Data Science Journal (Jul 2016)
Build It, But Will They Come? A Geoscience Cyberinfrastructure Baseline Analysis
- Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld,
- Karen S Baker,
- Nicholas Berente,
- Dorothy R Carter,
- Leslie A DeChurch,
- Courtney C Flint,
- Gabriel Gershenfeld,
- Michael Haberman,
- John Leslie King,
- Christine Kirkpatrick,
- Eric Knight,
- Barbara Lawrence,
- Spenser Lewis,
- W Christopher Lenhardt,
- Pablo Lopez,
- Matthew S Mayernik,
- Charles McElroy,
- Barbara Mittleman,
- Victor Nichol,
- Mark Nolan,
- Namchul Shin,
- Cheryl A Thompson,
- Susan Winter,
- Ilya Zaslavsky
Affiliations
- Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld
- Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University
- Karen S Baker
- Graduate School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Nicholas Berente
- Terry College of Business, University of Georgia
- Dorothy R Carter
- Psychology Department, University of Georgia
- Leslie A DeChurch
- School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology
- Courtney C Flint
- Dept of Sociology, Social Work & Anthropology, Utah State University
- Gabriel Gershenfeld
- Gabe Gershenfeld, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Michael Haberman
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- John Leslie King
- School of Information, University of Michigan
- Christine Kirkpatrick
- San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego
- Eric Knight
- Discipline of Work & Organisational Studies, University of Sydney Business School
- Barbara Lawrence
- Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California Los Angeles
- Spenser Lewis
- Draper labs, 555 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA
- W Christopher Lenhardt
- Renaissance Computing Institute University of North Carolina
- Pablo Lopez
- Department of Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Matthew S Mayernik
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
- Charles McElroy
- Department of Design and Innovation, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
- Barbara Mittleman
- Nodality, Inc., 170 Harbor Way, South San Francisco
- Victor Nichol
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, EarthCube project
- Mark Nolan
- Graduate School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Namchul Shin
- Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, Pace University
- Cheryl A Thompson
- Graduate School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Susan Winter
- College of Information Studies, University of Maryland
- Ilya Zaslavsky
- San Diego Supercomputing Center, University of California
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2016-008
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 15
Abstract
Understanding the earth as a system requires integrating many forms of data from multiple fields. Builders and funders of the cyberinfrastructure designed to enable open data sharing in the geosciences risk a key failure mode: What if geoscientists do not use the cyberinfrastructure to share, discover and reuse data? In this study, we report a baseline assessment of engagement with the NSF EarthCube initiative, an open cyberinfrastructure effort for the geosciences. We find scientists perceive the need for cross-disciplinary engagement and engage where there is organizational or institutional support. However, we also find a possibly imbalanced involvement between cyber and geoscience communities at the outset, with the former showing more interest than the latter. This analysis highlights the importance of examining fields and disciplines as stakeholders to investments in the cyberinfrastructure supporting science.
Keywords
- Curation
- Cyberinfrastructure
- EarthCube Fields and disciplines
- Geoscience
- Infrastructure
- Network effects
- Open data
- Reuse
