Build it, but will they come? A geoscience cyberinfrastructure baseline analsys

Authors

Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Brandeis UniversityFollow
Karen S. Baker, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nicholas Berente, University of Georgia
Dorothy R. Carter, University of Georgia
Leslie A. DeChurch, Georgia Insitute of Technology
Courtney G. Flint, Utah State UniversityFollow
Gabriel Gershenfeld, Los Angeles Dodgers
Michael Haberman, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
John Leslie King, University of Michigan
Christine Kirkpatrick, University of California
Eric Knight, University of Sydney Business School
Barbara Lawrence, University of California
Spenser Lewis, Draper Labs
W. Christopher Lenhardt, University of North Carolina
Pablo Lopez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Matthew S. Mayernik, National Center for Atmospheric Research
Charles McElroy, Case Western Reserve University
Barbara Mittleman, Nodality, Inc.
et al.

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title

Data Science Journal

Publication Date

7-11-2016

Publisher

Ubiquity Press

Volume

15

Issue

8

First Page

1

Last Page

14

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.

Recommended Citation

Cutcher-Gershenfeld J, K Baker, DR Carter, LA DeChurch, C Flint, G Gershenfeld, M Haberman*, JL King, C Kirkpatrick, E Knight, B Lawrence, S Lewis, C Lenhardt, P Lopez, MS Mayernik, C McElroy, B Mittleman, V Nichol, M Nolan*, N Shin, C Thompson, S Winter, I Zaslavsky. 2016. Build it, but will they come? A geoscience cyberinfrastructure baseline analysis. Data Science Journal. 15(8):1-14. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2016-008.