Reconfiguring practice: the interdependence of experimental procedure and computing infrastructure in distributed earthquake engineering

Abstract

When transitioning local laboratory practices into distributed environments, the interdependent relationship between experimental procedure and the technologies used to execute experiments becomes highly visible and a focal point for system requirements. We present an analysis of ways in which this reciprocal relationship is reconfiguring laboratory practices in earthquake engineering as a new computing infrastructure is embedded within three laboratories in order to facilitate the execution of shared experiments across geographically distributed sites. The system has been developed as part of the UK Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation e-Research project, which links together three earthquake engineering laboratories at the universities of Bristol, Cambridge and Oxford. We consider the ways in which researchers have successfully adapted their local laboratory practices through the modification of experimental procedure so that they may meet the challenges of coordinating distributed earthquake experiments.

Managing the Unmanageable: How IS Research Can Contribute to the Scholarship of Cyber Projects

“…Scientific cyberinfrastructure refers to integrated information technologies (i.e., hardware, software, digital sensors, middleware, networks, and data components) that support scientific research activities (Berman, 2008;Bietz, Baumer, & Lee, 2010;Edwards, Bowker, Jackson, & Williams, 2009;Edwards, Jackson, Bowker, & Knobel, 2007;Lee, Dourish, & Mark, 2006a;Olson, Zimmerman, & Bos, 2008). A specific objective of scientific cyberinfrastructure is to promote the development of new scientific collaborations on a large scale through the use of technologies that support collaborative work among geographically dispersed researchers utilizing complex and sophisticated computational models and technologies (Bos et al, 2007;De La Flor et al, 2010;Ribes & Lee, 2010). Cyberinfrastructure technologies are embedded in the work practices and work-related relationships of the scientists using them; to further interdisciplinary and inter-institutional collaboration, the technologies are designed to span academic fields and institutions (Lee et al, 2006a;Finholt & Birnholz, 2006).…”

Digital Images of Medieval Music Documents: Transforming Research Processes and Knowledge Production in Musicology

“…In previous papers [7,8,9,15] we have drawn upon detailed analyses of technological interventions to discuss requirements for designing virtual research environments so that scholars from different disciplines may produce collaborative interpretations. In particular, we find emerging themes across case studies where common features and functionality could be useful.…”

“…We take this programme of work as our starting point in our investigations into how e-Research technologies are transforming research practices in the humanities [8] and the physical sciences [9] and find common themes emerging around both increased collaboration and speed of research outputs. Here, we discuss a particular area in the humanities -medieval musicology where research practices are in transition due to the increasing digitization and availability of the documents, written on parchment and paper, music was written on at that time.…”

The Digital Coral: Infrastructuring Environmental Monitoring

“…The authors show the integral role of the infrastructure to the classicists' work in the process of retracing the context in which the text was produced. De la Flor, Ojaghi et al (2010) unpack the strict interdependence between collaborative procedures and technologies when setting up distributed laboratory practices.…”

“…In the UK, eScience has for example focused on interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in the natural sciences (de la Flor, Ojaghi, et al 2010), clinicians (Jirotka et al 2005), and scholars in the humanities (de la Flor, . De la Flor, report on how infrastructure supports the collaborative practices of classicists to (re)interpret a Roman tablet from the first Century AD.…”