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Workshop 1: Research 2.0
Yuwei Lin, Meik Poschen , Rob Procter, Dave De Roure, Rachel Gibson
Abstracts are here
Background
Contemporary research challenges increasingly demand collaborative and cross-disciplinary methods. In recognition of this, research funders worldwide have, in recent years, invested substantial resources in building large-scale and networked e-Infrastructure (or Cyberinfrastructure as it is known in the US) and tools . These tools include virtual research environments (VREs) and virtual observatories. However, these Grid-based, heavy-weight computing infrastructures, driven as they largely have been by the needs of researchers requiring High Performance Computing or High Throughput Computing, do not necessarily address the different needs of scientists across the full range of research areas and disciplines. Consequently, what we now observe is a 'grass roots' led appropriation by these latter groups of more flexible, lightweight, easily configurable and rapidly deployable technologies originating from the Web sphere.
Web 2.0 promises a peer-to-peer, dynamic environment that extends beyond one-way presentation of information, and engages large numbers of Internet users to create, annotate, review, reuse, recreate, and represent the information publicized on the Web. Well-known Web 2.0 tools include wikis, blogs, folksonomies, Web feeds, websites for sharing digital objects such as videos, photos, slides, bookmarks, professional networking, especially for business contacts and job-search and various other web-based social networking platforms, which provide a variety of ways for users to interact. For the developer, Web 2.0 is characterised by a set of tools and technologies which facilitate rapid development of Web site functionality, including the creation of 'mashups' drawing on functionality from multiple sites, using a community software development model.
Participation in online, social networking activities has become highly popular in contemporary society. Commercial websites integrating with a range of Web 2.0 tools have created a new discourse, replacing the static, top-down nature of Web 1.0. Web 2.0 is also changing the way we do research. It has been envisioned that a well-designed social networking site can facilitate communications between scientists at different physical locations and in different disciplines, and can encourage them or at least make it easier for them to share their data and findings, and possibly recreate and reuse these resources. Research 2.0 is the term commonly used to describe the extension of Web 2.0 tools to support academic and other research. But do all lessons we have learnt from generic social networking sites apply to scientific social networking ones? Or are there any substantial differences between the two, given the specific needs of users working in scientific field?