlands best-selling malt

10
Collaboration

• Gray Wood (1991)- business/economic context
• Nyerges Jankowski (2001) Enhanced Adaptive
  Structuration Theory 2 GIS for group-based
  interaction
• Balram Dragicevic (2006) consensual group
  spatial decision processes within a
  participant-technology-data nexus
• (Recently highlighted as a challenge by Mark
  Birkin (2005) in a discussion of e-social science
  and GIS)

See http//www.wun.ac.uk/ggisa/seminars.html gtgt
seminar archive
11
Components of digital participation (Smith, 2006)

• Notions of participation /collaboration
• Issues /Research Problems
• Audience
• Methods
• Outcomes

?
Arnsteins (1969) Ladder of citizen participation
12

• A less well-known approach being adopted from a
  related discipline

13
The Balvenie (10y)

• A less well-known approach being adopted from a
  related discipline
• Founders Reserve has a rich colour, bouquet and
  flavour with a smooth, clean, dry finish (Shaw,
  1999)
• The distillery is not open to the public

14
GRADE

• Scoping a Geospatial Repository for Academic
  Deposit and Extraction
• Small group of researchers experiencing
  geospatial data-sharing
• using the demonstrator repository and
• two web-based peer-to-peer technologies to share
  GI
• Action research for a potential e-social
  science resource- beyond storage to use

15
Collaboration

• Highlighted in informal peer-to-peer methods by
  participants
• GRADE as a collaborative resource
• Access issues
• Issues of trust
• Citation/acknowledgement/data control for the
  re-use of data
• Data policy, licensing and digital rights

16
Issues/research problems

• Only an experiment- not a true setting- what
  research contexts/problems require participants
  to share GI?
• Do these vary between different research
  communities?
• Geographical distribution of participants, data
  and problems- the various networks for
  collaboration

17
Audience

• Close association of researchers to their data
  (data mining and negotiating access)
• Who is involved- relates to issues of trust and
  control- again, does it vary by discipline?
• communicating as a group online and meeting
  in-person for the workshop impacts on the
  outcomes of the study

18
Methods

• Different methods
• ease of installation/use
• privacy and security
• Work practices (home and office computer
  problems)
• online communication to mediate sharing
• (desired as an extension to a GRADE-type
  repository)
• Technology uncovering attitudes to sharing
• e.g. different approaches to using social network
  software
• Description through theory-driven/-identifier
  roles (?)

19
Outcomes

• The technology
• Trusted resource through Edina
• Need for social tools
• Experiences
• How to install peer-to-peer software
• Considering the role of p2p in real
  research/teaching (e.g. project/group work)
• Research practice
• Generating a report
• Participants considering furthering the research
• Giving this paper!

20

• An idea requiring further empirical testing

21
Highland Park (12y)

• An idea requiring further empirical testing
• Highland Park is a medium-bodied single malt of
  character, with a heathery-smoky aroma and peaty
  flavour with balancing sweet tones (Shaw, 1999)
• One of Scotlands most northerly distilleries

22
Summary

• Understanding the roles of the many stakeholders
  in e-(social) science is aided by a social
  shaping of technology approach
• GISc is well placed to explore this concept given
  its inherent need for data-sharing and
  collaboration
• collaboration can have many meanings for this
  community
• To some extent, related research in other virtual
  communities, such as digital participation, can
  help us to explore our domains of both e-social
  and GI Science.- ( data, metadata?)

23
Slainte mhath!

• robin.smith_at_shef.ac.uk

24
ICOSS

• Purpose built research centre for policy
  relevant, interdisciplinary research using large
  (quantitative and qualitative) datasets
• Promotes GIS as a collaborative tool between
  researchers and their datasets
• A place where public sector groups interested in
  GIS can interact with academics for research and
  infrastructure development
• A place to study collaboration in practice (?)