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Oxford e-Social Science Node: Ethical, Legal and Institutional Dynamics of Grid-Enabled E-Sciences (OeSS)
The OeSS research node is based at Oxford University.
A changing landscape
The design and use of advanced e-infrastructures for research is substantively reconfiguring access to, and the provision of, data resources in the social, natural and computer sciences.
Changing what Scientists know -associated ethics
These technologies, such as the Grid and Next Generation Internet, are also reconfiguring what scientists and the public can access and know; how and with whom scientists collaborate; and what computer-based services they use and from whom they obtain them. This is raising important legal, ethical and social issues, for example relating to confidentiality, privacy, data protection, intellectual property rights, accountability and to trust and risk in distributed collaborations.
Helping the UK lead in understanding these impacts
The OeSS research node is focused on gaining a better understanding of such issues. The aim is to help give the UK research community a lead in advancing understanding of the social shaping and impacts of e-infrastructures by identifying ways forward for the appropriate design of e-sciences technologies, institutions and practices. OeSS will accomplish this by assembling a multidisciplinary team of social scientists, legal scholars and computer scientists who will select, direct and analyse a set of in-depth comparative case studies of e-Social Science and e-Science projects.