Warm Fronts and High Pressure Systems: Overcoming Geographic Dispersion in a Meteorological Cyberinfrastructure Project
Katherine A. Lawrence
Thomas A. Finholt
Il-hwan Kim
Sch. of Inf., Michigan Univ., Ann Arbor, MI;
This paper appears in: System Sciences, 2007. HICSS 2007. 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on
Publication Date: Jan. 2007
On page(s): 42-42
E-ISBN: 0-7695-2755-8
Location: Waikoloa, HI,
ISSN: 1530-1605
INSPEC Accession Number: 9364564
Digital Object Identifier: 10.1109/HICSS.2007.610
Current Version Published: 2007-01-29
Abstract
Linked environments for atmospheric discovery (LEAD) is a US National Science Foundation multi-disciplinary project designing Cyberinfrastructure for mesoscale meteorology. This ethnographic case study, supplemented with survey data, illustrates the unique management challenges faced by large, geographically-dispersed teams using distance technologies. Like many cyberinfrastructure development projects, LEAD had no common institutional affiliation, simply shared funding. We explore how participants struggled to blend people and expertise across multiple institutions. LEAD relied heavily on technologies to support interaction, but these overshadowed the true core of their success: the team members' collaboration history and interpersonal skills. Nevertheless, competing institutional goals and agendas constantly aggravated the burden of keeping the project team motivated and aligned. Our results suggest that the fate of cyberinfrastructure projects, unlike those in centrally managed corporations or loosely coupled collaboratories, may rely more on members' willingness to exert the effort required to build and maintain long distance relationships
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